Okay , so remember last week when we were out at Sidney Spit in the Gulf Islands, and we went to the brick beach and brought back a few oysters? We fried 'em up that night and ate a few with the fresh crab we caught for dinner and everything was delicious.
The next morning while we were eating breakfast, Kevin suddenly turned to me with an alarmed and solemn expression on his face. "Oh no!" (gulp) "Honey, I have something to tell you. Remember yesterday, when I was shucking the oysters on the rear swim step, and you were inside working on dinner?"
"Yeah…?"
"Well, inside one of the really big oysters – I found a pearl. It was a big pearl, too. I was super excited and I thought 'Cool! I'll give this to Laura as a nice little surprise.'"
"Oh, how neat!!" I said.
"Well, there's more. When I found the pearl, I set it aside – just on the floor of the rear cockpit [the outside back deck area of the boat]. And then, I kept shucking. And then, I got to that crazy huge oyster…the one I couldn't get open…the one where you came out to see what was going on?"
"Yeah…?"
"Well, I put that oyster aside to tackle later, and then I finished shucking ALL the other oysters before coming back to my nemesis. I finally got that last mean one open and was really glad to have no more oysters to shuck. And then I brought all the oysters inside to you, and then I went back out and got out the high-pressure spray hose and washed all the oyster shells and dirt and…um, and everything off the swim step and out of the rear, um, cockpit… I guess. I sprayed it all off … really well. It was nice and clean when I was done."
"Awwwwwww."
"Yeah. So, isn't that cool that I found a pearl? It makes a good story, I guess. I'm just going to go out and take a look and see if by any chance the pearl is still out there anywhere."
Kevin went out in the rain and looked around for a few minutes, then came back in a little dejected. "Nope. It's gone. I hosed the whole area down really well last night after I finished shucking the oysters. I'm sorry, I totally forgot about the pearl."
"It's okay, honey. It's really cool that you found a pearl! And it's a good story, anyway."
A few days later, after we'd traveled from Sidney Spit to Ganges Harbor, stayed the night, then cruised out to Cabbage and Tumbo Islands, Kevin was hosing the deck off again (sand and dirt from hiking shoes, etc.). There was a little scrap of paper over one of the scupper drains. He removed the bit of paper, and guess what he found? The pearl!
It's pretty big! Maybe I should make a necklace.
Hats off to both of you for taking your cruising life to the max. Watch for the Jeanneau Alaska cruisers organized by Marine Service Center, you could very well bump into them. I am splashing in tomorrow after installing new bilge pump, shaft seal, bottom paint, maxprop grease, boot stripe repaint, and hull buff.