Welcome to the Caribbean

This is a fictional island adventure story, based upon true events, written in an attempt to answer the question, "What is it like to live on the mission field?" As a missionary I have lived or visited the places mentioned. I have experienced these events once or many times.

Stan and Marcy go to the sunlit beaches of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to pick up a boat and take it to Miami. Upon arrival in tropical paradise they find the boat had leaked and water was knee deep inside. Everything wood rots. The hull is fiberglass. The deck and cabin top are made of wood with fiberglass over the top. The frames and bunks and cabinets are decaying wood. It is going to take a major rebuilding effort. They decide that they can do it, if the owner agrees to pay for the materials.

They learn the phrase "Welcome to the Caribbean" when things don't go the way they expected. And that is often.

Stan seems to keep one step ahead of death. He is robbed at gunpoint. He falls out of a tree. He never forgets his fight with a Doberman, barehanded no less. Then there is the scary encounter with three watch dogs when he strays into their territory. Driving on the left is not as hard as remembering the steering wheel is on the right.

Launching the boat is not the end of the life threatening events. There is the time he almost drowns, then the boat collision ...