This Whale of a Tale has Fur

 If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the last seven years, it’s that my life with Fred is never, ever boring.  

We've been in the Caymans for a month now, getting settled in. We decided to take our Kentucky friends who are here diving for a few weeks for a boat ride the other day - hoping to catch the beautiful sunset. Fred captained our Formula boat out of the bay as I pulled in the fenders and put the lines, etc. in their proper places. We settled in with Steve and Vickie for a nice ride as Fred put the hammer down and motored into the North Sound. 

We always open the door to the cabin below deck when we get onto the boat- to air it out and push this button or that button. We have a latch at the bottom that keeps the door open while we are under way. 

I was sitting at the rear of the boat enjoying a lovely conversation with Vicky, when I saw a BLACK CAT shoot out of the cabin!! It ran frantically around the boat, and finally ran onto the bow of the boat. We were all yelling and screaming at this point, and when he was eyeing up the water we were ALL shouting, “Don’t Jump!! Don’t jump!” (Because we assumed it was an English speaking cat, of course.) 

He immediately jumped into the water and started swimming for dear life.  There was a fairly strong current, and he looked clearly in distress. He swam in circles, trying to figure out where to go. I ran into the cabin to find something to throw to him, thinking he could get on top of it.  I found our life ring, and took it to the back of the boat. 

In the meantime, Fred tried to maneuver the boat closer to the cat, who seemed to be going farther and farther away from the boat.  I saw him looking for us, and could tell that he regretted his decision to jump.  When we got close enough, I threw him the life ring which he quickly climbed upon.  He balanced on it like a pro, still watching for us.  It didn’t take me long to realize that I hadn’t secured the ring onto the rope, so now the cat AND the ring were bobbing farther and farther away. 

Fred managed to get the boat closer to the cat, and I used our boat hook to catch the small rope attached to the ring itself. I pulled him close to the back of the boat. He tried to get from the ring to the bat, but kept falling back into the water, perilously close to going under the boat. He managed to get back on the ring, I lifted it up onto the boat and then he jumped onto the boat and made his way BACK to the cabin.  

Steve and Fred pulled the screen door shut, and we tried to regain our senses. We were flabbergasted at what had just happened.  We made our way, still in shock, back to our dock. As we secured the boat, Fred and Steven conducted a search of the cabin.   

No cat. 

They searched every single nook and cranny to no avail.  Finally, I brought some tuna down to the dock and left it on the dock. We left the cabin door open again, and proceeded to have some well-deserved libations. 

In the morning, the food was gone and we HOPE that the cat is also.  All we can tell at this point is that there is a black cat roaming Rum Point with 8 lives left, and a whale of a tale to tell.