The Mystery Boat

We were anchored at Conception Island, that paradise within paradise, uninhabited island. There was one other boat there when we left for a dinghy trip; when we returned there was a new arrival. We pass by and I notice a small person on board. KID BOAT!! It is now essential to go over and say hello as this invariably leads to group gathering on the beach and the kids will look after each other so we all get some grown-ups time to chat.

As we approach, Mum is on deck with a couple of kids and we say hello, we're here with kids too, what age are yours? Well, she says, we have six so take your pick. Six kids? Wow. We chat briefly about the island, they note that the weather is about to change so they might leave the next afternoon, and then dad appears to announce dinner is ready. With eight at the table it's probably a logistical exercise to match any major military event, so we say goodbye and why don't we catch up in the morning and go to the beach or something. Sure, she says, that would be good, and we go back to our boat.

The next morning we are having breakfast when they all get in their dinghy and head to shore. They go to a bit of beach nearest them, which doesn't bring them directly past our boat, and we guess they'll catch up with us later. After an hour's walking on the beach they return to their boat. Fair enough. We go to the beach ourselves, further along.

Whilst we are playing, we see their heavily loaded dinghy come past again, this time heading out to the reef where we guess they swim or look at the coral from the boat. Later they come back, not too far from us, and return to their boat. An hour later they up anchor and leave.

Now there's a natural explanation that with six kids you hardly need any more company, but even so it was a little strange not to have any more contact. We took to making up crazy stories.

"Oh my, it's that British boat we've heard about, you know, the one with the crazy kids and weird parents. Let's get out of here as soon as we can"

"Hey honey, we should go see them in the morning." "No Bob, you know what the witness protection guy said, we've gotta stay out of the way for a year or two. We move on tomorrow."

"Noah, we should really go say hi." "No honey, they aren't like us. We don't want them corrupting the kids with crazy ideas about evolution or anything. Let's just do the home school stuff in the morning then go"

"D'you think they saw my other three wives? We'd better go just in case, those FBI folks can't be far behind now"

"I think they believed they were our kids, but we've gotta get these haitians off the boat sooner rather than later."

Additional explanations welcome......

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