Meet the Barra Crew

Captain Patrick is a Pisces and enjoys long walks on the beach with
attractive redheaded Irish girls named Molly (if you meet this
description, please contact him on the facebook.com). He also likes
a good whiskey or Guiness. Patrick can often be found aboard his
boat, Plumbelly, currently lying in Senegal. He is a carpenter by
trade and sometimes forgets he is sailing with other crewmembers and
can be found standing watch in the buff. Luckily, he is a gentleman
by nature and always gives fair warning with a shout down the
companionway. Patrick sports an Italian moustache of the finest
kind; he has a penchant for hip hop music and is an expert in exactly
what types of food need to be refrigerated vs. those that can stand
the heat. He is a super seaman and his bellowing voice brings sea
chanteys to life. Don’t try screwing him out of any money or you may
find him chained to your banister. We’re not kidding and neither is
he.

Rob is also a Pisces, what a coincidence. He enjoys pepperoni
pizza with feta and downloading weather charts on the computer,
keeping us connected to the world. Rob is especially skilled at
napping in the shade of his black Bowdoin sailing hat on the starboard
settee. Rob is Barra’s resident master of the culinary arts. He can
also dissect a problem with the same precision as he does the brains
of small rodents.Tall tales and Long-gitude are subjects which Rob
often ponders. Rob’s facewarmer is becoming more pervasive every
minute. By Wednesday he will be ready to hibernate with his fellow
polar bears.

Sam is the distinguished geezer of the group. He looks more
grizzled by the day, which according to Patrick means that he is
capable of killing a bear with just a knife and his teeth, or
sliding into the position of a Hollywood movie producer with only
the addition of his snazzy new sunglasses, no questions asked.
Sam is the keeper of the sextant and has been a sensei in Captain
Patrick’s celestial navigation skills. Sam enjoys counting and
whistling at the many birds which fly around Barra.  He is a master
of mental arithmetic, constantly calculating our estimated
time of arrival rivaling the veracity of a standard GPS unit.
He is also a connoisseur of the deliciously whole Parmalaid.
By far the most fashionable of the crew, Sam is often spotted
yachting in khaki pants and a wonderfully loved Brooks Brothers
button-down.

Stuart is the best (or hungriest) baker of the bunch. He knows
how to measure out two tablespoons of egg and four tablespoons
of water to reconstitute powdered eggs, mental math that only some
are fit for. Stuart’s activity has been observed to precisely
follow the glorious rhythm of a sine wave, the trough of which being
the moment he wakes up after dreaming that he lost the phone number
to Morris, and the high point being when he turns up the country
music at 5:30 pm. Stuart has read at least 4 books, plowing through
with intellectual grace and speed. Bos’n extraordinaire, he has been
tweaking and fine-tuning the boat from stem to stern and mast head to
keel bolt since the moment he stepped aboard.

Eleanor is the creative writer of the bunch, your faithful (in the
last 3 days)blogger. She enjoys journaling, camels, and silently
disagreeing with othercrewmembers until proven correct, when she
then shares her opinion, valiantly representing the female sex. Luckily,
she didn’t test the theory that her wisdom lies in her dreadlocks by
cutting them off just prior to departure from Bermuda. Despite attempts
to match the immense appetites of other crewmembers, El’s seemingly
little plates of food are  often finished off by one of the boys.  El
is especially good at over-analyzing her life and blog entries, and
giving candid interviews while on watch in the middle of the night.