Good-by to all that

Marc St. John was off the boat so early this morning that none of us was even up to say good-by. Which, I think, made us all feel a little rotten. One by one we wandered up top-side, all of us looking as weary and washed out as the gray morning. It’s funny how the mood on the boat swings in such large arcs. So buoyant last night, fueled, no doubt, by excellent wine and a most generous meal. We stayed up late, sipping shots of tequila and whisky, talking about what? I can’t even remember. But there was the definite feeling that no one wanted to be the first to say good-night and thus end not only the evening but, for all intents and purposes, our time aboard Unplugged.

One by one, we’ll disband today. St. John already gone back to London, then Smaller, back to Dubai, and Nicholls on to Kuala Lumpur. By noon tomorrow, only Hardy and I will still be on board.

But, as Hardy pointed out, there was still time in the morning, before Smaller and Nicholls departed, for a final game of bocce. So we took the tender to the old pier just below the fort on Ile St-Marguerite where there is a café, La Guérite, that has a bocce court tucked away in a thicket of myrtle and eucalyptus. We ordered cappuccinos (and Hardy, preferring a little hair of the dog, got a beer), and played a final match beneath a steadily threatening sky. Once or twice it even started to rain, though the thicket was so heavy here that we hardly felt it.

 

Smaller and I teamed up again, hoping to regain the form we showed in St.-Tropez, and although we won our first match rather handily, our luck ran out quickly and in the second game, neither of us had the touch. There was no rhyme or reason for it; it just abandoned us. Like a player at the craps table who suddenly goes icy cold after running up a mountain of chips. And then Hardy got a call over the 2-way saying the tender was on the way to pick up Smaller and Nicholls.

We settled our tab, walked with them out to the pier, and said our good-byes. The sky was soupy; the wind was up. There was a definite chill in the air. Summer along the Cote d’Azur was over. As was our trip.