Belt Buckle Blues

Hi Dennis here

This story starts way back in Fiji where Jim had left in such a hurry that
he left a bunch of his clothes, sheets, head lamp and belt on the boat. No
problem we would take them back to Van for him. Anyway after we boarded the
boat, I wore only a pair of shorts for most of the trip to Darwin and left
my belt in the forward berth with all of the stuff for Jim. At Vanuatu,
Rita, Cress and I thought it would be a good gesture to donate a bunch of
clothes to the village at Port Providence so we gave what we didn't feel we
needed along with all of Jim's stuff less his belt. After we arrived in
Darwin, I couldn't find my belt but thought I would look more closely in the
boat as we cleaned it up. While wandering around with Cress and Irena, I
mentioned that my belt was missing and we should be reminded of taking Jim's
stuff back to Van. Cress said he had on Jim's belt and that he would
remember to give it to me. On close inspection I said he was wearing my belt
and Jim's was in my luggage. Cress gave out a sigh of relief and grinned
from ear to ear. Because we had been eating so well (thanks to Rita's
baking), drinking so much beer and with no exercise, he thought he had put a
few inches around his stomach. He was on the last notch of the belt he was
wearing and straining to get it done up whenever he put on his "going out"
shorts. For those of you who don't Jim or myself, his belt is a few sizes
larger (4") than my 36 waist so you can understand the sigh of relief when
he found out it was my belt and not Jim's he was wearing. Anyway we all had
a good laugh about it and know that Fiona cooking will further threaten the
crew's effort to stay in trim shape (Matt's beer belly and beard should be a
hit with all his girl friends in Singapore).