Harmony of Nations

It was 2200ish and we are sitting in the cockpit in Portosin having a last glass of wine with Jeroen and Luise. My intention was to head inside to finish my blog entry (honest!) when we heard jaunty accordion music coming from the Irish sailboat across the dock. The accordion was joined by a flute and we decided to open another bottle of wine to enjoy the music for 15 minutes longer. After approximately ½ hour we decided to move a little closer and went to stand with the four of us on the bow of our boat. As we moved nearer we heard a beautiful song coming from a Spanish boat next to the Irish one. That was all we needed to grab our bottle of wine and glasses and head over to see if we could join in. We were welcomed heartily but were required to sing a Dutch song before climbing aboard. In the meantime the Spanish couple had joined the Irish boat and there was a great discussion about personal histories and music going on in a mixture of English, French, Spanish supported by lots of hand and body gestures. For the rest of the evening and deep into the night we moved around the group of 10 people singing Irish, Galician, Canadian (Farewell to NS and Barrett’s Privateers for those in the know), Swedish and Dutch songs accompanied from time to time by the button accordion or the flute. The songs ranged from playful to saucy to heart wrenching and were delivered with a range of capabilities from professional to slightly off-key and it was an experience not to be missed.