"THE FANTOME"
This drawing based on my husband's original photo.

In 1984, my husband and I and our two sons took a cruise to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary which was coming up in the fall. We took a Windjammer "Barefoot Cruise". It is much more informal than the usual cruises -- has no casinos or theaters, shops etc. and carried only about 200 people. The cabins are smaller than the usual cruise ships and it has the general air of ship-mates style. We loved every moment of it. The ship itself was so beautiful -- a real ship with four masts and sails. Our boys even got to take a turn at the wheel.

Since this has been a year for hurricanes, I thought you might like to know the fate of this beautiful ship. In 1998 she was cruising near Honduras and Belize. Hurricane Mitch came on the scene. Quickly she headed for Belize. The passengers and 10 of the crew were put ashore and the 30 crewmen left were to face Mitch's erratic path, 50 foot waves and 178 mph winds. Expecting the storm to move north and then west, the ship went south. But the forecasters were confused and Mitch shifted unexpectedly a couple of times and finally bore down on the Fantome which was now trapped in the Gulf of Honduras. Late Wednesday afternoon, on October 28, 1998 the Fantome lost its satellite antenna and was never heard from again!

A few days later, eight life vests, two life rafts and part of a staircase were found off the coast of Honduras. That was all that was found of the beautiful ship, Fantome.

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This picture is based on the design of a sunburst on a T shirt I bought not long ago. The pattern on the shirt was done in colorful studs. I took the pattern and dressed it up quite a bit, making it up as I went along. I'd been reading the blog "We Three, Ginger Cat Tales", one of my favorites, so I thought I would keep the ginger type colors. My shirt is dark brown and the studs are glittery, but I didn't want to make the background of the drawing, brown, so I kept it white. My husband even commented on it when he saw it lying on my desk, so I figured it must be good enough for the blog! It was fun to do any way. It isn't an ATC size, but is 4 1/2 inches square.