The Dangerous Little Dress

Here is a "little" slip of a dress that has a "big" story behind it.

One day this week, at low tide, we walked from Holetown to Payne's Bay - not a great distance, but about an hour's walk at a leisurely pace. On the way, we passed a few vendors who set up on the beach, and the one at Sandy Lane (a very upscale resort) had several of these little dresses. My friend Jane had been looking for a second one and scooped hers up. I initially resisted the temptation.

At Payne's Bay, we found a little beach bar called Coconutz, rented some chaises and umbrellas and stayed for a couple of swims and lunch. Our original plan had been to take the bus back once the tide started to come back up, but I wanted to go back to Sandy Lane for this little dress.  I had decided I would make a pattern from it and sew some more for next year.

Sandy Lane doesn't provide any road access from their beachfront - I guess to discourage the masses from coming onto their property - so we were faced with two choices: walk back to Payne's Bay and go through there; or brave the high tide and walk back via the beach. We knew there were a couple of places that would be "iffy", but decided to chance it anyway.

Because of the full moon, the sea has been rougher than usual, with really big breakers rolling in. And we had one treacherous stretch to walk in the water, next to a large wall, in front of a private home. It didn't look that bad - really!! But when we were well into it, we realized that the breakers were hitting the wall and rolling along it, which meant that, no matter how carefully we tried to move between breakers, they basically crashed over our heads once they hit the wall. We were "in the curl". And once we were into it, it didn't make any sense to turn back - either way was equally as dangerous!!!

My straw hat washed into the sea at one point, but I managed to snatch it back. My bag filled with water with each crashing wave, and my new little dress got a total soaking before it even made it home. Luckily, I had handed my cell phone in Jane's waterproof pack before we began, but none of us could believe that any electronics would survive our own personal tsunami.

Four soggy and battered travellers arrived at the set of stairs at the end of the wall, made our way back and found, to our relief, that all cell phones and cameras were still in working order.  Phew. I would have been a very unpopular gal if that had not been the case.

Because after all, it was my going back for the dangerous little dress that put us all at risk.

Now, just a few days later, this tale has taken on bragging rights. But at the time, it was pretty darn scary!