Stranded

       There was this male engineer, on a cruise ship in the Caribbean
for the first time. It was wonderful, the experience of his life.

       A hurricane came up unexpectedly. The ship went down almost
instantly.

       The man found himself, he knew not how, swept up on the shore of
an island. There was nothing else anywhere to be seen. No person, no
supplies, nothing. The man looked around. There were some bananas and
coconuts, but that was it.

       He was desperate, and forlorn, but decided to make the best of
it. So for the next four months he ate bananas, drank coconut juice and mostly looked to the sea mightily for a ship to come to his rescue.

       One day, as he was lying on the beach stroking his beard and
looking for a ship, he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. Could it
be true, was it a ship?

       No, from around the corner of the island came this rowboat. In
it was the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen, or at least seen in 4 months. She was tall, tanned, and her blond hair flowing in the sea breeze gave her an almost ethereal quality.

       She spotted him also as he was waving and yelling and screaming
to get her attention. She rowed her boat towards him.

       In disbelief, he asked, "Where did you come from? How did you
get here"?

       She said, "I rowed from the other side of the island. I landed
on this island when my cruise ship sank."

       "Amazing", he said, "I didn't know anyone else had survived. How
many of you are there? Where, did you get the rowboat? You must have been really lucky to have a rowboat wash-up with you?"

       "It is only me", she said, "and the rowboat didn't wash up,
nothing else did."

       "Well then", said the man, "how did you get the rowboat?"

       "I made the rowboat out of raw material that I found on the
island," replied the woman (who was a mechanical engineer). "The oars were whittled from Gum tree branches, I wove the bottom from Palm branches, and the sides and stern came from a Eucalyptus tree".

       "But, but," asked the man, "what about tools and hardware, how
did you do that?"

       "Oh, no problem," replied the woman (who was also a geologist),
"on the south side of the island there is a very unusual stratum of
alluvial rock exposed."

       " I found that if I fired it to a certain temperature in my
kiln, it melted into forgeable ductile iron," said the woman (who was also an
accomplished metallurgist). "I used that for tools, and used the tools
to make the hardware. But, enough of that," she said. "Where do you
live?"

       At last the man was forced to confess that he had been sleeping
on the beach.

       "Well, let's row over to my place," she said.

       So they both got into the rowboat and left for her side of
island.

       The woman (who was also a bodybuilder) easily rowed them around
to a wharf that led to the approach to her place. She tied up the rowboat
with a beautifully woven hemp rope.

       They walked up a stone walk and around a Palm tree, there stood
an exquisite bungalow painted in blue and white (she was also a civil
engineer and an architect).

       "It's not much, " she said, "but I call it home. Sit down, please,
would you like to have a drink?"

       "No," said the man, "one more coconut juice and I will puke."

       "It won't be coconut juice," said the woman (who was, of course,
also a chemical engineer, experienced in brewing and distillation), "I have
a still, how about a Pina Colada?"

       Trying to hide his continued amazement, the man accepted, and
they sat down on her couch to talk.

       After a while, and they had exchanged their stories, the woman
asked, "Tell me, have you always had a beard?"

       "No", the man replied, "I was clean shaven all of my life, and
even on the cruise ship".

       "Well if you would like to shave, there is a man's razor
upstairs in the cabinet in the bathroom."

       So, the man, no longer questioning anything, went upstairs to
the bath room.

       There in the cabinet was a razor made from a bone handle, two
shells honed to a hollow ground edge were fastened on to its end inside of a swivel mechanism (as you've probably guessed, she had a degree in
Industrial Design as well). The man shaved, showered and went back
downstairs.

       "You look great," said the woman, "I think I will go up and slip
into something more comfortable." So she did.

       And, the man continued to sip his Pina Colada.

       After a short time, the woman returned wearing fig leaves
strategically positioned, and smelling faintly of gardenia.

       "Tell me," she said, "we have both been out here for a very long
time with no companionship. You know what I mean. Have you been lonely, is there anything that you really miss? Something that all men and woman
need. Something that it would be really nice to have right now?"

       "Yes there is," the man replied, as he moved closer to the woman
while fixing a winsome gaze upon her, "Tell me.... Can I check my email from
here?"