FAR MERIDIAN - SYNOPSIS
Far Meridian opens with TOM BILLINGS, the twenty-year-old narrator and protagonist, struggling with a mixture of deep anxiety and genuine contentment as he surveys anchored boats in English Harbour on the Caribbean island of Antigua. It is April, 1993, and Tom has decided to desert longtime shipmates skipper CAL MONTGOMERY and mechanic PATRICK GEORGE, both in their mid-twenties, and the twenty-five-foot sloop Crazy Jane, which they had sailed together from Annapolis. Tom plans to sail to Newport on another vessel with his sweetheart NELLIE BLANCHETTE, where they will spend the summer together. But when Antiguan authorities declare Crazy Jane a stolen vessel due to missed bank payments, Cal and Patrick convince Tom to help them escape to sea. Nellie, bitter and dismayed, makes no promises about the future.
After narrowly evading harbor police, Cal sets a course for Haiti where he hopes to wire money to his bank and avoid arrest. In flashbacks during the night watch, Tom revisits his arrival in Annapolis the previous spring, his summer work in a boatyard where he met Patrick, Cal, and Nellie, and his decision to escape another mediocre school year by joining Crazy Jane’s cruise to Antigua.