March 17-18

March 17-18

We went for fuel yesterday around noon and w couldn’t get any because there was no way to climb up the dock to access the pumps. We dinghied around all the mega-yachts looking for access when a man came off his sailboat [Toronto} to tell us to come back at high tide.  W found out that he’d been originally from London England, living in Sault Ste. Marie for while and then move to Toronto to work before retiring here two years ago living in his boat at the dock. But I digress...

We parked the dinghy and went walking to the grocery store. On the way, we passed the BASAR building (Search and Rescue) so I went in to see their operation. There were a few people in there. One Australian who was the paid administrator gave us the most info about their work; one old Englishman wanted to give me a lesson in mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He looked like Michael Douglas and sounded like Alan Rickman. Am I getting old because that combination didn’t work for me?

We moved on to the BaTelCo office. All the hi-tech businesses keep their doors locked and they buzz you in! We added minutes to our phone and tried to find out about a Wi-Fi booster. No luck.  The grocery store [Super Value] was pretty expensive. I don’t know how people manage to eat here. Peanut butter was $8.00 for a small jar of Peter Pan. Kleenex was over $2.00 / box. The carrots come from Canada or California. Apples the size of cantaloupes were 99cents each but a bag of Gala were only $3.99 [trust me, that’s cheap even in the states]

After we finished shopping, we went back to the dinghy dock and OffLine’s dinghy was still there so we decided to go to the bar and wait for them. They were already there so we sat and had a couple of beers and some sweet potato fries until around 6:30.  It was St. Patrick’s Day so they were giving out green beads and serving green beer, and there was one well-built young woman wearing an “Irish” outfit. See pic!!

There is going to be a big Thunderball [James Bond] Party on Staniel Cay on March 28. And we are going to miss it! Rats! We will be in the Turks by then. We watched a mega-yacht called SKYFALL go past us yesterday, maybe going down to get ready?  This is where Casino Royale was filmed and we are sitting beside the dock of one of the small buildings built for the set. Some crazy lady lives here now and Carol is convinced she is one of the Bond women who couldn’t leave!

There are four new and different cruise ships in here today. This place must make a fortune renting out the docks to different lines and staggering the docking times.  

Today we are going to get fuel and water and think about heading out to Allans Cay.  It’s 35 miles so if the wind is not good, we may hold off until tomorrow or look at the weather. The trip down the Exumas will be on the banks in shallow water [love it!] and we can stop and swim or snorkel on the sand beaches. I’m starting to really regret agreeing to do this writing job.  I hate being on someone else’s schedule. For all you prospective retirees out there... this is GREAT! You really can get over the urge to do something useful or productive!

Ttyl.