OtherGoose: MArch 24-27

March 24-27

You would think that it would not be difficult to keep up with things these days but we are so involved in what w are dong that sometimes the days are over before I can get to the computer. With no internet out here at the boat, and being a 10 minute dinghy ride into shore, it’s difficult to get to the ‘free’ internet. If we go to a dock it’s free but the dock isn’t; if we go to a restaurant, it’s free but you can’t sit there and not drink or eat something. Anyway...

Tuesday 24^th

The dinghy dock is quite a ride through the anchorage to shore and you go under the road into “Lake Victoria”, which is a small “lake” or the Pond as the locals calls it, around which the town is laid out. Right inside the Pond is a long dinghy dock where all the boaters tie up for free. The Exumas Market [grocery store has installed a water station where you can get fresh water FREE. It is from a reverse osmosis system where they extract the salt from salt water. THIs is not easy to do on the scale that they are providing the water so it is incumbent upon the boaters not to waste it when filling their water jugs.

Up the dock and past the side of the building is the path to the road. Directly across from the market is the Scotia bank. Unfortunately, we can’t swipe out debit cards at the teller’s station and have to use the ATM but there is a 7% VAT on the process so we can’t win down here! The cost of money is exorbitant! While I was in line, Rick met some people from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. They are at the marina at the north end of the island. The internet is free there but its 7 miles in the wrong direction. We were going to go there but some other things happened...

The first thing we did at the bank was ask if someone could witness a document but she said no, we’d have to go to the Town administrator’s office at the police station. So we walked down there. We ended up in the Magistrate’ office and she witnessed our documents. It was to go back to the states so we could have a mailing address in the USA and a forwarding address for any mail we might get. They collect it and when there is mail they send it to Liz.

She was a very interesting woman. She had been a bank employee for 25 years and decided when she retired that she wanted to be a lawyer so she went to England; got her law degree and came back here to practice. After two years she was appointed the local magistrate!

SO we went for some groceries; walked the town; looked for internet. We were told that Eddies Edgewater Cafe had free internet so we decided to check it out. We could have taken the dinghy across the pond, but we decided to walk. It was halfway around the pond. The whole distance is about 1 1/2miles. When we got there we decided we couldn’t just sit and watch their TV and use the internet so we had lunch. It was a big piece of grilled chicken and salad. Really good! We were there for about 2 hours and I got to update everyone. One of the emails we had been from Alan Marsh...they were in Georgetown visiting and wanted to get together. [Alan and Marcia are from Georgian Yacht Club in Owen Sound.] They were visiting relatives here on a boat .We came back to the boat and called “Anneteak” but no-one was home.

March 25

Wednesday morning we listed to the cruiser’s net channel 68 where everyone gets a chance to get help, ask questions, find out who’s here, who’s leaving, get rid of stuff, find stuff... So we called in to see if anyone wants to buy the water heater. We think we have a sale. We also hard Anneteak asking for a shared ride to the airport so we knew that Alan and Marcia were leaving. After the cruiser’s net was over, we called them and they came over for a quick visit before they left to catch their taxi.

When they left we went back to town to mail Natasha’s birthday present and some post cards for the kids. They like getting ‘mail’. So Natasha’s present fit in a half-size brown 9x12 brown envelope. From here it cost $6.50 to mail. The letter we sent to the States was 65 cents and the postcards were 50 cents or 65 cents if they were oversize. And we pay at home?

One of the things the cruiser’s net was looking for was volunteers to go to the school and help out with reading and math. Uh oh...I’m hooked! I couldn’t go Wednesday but I am going Friday, then we have to leave in case it’s too much fun!!!

March 26

The cruiser’s net this morning talked about a special presentation being given at the Exumas Foundation Center about the iguanas in the Bahamas. There is a special group of scientists who are monitoring the development or loss of iguanas [they are an endangered species all over the world.]

I spent another two hours today researching the Turks & Caicos, and we have decided to go there and finish the job. We will leave here next week when the weather settles down some and it will take a week to get there. I have contacted a marina there where we can put the boat and then finish the research from there.

We will hopefully be back here in Georgetown a week later. I have no idea where my next internet access will be ...probably not until we get to the Caicos Marina. But I will document our trip and post when possible. The hardest part is keeping the connection long enough to down load the pictures, which are probably much more interesting than my ramblings!!

We went to hear the lecture tonight. We met the scientist who takes care of the iguanas on Allen’s Cay and we admitted to feeding them before we saw the sign that said “Don’t Feed the Iguanas”. They were okay with that and they invited us to help them tag and measure them in May when they go back there. So we are going to help if we can!

We also met a family on a boat that is travelling through the islands: three kids under the age of 13. They are having a blast and working on their school work too!

March 27, 2015

Cruiser’s net this morning confirmed school today so...getting ready to go to school!!

Well, THAT was an experience!! I started off with a kid, Elijah, who has trouble reading. He was reading a Little Bear book, about 2 grades levels below his target level. He had no trouble with the big words but the little words were his issue. Then at 11:00, 3 more kids came over and asked if they could work with me so we got a little flash card competition going for awhile, then moved to a math session with one of them. It was quite tiring but fun. It is almost discouraging to see how little help these kids get. Someone brought over 6 desk pencil sharpeners because the class rooms didn’t have any!

So today we are picking up the laundry, getting propane tanks filled and heading back to boat.

We are going over to Volleyball beach this afternoon to a meet and greet. Hopefully b Sunday we will be on our way to the lower Bahamas.

So this may be the last post for a week or two, but keep checking. I might get lucky and hit the internet somewhere else. Here are some pics from the last few days.

Ttyl