We sometimes wonder when we are going to just sit back and ‘chill’. There are a lot of things to do in this cruising life, and they all take time.
Thursday is shopping day in Staniel Cay. There are three stores to choose from. You can go to the Blue Store, the Pink Store or Isles General. The Mailboat comes in either Wednesday evening or Thursday morning with supplies. The advice is to be at the store by 11:00 am, just enough time to get things unpacked but not long enough for everything to be sold out.
Our timing was pretty good at Isles General, which was our choice because we could dinghy right up to its dock. We were a little apprehensive, though, as there were at least 20 dinghies already tied up at the dock. When we got up to the entrance we had to wait a bit as people shifted around so that we were able to open the door. Friends from another boat informed us we were actually quite lucky as the crowd was beginning to thin out.
Isles General is about the size of three good-sized bedrooms, and provides produce and frozen goods, a hardware section and dry goods, and the check-out counter. Produce is set out on two or three good-sized bookcases. Amazingly, we were able to get most everything we needed and never had to take more than ten steps from one place to another around the store.With our basket full, it was one step backwards to the checkout line, where we waited and visited for the next hour. It was fun, though, as we met two other cruising couples with connections to Winnipeg – one even worked for MTS and knew Pops.
On Friday Corinne flew to Nassau to have her cast changed. This too has been an experience. It took essentially two days, five phone calls and two trips to the airport to confirm the ticket. Each of these involved either a quarter-mile walk to the phone booth (the ones outside the yacht club are not currently working), or a half-mile walk to the airport. We finally got everything settled and saw Corinne off this morning. I think the pilot will remember to close that window before taking off, won’t he?
This is the view from the cockpit at Big Major in the evening. Things are good, mon.
