Big Major's Spot, Bahamas
24.11.264N
76.27.548W

This morning brought the mailboat to Staniel Cay and everyone flocked to the isles General Store like ants to a picnic to pick up their groceries for the week. Dale and I had arrived early and had staked out our place in front of the store. Miss Vivan, the proprietor, took her red pickup truck down to the dock, loaded it up and returned to her store where Dale and a few others helped her unload it. Part of her load was for the store and part it was for the home she is building above the store. Then she'd trek down to the dock again and bring back another load. Of course, the fruits and veggies were in the very last load. Roger and Elaine were there as well and once the boxes were brought in, Elaine, another lady and I helped Miss Vivan unload the boxes into the various bins. Little Beatrice and Berkley (aged about 3 and 2), Miss Vivan's children (grandchildren?), wanted to help too, so we'd give them oranges or loaves of bread to put on the shelves. Once we finished putting everything away, we went to work getting our shopping done.

We moved the Palace over to Big Major's Spot (interesting name for an island) and took a dingy ride around part of the island and over to where the Thunderball Cave is located. We have been advised that the best time to explore the cave is at low tide just as it slows before changing directions. The best time for us will be tomorrow morning about 10 am. We were told that there were swimming pigs located on this island but so far, we haven't seen them. I have bread for them when I do. I don't want to get my heels nicked by a hungry pig.

We had our sundowners with Roger and Elaine aboard their Manta this evening. Dale and Roger commiserated about the plight of the American medical system and Elaine and I talked about balancing time with family and cruising. Since their generator is on the blink, Dale is taking some of his tools over there tomorrow and the guys will try to jury rig a broken part to see if they can get it to run until Roger is able to get another in. Apparently, the part that they had been waiting a week for came in today, but wasn't the one that was broken.

Later, we returned to try to make connections with Gerry and Nicky via SSB but weren't able to do so. The radio is still new to us, so the selection and tweaking of the frequencies is something we're still playing with--but we have books! Lots and lots of books on the how's and why's.

Tonight it's "blowin' a hooley" straight out of the east. We've got a good, firm hold in terra firma and this anchorage is supposed to have good holding throughout, so I don't anticipate a problem for us or from anyone else. It's just one of things we won't know about until the wee, small hours of the morning. That's usually the time when the weird things start happening.