Provo,
Turks & Caicos Islands (TCI)
21.44.585N
72.17.411S

Oh my aching feet! or looking for WiFi, Part II. We wanted an early start into town so we hailed Mr. Small on our VHF for a lift. We called, Doc-No-More called, he never did answer. So we were forced to do as we did yesterday, we dinghed in to the beach, walked a short distance to the road and threw out those thumbs. It didn't take long before we had a ride, which was good because today Dale was carrying our computer in a backpack (its really heavy). The young man who picked us up was Haitian and really didn't speak very much English. I don't think he had any idea what we were asking but he dropped us off at the grocery store we had found yesterday. This was OK because today we were armed with a map (found in one of the magazines we'd acquired from the car rental place) and off we launched looking for Suzi's Turn, the area of town where the WiFi was supposed to be.

Did I mention that island time includes taking off inordinate amounts of time for holidays? We soon discovered that a majority of small businesses close between Christmas and New Years. Including the little shop that had WiFi clearly advertised all over its windows. Poor Elaine wasn't sure who to feel sorry for, Dale for carrying the computer all that way or me, who she thought might go into withdrawal symptoms if we didn't connect today. We did run into a lady outside of the little shop who suggested that we walk further down the road to a supermarket that she thought had just started advertising wireless. So we did. Walk that is. Just before we got to the supermarket (about a mile and a half away), a nice couple from Denver who have a vacation home here, pulled over and offered all of us a ride. As it turned out, the supermarket was advertising for wireless telephones, not wireless internet connection.

Roger & Elaine wanted to continue on to Grace Bay, an exclusive resort area (which also was supposed to carry WiFi). What the heck, we thought, we'd go on with them and see the island. The couple from Denver lived in the area and said that they would take us the rest of the way.

Now we find ourselves at the complete opposite end of the island. We were dropped off at a cluster of small stores where they thought an internet cafe' was located. We found it. Unfortunately, the young lady behind the counter could only input the code into the machine, if it didn't work, she didn't know how to fix it. Of course, it didn't work. I noticed that it didn't work for any of the people who brought in their own laptops. (I miss Cherie and the IT crew, who I am convinced could fix anything computer related.)

By this time, Roger & Elaine had taken off to do their own sightseeing (I can't imagine why they didn't want to continue on with the search for internet connection) and we headed down to the resort clubhouse to see if they might have a hotspot. We were half way there when we spotted the clubhouse. Clearly very exclusive and not inclined to let boat trash (Dale's description, not mine) onto the premises. (We were even wearing our polo shirts. I couldn't believe he'd call us that.) So, we did an about face, headed back to the main highway and out came those thumbs again.

The gentleman (a TCI native) who picked us up asked the normal questions, where were we from, where were we going, how did we like the island so far, then he asked why we had traveled so far from our boat. We told him our plight. He picked up his phone and called his wife who owned a store, explained the situation and asked if she were using her computer. I guess she suggested that we try one more place (that we hadn't tried) on the way to hers and if they weren't open, to come on ahead. As it turned out, the place she suggested was closed but the people inside doing inventory let us in and we were granted access to the internet for as far as we could go without a code. As you can see, I was able to upload our blogs while Dale was able to access our e-mail; we'll have to wait to pay bills later.

After a successful day at the internet, we were once again out on the main highway trying to get back to our side of the island. So . . . those thumbs were stuck in the air again. This time we were picked up by a man from Sarasota who lives on the island part time. (He had accidentally discovered how nice this island was when his private plane needed to be refueled on its way to somewhere else.) He asked the same questions as everyone else except that he kept saying that he couldn't believe that we had traveled across the island in search of WiFi. Then we found out that he was in the internet business. (I wouldn't be surprised to find WiFi in all of the marinas the next time we're here. He seemed to be the entrepreneurial type.) He was gracious enough to give us a ride all the way back to our side of the island and even drove us up to the customs office so that we could check out. (Dale thinks that he felt sorry for a couple of old farts and couldn't believe we were walking everywhere.)

What can I tell you? It took us all day to connect to the internet but we saw the entire island from one end to the other. We witnessed the fact that if you have the money, this island is on the verge of a boom. Condos are going up on the north side of the island, while individual homes on deep water are being built on the south side. This is South Florida in the making. We got a lot more exercise than we would have any other way. We met some fantastic people and we accomplished our mission.

Tomorrow, we'll head across the TCI Bank for Ambergris Cay. It's extremely shallow and quite a few boats have run aground. We'll start out at day break and keep a vigilant eye towards the shallows. Hopefully, it won't be very dramatic.