Thursday,
May 28, 2020
Charlotte
Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI
18.20.016
N
64.55.440
W
Look,
everybody keeps posting math problems on facebook like it’s a game. If you need help with your kids’ homework,
just say that.
I
thought I’d throw in an extra post as its raining here and there’s nothing else
to do. I could have conducted another
school session but its also rather dark and since I can see the amps myself,
there’s no reason to antagonize the amp Nazi by turning on all the lights; so,
we’ll wait until this squall passes and (hopefully) the sun comes back out. The electronic devices are already charged,
so we’ll call it a movie day.
The
last couple of days we’ve kept busy alternating our normal routine with school
work, swimming lessons, or incorporating the two together. Like: running
the water maker with a lesson on permeable and impermeable membranes and calling
it a science lesson. After reviewing the
summer lessons in Savannah’s book, I’m reminded of the show called “Are You
Smarter than a 5th Grader?”
So, I’ve added learning how to use a dictionary as part of the
curriculum; just to make sure we’re all on the same page.
We’ve
had word that Texas Crewed made it to Grenada but they had to motor sail the
whole way to make it in their allotted timeframe as the wind was too far
forward to get the most use of the sails.
They reported back that the growth that developed on all of our anchor
chains and nylon bridles over the past few months smells “like a dead body”
after a day in the sun. We had already been
discussing the best way to clean them before bringing them back on board. A wire brush to the anchor chain might clean
it up but we are at a loss for the nylon bridle that keeps the strain off the
anchor windless is just as bad and there are 2 lengths of them.
Gerry
on Opal isn’t happy with his new refrigeration system this week and having the
techs come back out for analysis. I don’t
fully understand the problem except for the rattling bit; something about how
long it runs versus how long it takes to cool down and--its rattling.
This
week was laundry week, so Savannah got a lesson in her new reality. Unless its on the water, we have to walk or
take a taxi or safari bus to where ever we go.
We walked to the laundromat, I stayed there while she rode the safari
bus with Papa to the “big” Kmart. When they couldn’t find what they were looking
for, returned to the laundromat before deciding to take a chance at the “little”
Kmart up the road a piece which was another walk. There they were able to find a junior sized
life jacket for the dinghy. We already
have an inflatable life jacket with built in harness for her for our transits but
since the Coast Guard are still patrolling the harbor on a daily basis, thought
this would be a good idea.
We
had a bit of excitement about an hour ago.
A boat ahead of us (that looks like a pirate ship) dragged into another
boat ahead of us during the storm (Dale had clocked the winds at 37kts at its
highest point). As it happened to us in
George Town back in January, the boat that had been hit immediately started
screaming for insurance information before the pirate ship had even gotten
their boat under control. We became aware
of the commotion when I kept hearing shouts, which I thought were coming from
behind us. Thinking that it was another
vessel’s crew venting their frustrations (there are a lot of people getting
tired of being cooped up for so long), I turned to come back in and saw the two
boats ahead of us coming at us. Thank
heavens the pirate ship had already started their engines and had started pulling
away. They had gotten pretty close. I really felt bad for them because I remember
how I felt when that happened to us. The
biggest difference is that here we’re anchored in 30’ of water; a lot easier to
drag here.
As
a follow up to our dragging incident in George Town, I had always suspected the
reason we had dragged in such shallow water after sitting for a couple of weeks,
was that one of the water taxis that sped through the anchorage had come too close
to us and as a result, their wake unsettled us.
We learned a couple of months later, that one of the water taxis actually
hit a dinghy and killed a man. Its awful
that it takes something like that to bring the issue to the authorities even
though many of us had asked that the owner to request his taxis to slow down through
the anchorage.
Guess
that its for now, I need to go check on a little girl bouncing on the trampoline.
Finally,
I went outside to check on my plants. I
felt something cold and wet on my arm. I
looked down and saw a mosquito using a wet wipe before it bit me.
Monday,
May 25, 2020
Charlotte
Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI
18.20.016
N
64.55.440
W
Memorial Day: Remembering those who lost their lives fighting on behalf of our country. Freedom is not free.
Home
schooling question: Does having your
children fix you mixed cocktails count as a chemistry lesson? (Sorry, I’m
new at this. More on this later.) 😊
Normally,
I’d say that nothing has changed but this past week so much as happened. First, Gerry and Nicky have their
refrigeration system repaired and are now happy campers.
Next,
my computer went belly up; sort of. It
appeared that it needed to be charged but when I plugged it in, nothing happened. I wiggled the cords; unplugged and re-plugged
the various connections; changed receptacles; you name it, I tried it. It was soon dead. As I knew I was returning to Texas for a
single day, I decided to order a new cord from Amazon, send it ahead and also
made an appointment with a computer store to purchase a new one in case the new
cords didn’t work. I also took the
opportunity to order or make a list of everything else I needed and passed the
word to Opal and Texas Crewed that if they needed anything, to order it and send
it ahead to our daughter and I’d bring it back.
As a result, according to her, the neighbors started talking as she was
getting deliveries every day and sometimes a couple of times a day. The dogs were going nuts! They went from Mom being home every day, all
day long with no visitors for over 2 months, to strangers ringing the doorbell
every day, at all hours of the day.
Then,
we learned more details regarding Grenada making a movement to open up to
cruisers who had registered for hurricane season with them. Although we have reservations in Trinidad, we
had also registered in Grenada as a backup.
Thank heavens, as we now have somewhere to go to get out of the
hurricane belt.
Grenada
has obviously given this some serious thought prior to the islands’ governors’
meeting, as they put into place a very detailed plan the day after the meeting. First you had to select a date in which to
enter their quarantine area. They are spaced
in weekly intervals for arrivals Wednesday – Friday of each week. They stressed safety but if you didn’t let
them know that you weren’t going to make it during that time frame or were
going to be late, you would lose your spot (guess that’s where having a satellite
telephone comes in handy). Then you had
to pre-purchase that spot; no refunds. To
obtain a confirmation number for that spot, you also had to complete both the
health form and the usual entry forms and e-mail them in prior to arriving. You were also to arrive with ECs (Eastern Caribbean)
dollars in hand.
Now
that you’ve secured your spot, you must arrive prepared to spend 2 weeks in
their designated quarantine area. That
means, provisioning for the 4-5 day transit, plus the 2 week time in
quarantine. They have set up wifi in the
quarantine area, (so we won’t be completely incommunicado) and a method of
obtaining needed items. You e-mail the officials
at the quarantine dock with your list of items needed (I would assume this to
be a grocery list), they have someone do the shopping for you, then the items
are returned to the quarantine dock where you are contacted to dinghy in to get
them. No fees were listed in this service
but you know that they won’t be cheap. No
visiting between boats. No swimming in
the quarantine area.
Once
this was announced, 2 more islands (on the way down to Grenada) announced that
transiting vessels could anchor overnight for sleep. I would assume this to mean that those vessels
wouldn’t be met by officials threatening incarceration for violating their 12
mile borders. We’ve heard of a couple of
instances where one boat was actually “bumped” and forced to follow authorities
into town and another where a sailboat had crossed the BVI/US border, had
already tacked back into US waters but was still stopped, “talked to and told
to get out” by the BVI authorities while in US waters. I think they were just making a point knowing
full well the incident would be reported far and wide on the “coconut telegraph”.
Trinidad
still hasn’t announced when they will be open for cruisers. The British Virgin Islands are sticking with
their September date. Other islands are opening
but each with their own 2 week quarantine restrictions. This forces us to make more direct transits
without visiting the places we wanted to see.
Considering there are between 18-20 islands between here and Trinidad
with each having a 2 week quarantine, you can see the math precludes very much
sightseeing.
We
thoroughly thought Opal would want to head south straight away, leaving in the
first group opening this week. However,
in our last Mexican Train domino session, we learned that they chose to be in
the 3rd group leaving mid June just before Nicky’s visa expires. They would prefer to sit where everything is
convenient and hope that Trinidad will open as soon as they see that they are
losing money to Grenada. With my mini
trip to Texas, this worked out perfectly.
Texas
Crewed, on the other hand, did choose to leave in the 1st
group. They promised to act as reconnaissance
and send back scouting reports. We can
actually follow them on our weather app.
They will be getting out of quarantine just as we are entering it.
This
was also the last week for those who are heading back home in an organized convoy
and many left even after the announcement was made about Grenada.
Finally,
I believe I’ve relayed before how we learned that we can rent a car for 24
hours for the same price as we’ve been paying for a taxi for doing our big shopping
trips, every other week. So last week,
we combined the shopping circuit with my need for a ride to the airport for the
mini trip back to Texas to pick up one of our grandchildren for a summer
visit. I was only going to be gone for 2
nights, so to fill up my bag, I grabbed things I knew we didn’t need and bathing
suits that are too hard to put on when you’re sweating all the time and stuffed
them in.
Although
I was on one of the first (and only) flights of the day, Dale dropped me off the
normal 2 hours prior to boarding at 7 am but TSA and Customs didn’t open until 8
am, an hour after I checked in. Being
the 1st one in line, I cooled my jets leaning against a counter for
the next hour. As soon as the doors
opened, I placed my backpack in one container and my soft bag in the next for
scanning. Most of the agents were just
standing around as there were only a hand full of people making their way
through the screening process but as soon as my bag went through the scanner, I
saw that the screener tapped the monitor and thought that it wasn’t
working. She called another, who looked,
tapped the screen, and then called a supervisor. That person looked at the screen and then telephoned
for (I guess) a more senior supervisor, who called me over to a separate table
and asked the standard questions. Is
this your bag? Did you pack this bag? So you know what’s in this bag. Yes to all of the questions. Then she showed me the screen. I do have some experience in looking at such
a screen, but I have to admit, I didn’t recognize what I was looking at. I did have a photo frame in my bag and asked
if it could be the hanger on the back. She didn’t think so and said that she was
going to have go through the bag. Of course,
I complied. Sure, go for it. She pulled everything out, cautioned me to
stand back when I went to catch my underwear from falling on the floor, then
pulled out one of the bathing suits I had packed.
I
know its probably unusual, but I pack my 2 piece bathing suits in individual plastic
bags so that #1: I can see which one it is, and #2: keep the 2 pieces
together. She ran one of the bathing
suits back through the machine and then brought it back saying she was going to
have to open it. OK, no problem. That is until she brought out another small
plastic bag. The second I saw it, I knew
what it was, and thought I was going to die!
If
you recall, it was last year when we thought we were going to be hit by a
hurricane and emptied the boat of all personal items and anything valuable,
things that shouldn’t get wet, etc. At
that time, we took off a weapon and its ammo and locked it in a safe at home. When we took off clothing, I found 3 bullets
rolling around in a drawer, put them in a baggie, stuffed them between some
bathing suits and promptly forgot about them.
That is until TSA found them and I
thought I was going to jail.
We
started the same questions again. Is
this your bag? Yes. Did you pack this bag? Yes. You’re
supposed to know what’s in this bag. I’m
sorry I forgot. Then the next round of
questions, are these your bullets? That’s
when I blamed Dale. If I was going down,
so was he. Then I thought I might need
someone to bail me out. Thankfully, she also
asked if I had a concealed weapon’s permit.
It was one of the items I was taking back to leave but yes, I have
one! Yes, I have it with me! She wanted it, my permanent address, the
address where I was going, telephone numbers at both ends, and then she called
the cops!
My
knees were knocking, my heart was racing, my hands were shaking, so I asked the
agent to sit down before I fainted; she said “don’t do that” there’s a chair over
there. Now, I’m trying not to
hyperventilate, which is what I was doing to keep from passing out. I had already taken my blood pressure
medicine, so I knew I couldn’t take anymore so soon, but dang!
The
long and short of it was, the cops came, did their own computer search, and
then one came over and told me that this was a very serious violation. I agreed, I knew how bad it was (boy do I
ever!) Then he told me that he was going
to have to confiscate them. That’s
fine! They’re all yours!
I
was told I could repack my bag. They gave
me back my ID’s and license and I was free to go. I still caught my plane. I noticed that I was the only woman on a
plane of Spanish speaking men. But then
I thought, I was also the only 65 year old, white haired grandmother terrorist on
that plane too!
I
had a 5 hour layover in Puerto Rico to contemplate the error of my ways. I never told anyone I had packed those bullets
almost a year ago; I forgot. If the TSA
agent hadn’t asked if I had a CCW permit, I forgot that I did. I’m pretty sure I now have a TSA record and
will never be allowed to take the short line again! In the 5 hours I had, I was passed at least
20 times by cops with K-9s patrolling, TSA agents walking by, other lethal
looking (or at least uniformed people) and knew that each and every one of them
had my name and photo on their cell phones, with a full description of my crime
and were watching my every move.
In
another train of thought, I decided that I’ve probably gotten to the point
where I could hide my own Easter eggs.
The
Texas mini trip was a drive-by, and not in a terrorist way. As soon as I arrived at our daughter’s home,
I opened the new computer cords, plugged in the computer and after a couple of
seconds, it started to charge. Success! Now, the only thing needed is a chip and to
remember to back it up every day. Huh!
Fat chance! The next day, we rose at
dawn, grabbed breakfast to go, and made a tour of town to get everything on my
list, including the chip. I even found a
currency exchange to pick up the needed ECs.
I packed all of that and the ordered items for the various boats into a
single box for the flight back and prayed no one had ordered anything that could
be questioned. As a precaution, I left
everything in their Amazon boxes.
When
we left on the return trip, our daughter instructed me to make sure our 7 year old
granddaughter, Savannah, kept up with her school work, specifically math and
science, and then told Savannah to keep an eye on me, as I’m always losing my
lists. Clearly, I’ve gotten to where I’m
a danger to myself and those around me.
Thank
heavens the flight back was uneventful. Now
that we’re back on the boat, Savannah seems to be more excited about motoring
around in the dinghy. She and Papa have
already gone in to meet Miss Nicky and Papa Gerry for breakfast and a quick
walk around the marina. Grandma is still
settling clothes, setting up school work and a tucking away a few toys before
attacking the computer to write a long awaited post.
Lastly,
another corona joke of the day: You think it’s bad now?
In 20 years, our country will be run by people home schooled by day
drinkers…
Saturday,
May 16, 2020
Charlotte
Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI
18.20.016
N
64.55.440
W
Happy
Birthday Heather! We hope you were able to celebrate it in some way.
My Mom always told me I wouldn’t accomplish anything by laying
in bed all day--but look at me now! I’m saving the world!
I can’t say a whole lot has changed since I last posted but we
are starting to see some movement. In my
last post I told you that Trinidad had implemented a 6 phase reopening
plan. This week the various marinas and
ship repair facilities in Trinidad encouraged those of us waiting, to write our
respective Embassies to see if we could get some assistance from that
direction.
Greneda, on the other hand, has posted that they are hoping to be
opened to registered yachts by the 1st of June but their protocols
for incoming are rather formidable. You
have to send notice 24-48 hours prior to arrival (try that at sea), arrive
fully provisioned and enter into a quarantine area for 2 weeks with a $20 admin
fee. At the end of those 2 weeks you are
to submit yourself to testing, at your expense of course (either $65 or $25
depending upon the test), (which really doesn’t make sense to several of
us. Either quarantine or test; why both)
and this is all prior to the normal fees for entering into the country. To top it off, they want to be paid in their
own currency, which means finding a bank here to make an exchange prior to
leaving; not an easy thing to do. In the
past, you checked into a country, paid in US dollars, then made a bee line to
the bank to make an exchange of dollars to whatever their currency was.
Curacao, actually gives you a choice (such as it is); enter
their country on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday between the hours of 6 am and
noon, secure your boat in a marina and immediately fly out or enter on any day
Monday – Friday, secure your boat in a marina by 6 pm and then enter into a
government hotel at $140/per person/per night for 2 weeks. That’s expensive no matter how you look at
it.
St. Martin is making noises that they are opening their marinas
and marine services on June 1 but no information about incoming yachts. The long and short of it is, if all of the
islands require you to quarantine for 2 weeks at each of their islands and we’ve
had word that you can’t even transit through their 12 mile water borders, there’s
no way we can make Grenada or Trinidad before the hurricanes really crank up. In order to make it in a reasonable
timeframe, we’ll have to make more of a direct transit further offshore.
For those who made the decision to return to the US, a low
pressure system formed to the east of the Bahamas. They’re running into nasty weather and having
to anchor to wait it out; so its already started. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
In the meantime, Dale runs the watermaker every other day, makes
ice every other day and runs the engines and fuel polisher about once a
week. The rest of the time he dinghies
over to help Gerry, they both take off to various marine stores for the lastest
item that is badly needed, reads, or checks his eyelids for light leaks.
For me, this week was a laundry run on Tuesday with Nicky and a
grocery run yesterday with Dale, who, believe it or not, had his own list. We hosted an afternoon of Mexican Train
Dominos with everyone and he decided that he was going to make pain
killers. Unfortunately, he didn’t buy
enough ingredients for the well appreciated drinks. There was enough for a couple drinks each but
next time, he’ll know better. Afterwards,
when Dale went to close a hatch in the cockpit, the handle broke off in his
hand. The whole hatch surround is made
of plastic and is now sun damaged. He’s
trying to glue the parts back together but I think the whole thing needs to be
replaced. Once plastic gets that brittle,
it’s a cascading decline to the end.
On Opal, Gerry and Nicky’s refrigeration woes continue. Gerry has to go into the dinghy dock to pick
up the refrigeration guys to work on his boat.
When the guy came out to de-gas the system, he arrived on board only to
realize that he had forgotten to bring one of the hoses required. So back to the dinghy dock. Then once on board, again, he got sea sick! Gerry suspects that he had one too many the
night before. In any event, Gerry ended
up doing all of the work and then had the pleasure of paying them on top of
it. The next day he learned that the
incoming plate that contained the motor and compressor was missing. There’s now a BOLO out it. Nicky is trying to use up all of the food she
had in the refrigerator before it goes bad and Gerry is making twice daily runs
in to buy a bag of ice to preserve what’s left.
They did have one bit of good news, however, Nicky was able to
obtain an extension on her visa. The
first time they went in a couple of days ago to request the extension, it was
all very formal and polite. Once the
extension was granted, they made the return trip to finalize it but this time it
was with a different agent who wouldn’t allow Gerry in the room, was rude to Nicky
and tried to short them 10 days. This obviously,
made all the difference in the world.
Gerry actually had to make a phone call to the supervisor, whom they had
worked with the first time, to get the correct extended date. In any event, she’s now legal and
administratively pure.
Gene and Renee on Texas Crewed spent the better part of this
week on a sewing project. As usual what
you think will take a certain amount of time, ends up being twice as long. At the end of yesterday, the tension on her
machine started giving her grief, so it was time to take a break.
I guess that’s it for this entry. Hopefully we’ll have a better idea as to what
is happening to us this time next week.
Finally, a word of caution:
If you get an email with the subject “Knock-Knock” don’t open it. It’s a Jehovah Witness working from home.
Sunday,
May 10, 2020
Charlotte
Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI
18.20.016N
64.55.440
W
Happy
Mother’s Day!
So, does anyone want
to take bets on 2021? Volcano? Locusts?
Asteroid? New Nickelback album?
We’ve
been anchored here for so long, Dale is trying to figure out how to clean the slimy
grass growing – not on the bottom of the boat, it always grows there – but from
our anchor chain. He says that when we
finally pull it up, it’s going to be a giant mess.
Not
that we’re going anywhere soon, we received word today that Trinidad will be reopening
in 6 phases. Opening the borders is the
last phase and doesn’t even have a date.
However, it’s pretty obvious that it won’t be open to incoming boats prior
to July. The summary sent to us said
that their Prime Minister had extended the general “stay at home” orders to
5/23 with the exception of supermarkets, pharmacies, take out restaurants,
etc., basically where we are now. If the
numbers stay low, they would open manufacturing, public sector construction and
50% of the transportation in Phase 2 which would last until 6/6. Phase 3 would open the private sector
construction the rest of the transportation to 6/20. Pushing their opening to
June puts most of the remaining boats holding out hope in this area in jeopardy
with their respective insurance companies.
We know that our insurance says we’re still insured for normal things
just not in the event of a hurricane.
That means that we’ll be keeping an even closer eye on the weather from
this point on. Phases 4, 5 and 6 (reopening
the borders) weren’t even given dates.
As
you can imagine, this was one of the topics of conversation when the 3 crews
gathered for Mother’s Day on Opal; that and whether our children remembered
us. We’re still holding out but the
discussion veered towards where to go if we can’t get to Grenada or Trinidad in
the event of a hurricane.
Gene
and Renee have a new toy to keep themselves busy (A MiniCat - photo to follow if I ever get a decent internet connection). We watched as they learned how to use
it. Being an inflatable, its got to be a
lot trickier than a solid boat to sail around in.
Gerry
has been preparing Opal for the new refrigerator and compressor. He was pretty upset when the refrigeration guys
didn’t show up to de-gas the current one so that the Tinker Twins/Tinker
Triplets could disassemble the old one.
Dale
has kept himself busy cleaning, or maybe I should say whitening, our
decks. As we have a white boat, rust and
water stains turn our white boat more of a cream color at times. Since he found a new product to clean those
stains, he’s been going crazy spraying that stuff everywhere. Then he got busy cleaning the dinghy. Generally, we haul the dinghy onto a sandy
shore to give it a good scrub from time to time but this year, sandy shores are
sorely missing, so it was starting to look rather derelict. Now its back to its pristine self.
If
you’re interested in the garbage issue, I was complaining about in the last
post, it’s been resolved that only wet garbage is to be considered regulated,
all other garbage can be disposed of at the marina for $3/bag. We can live with that. Although I’d still like to know what our
anchoring fees are going towards; just revenue, I guess.
Finally,
if anyone owes you money, go to their house now.
They should be home.
Tuesday,
May 5, 2020
Charlotte
Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI
18.20.016N
64.55.440
W
Happy
Birthday James! No matter how old you
are or where you go in life, you’ll always be my baby!
Happy
Cinco de Mayo!
Happy
Boys Day!
New
Vocabulary Word: Airgasm: When the air hits your face after removing
your mask.
Can’t
say we’re doing anything different this week (its hard to believe its been
almost a week since I last posted). The
guys are still tinkering. Nicky and I
escape into town to run to the grocery store at least once a week. Up until now, we’ve done the 6’ between each
person but the wearing of masks has been a hit and a miss; some people wear
them, some don’t. Considering most
aren’t wearing them properly in any event, it seemed ineffective at best. This week, however, the island Governor
started opening up more establishments but then decreed the mandatory wearing
of masks (which means any type of cloth over your face) to enter those
establishments. We’re scratching our
heads over this one. They’re still
saying that the best option is to stay at home.
So
this week, Nicky wore a bandana which was probably better in the long run than
my N95 dust mask. I had a problem
wearing my mask and my glasses at the same time without fogging them up. By the time I was finished putting the
glasses on time and again to read labels, I accidentally pinched the bridge of
my nose and found that I could suddenly see when the mask was molded to my
nose. I couldn’t breathe but hey, I
could see.
This
week’s tinker project ended up being on Opal.
They’ve had off and on again issues with their
refrigerator/freezer. Even had the
refrigeration people come out, check it and give a thumbs up a couple of weeks
ago. Unfortunately, it started tripping
the breaker this week. Gerry said he
could hear the motor running but it wasn’t turning something, so he would put
his hand in and give the belt a turn (yes, he is aware that he could lose a
finger that way but he was trouble shooting).
It would start up, run for awhile and then the belt would stop again and
trip the breaker although the motor sounded like it continued to run, it wasn’t. Plus, he had a voltage drop
that put the icing on the cake. The
Tinker Twins put their heads together to noodle around the various
possibilities; motor? compressor? but in the long run ended up calling the
refrigeration people again. The
verdict? They need a new motor but since
the compressor is the same 30 years old.
Both compressor and motor are being replaced, as an identical replacement
plate that included both was available. Slide
one plate out, disconnect, drain gasses, etc., and slide new plate in. The bottom line is somewhere between OUCH!
and PING! Closer to PING, I’d say.
The
3 boats have come together for this one.
Texas Crewed has room in their freezer.
I had room for some items that needed to be refrigerated and the guys
are going to tear out the stove/oven and a trash compartment to access some of the
areas that need to be moved for removal and replacement to mitigate some of the
monitary damages.
If
that wasn’t enough bad news, a USDA representative hitched a ride through the
anchorage on some type of official vessel stopping, taking photos of each boat,
and advising them that we all had to take our garbage in to one specific marina
for all 3 islands for processing, as our boats are “contaminated.” Furthermore, any garbage onboard had to be
incinerated at the cost of $35 per bag or a $500 fine. We were dumbfounded! Most boaters are pretty conscientious about
where we place our garbage; we even pick up stuff floating in the anchorage and
take it back to our own boats to throw away.
Most find a garbage bin somewhere to dump the refuse if one isn’t
provided. Most are aware that fresh food
items from foreign nations have to be disposed of 3 miles out if they go bad. I’d say most of us use up our fresh produce
before it goes bad which is why we have to go grocery shopping on a weekly (if
not more) basis. Where we were at a loss
was that most of us have also been here for 7+ weeks and the only fresh food we
have on board at this time is from here!
Apparently, once it is brought on board, it is now “contaminated”.
Thankfully,
Dale and I weren’t one of the boats they stopped by but we certainly heard
about it from other boaters. I was so
upset, I stayed up late trying to compose a letter to our Congressman and
Senator as we are all feeling like we’re being targeted; and I don't need any more reasons for my hair falling out. Where’s the money for
our anchoring permit going? What does it
cover? Many feel our only recourse is to
bag everything from a couple of boats into the largest bag we can find each
week and pay the cost, or become garbage outlaws and take the chance of being
fined?
Boats
over on St. John in the Park have to pay park fees each day and had arranged
for a local entrepreneur to pick up their garbage for disposal. Apparently, their arrangement was also
cancelled. Somehow, somewhere, someone
contacted the Governor’s office and he put a halt to this for the same apparent
reasons the boaters had until things could be sorted out. Dale has resorted to taking in little bags,
that look like shopping bags and dropping them in the closest bin he can find. He’s going to be a pirate yet! Some boaters actually said, that’s it, fueled
up and headed home.
We’re
still holding out. Both Grenada and
Trinidad have extended their lockdown until 5/15 but keep sending out notices
to those of us with reservations, that they are working to open their borders
before hurricane season. Grenada
actually put in one of their notices that they are not to be not to be
considered a “safe haven," which caused us to raise an
eyebrow. There’s an international maritime law that
says (if I may paraphrase) you can’t turn away a vessel seeking safe haven
during a storm. We have no intention of
being the guinea pig but you know someone somewhere might push the issue and cause an international
incident.
Finally,
we gathered on Texas Crewed for Cinco de Mayo.
Chris and Helen from another boat (sorry I can’t remember the name) also
joined us. Lots of good food and
margaritas were shared. We even flagged
down a dingy going past to offer them a couple of “travelers” as they were
taking their dogs to shore for a walk.
So we ended the day on a high note.
Bottom
line: This too shall pass. It might pass like a kidney stone but it will
pass.
