Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI
18.20.016 N
64.55.440 W

If coronavirus isn’t about beer, why do I keep seeing cases of it?

Believe it or not,

  Rising Sun is a  privately owned yacht-

not for hire- 

that is larger than the frigate

 Dale was on in the Navy

It’s getting real folks!  We’re really going to pry our anchor out of Charlotte Amalie harbor and move on to Grenada.  Dale has been topping off fluids and checking the various engines, genset, watermaker, running the fuel polisher for hours, etc.  Today, he and Gerry will be scrubbing the bottom of our boat and tomorrow they’ll do Gerry’s boat.  We rented a car and all went on the round the island shopping trip yesterday.  Three marine stores, a Walgreens and one supermarket.  We’re saving the small stuff until today when Nicky, Savannah and I will make a run into Pueblo for small jars of items instead of the Sam’s size.  Lots of Fresca, Diet Coke and rum for both boats. 

I do need to clear up some information I relayed in my last post.  Texas Crewed apparently has gone off the deep end sitting for so long and started making up stuff.  Gene’s been harnessing his inner novelist/journalist and since nothing is happening, started making up sh*t.  Considering how crazy things are with rules and government mandates changing every other day, somewhat believable imaginings.  After a couple of days of this, I’m embarrassed to say I fell for it; Dale says we all fell for it.  In my defense, I did write to them and specifically asked if it was true instead of fun and games.  When he replied that he’d send a picture, I was dumbfounded, then angry, then depressed.  Dale saw that I was about at the end of my rope (again) and wisely left me to wade through the emotions.  The next day, Gene fessed up and wrote to say that it was all just poking fun at the system; they are still using the infrared thermometers.  Although yesterday, he did send an official e-mail that said Grenada’s medical system is overwhelmed with all of the tests being conducted to get out of “sailor jail” and needed more time to process them.  So – no joke – its taking more than 14 days to get out of the mandatory quarantine and at this point, is extended to 15-16 days in order to get the test results back.  Additionally, it appears you no longer have a choice as to which test you can take (at your expense and, of course, it’s the most expensive one) and then you have to sign an authorization to allow them to release the results.  It doesn’t say who they plan on releasing the results to.  So in essence, you have to sign away any privacy protections. 

Additionally, the WiFi promised while in quarantine, has not materialized.  However, we have been told that you can purchase a sim card upon check in and hopefully, this will allow me to continue updating the blog periodically.  In any event, I’ll endeavor to write throughout and post at the end, if necessary.  According to the information we have, all of the French and British islands are still closed to transiting vessels, so we’ll have to be at least 12 miles off shore of any cell tower and that further precludes any quick updates.    

Also yesterday, on our drive trip, I did as I previously threatened to do with the dentist.  I typed up a letter explaining the situation I was in, copied the insurance explanation as to what they required, a copy of the dentist’s own invoice showing that I had already paid them, put all of it in an envelope and dropped it off at his office.  At this point, that’s all I can do. 

Today, while Dale and Savannah are walking the marina with Gerry and Nicky, I’m going to (besides type this blog post) knock out a few house keeping chores before we don our life jackets and turn our back on such things for the next several days.  I hope to write again before we leave on Friday and again, if I can get a signal, in St. John when we anchor overnight before the big push south. 

Finally:  I’ll tell you a coronavirus joke now, but you’ll have to wait two weeks to see if you got it!