Last Wednesday we met a lady who makes dodgers (a wind/rain shield for a boat). Dignity really needs one as every time we have a rain shower, the cockpit area gets quite wet. Even a small shower leaves the seats wet and it takes time to dry out. The quote she provided was about half to a third of the cost we would have expected in the US so we were quite pleased. To save some money we agreed I would install the rails that the dodger would thread into. So that’s what I got to do Wednesday afternoon – not without some advice from Eddie.
Once the rail was dry fitted (ie screwed on but not sealed – I have to take it all off again and seal all the holes) we headed off to have ‘cocktails’ aboard s/v Lone Star with Tom and Pat who we’d met earlier in the day. A simple evening with beers cheese and biscuits with excellent open and friendly company was exactly what we needed. Tom offered to help out on some of the ongoing installation work which I’ve gratefully accepted.
Thursday. Helen took the bus to Philipsburg hoping to find some plastic storage crates. She was able to find some more baskets but came up empty handed with the crates. I was left to harangue the shipping companies to try and get a delivery time communicated. Success. We were notified in the morning that it would be delivered around 2-3pm. The quay that Eddie had arranged for us to have the gear delivered to is in the Lagoon so we had to aim for the 2:30pm bridge opening. Pat and Tom had now extended their offer to help us load the boat which was fantastic. I picked them up in the dinghy at 2pm. By 2:15pm we were on our way to the bridge.
At 2:45pm with the bridge still not open things were not looking so good. Eddie’s partner happened to be having lunch with the lady who operates the bridge so he called her to find out what’s up. Turns out the bridge was not getting any electricity from town so we had to wait til the 5:30pm opening. At 4pm we also received word that our shipment had not yet been delivered so a call was made to the port. Turns out they had sent us a couple of emails to ask for a phone number to call if the delivery guy had problems. Of course – these emails were missed as we are not exactly working real time off the anchor. Why they didn’t ask for this information some time in the last 10 days I can’t imagine.
It was now too late in the day to arrange delivery so it’s now scheduled for Friday morning. Exact time unknown. Given there would be no gear shifting that day I took Pat and Tom back to their boat – they would return to Dignity in the morning. At 5:30pm the bridge did open, we passed through and made our way to the dock to stay the night. The land side of the dock is not pretty as it is a building yard. But we had our backs to the lagoon. With the right music and good food the evening was wonderful. Full of hope for Friday. Full of thanks for the people we have met so far. Eddie, who seems to know everyone on the island, continues to be a source of great help and support. Pat and Tom’s friendship and help has been fantastic.
So now it’s Friday morning. We await the 7:30am cruisers net to hear about the weather, who’s arrived, who’s leaving, any security issues, buys and sells and any general chat. We suspect we may end up having to sell one or two things from our shipment to save space and in recognition we don’t need as much as we first thought.
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