"Island Time" reflections

We've mentioned what it's been like trying to use the phones here in the Bahamas.  As we were approaching the Batelco office here in Rock Sound I saw two pay phone stands right out front.  Great, I thought, the location should make it really easy for the phone company to keep these phones working.  So imagine my surprise to find no phone in one stand and no receiver on the other phone!  A quick check in the office revealed no public phone there, the closest working phone apparently a 20 minute walk away at the airport.  So much for a convenient phone.

And speaking of phones, I mentioned that our outboard motor is once again not running properly.  We got the number for a factory trained Mercury mechanic in the area.  We have spent the last day and a half trying to contact him.  No answer on the VHF radio, and either hours of a busy signal, or hours of no answer on the phone.  I'm glad we brought the dinghy oars.

Yesterday we were at the big grocery store in town.  When we asked where the bread was the gal said they were sold out but would have more today.  This afternoon, when we were on our way back to the store, we found out the store is closed Wednesday afternoons.  We found another store that was open so we got our bread but they didn't have small containers of ice cream!

We found a couple of interesting sites today - real, not web.  One is a land locked blue hole.  It connects to the ocean under water and we saw a sea turtle swimming there.  I sure hope the turtle remembers how to get back to the ocean.  Right next to the blue hole was a series of caves.  The caves were inhabited by tree roots and bats and were free to visit.  Both sites were just across the road from the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

We cleaned the boat's bottom today for the first time since December.  It was starting to get colorful soft growth but nothing hard yet.  We are both amazed how little growth there has been.  Actually, the rocks and other hard objects under water have little growth on them.  Guess that means the water is pretty clean.