In preparation for friends arriving, Dave went into town to get fuel, diesel and gasoline. I did some cleaning and made enchiladas to take to John and Tami’s cottage for dinner. They will be arriving late afternoon and the grocery stores will close at 5:00 until Monday.
The weather for the week looks miserable, rain and squalls all week. We decided to check into a dock that friends had stayed at last year. At Papa Key Dockage, you have a slip at a dock, water, and you pay for electricity. But it’s much cheaper than a marina because they have no facilities on shore, like showers, laundry, wifi, or restaurant. We would be able to spend more time with Tami and John, not having to move our boat for protection from the wind, or returning early before sunset. We checked with Donna and they had a slip available starting Saturday.
Tami and John’s flight arrived in North Eleuthera airport from Miami at 3:30. They have to go through customs (which took awhile with a full airplane) and travel by van and ferry to Spanish Wells. That trip only takes about 20 minutes. But they didn’t arrive until about 5:00.
We arrived around at Pinder’s dock (their transportation) at about 4:00. Pinder’s grocery store also sells gas and diesel. While we were waiting, they had run out of gasoline. Dave was glad he came in earlier for fuel. Several people asked for gas and were somewhat worried, because they will be closed until Monday. So before we left our dingy to go with John and Tami, Dave tucked up our gas tank on the boat so no one would steel it. Highly unlikely on this island, but no one would be around after 5:00 to be watching.
The owner of the cottage’s sister met them at the dock with their own golf cart and one for Tami and John to use for the week. So we were all able ride and follow them to the cottage. I knew where it was located from being on the island before. But on the way, they stopped at a house that was under construction. Jack (and Sherrie), driving the other cart got out and started reaching for their luggage. He was teasing them that this was their cottage. I knew it wasn’t, but played along.
At the cottage, they walked through the place with them and told them a bit about the community.
They mentioned that the Methodist church was having their annual fair with games and food and home made coconut ice cream, with local fresh coconut. We decided to just refrigerate my enchiladas and go to the fair. I had heard it mentioned in the past when I had attended church (no Catholic Church in Spanish Wells), but we had never been there at the right time to go to it. It was about a half of a mile down one of the only 2 roads that run the length of the island from east to west.
John drove us there and did an excellent job of driving on the left side of the road. Since it was after 6:00, we thought we should eat right away. The fair had been going all day and they were already out of a few things. The dinners were $20 for a choice of 1 of the 4 meats and 3 of the 6 sides. After eating, we walked around to check out the games and had to buy the coconut ice cream. They had the ice cream makers going on the spot. Yummy!
We went back to their cottage after stopping at a liquor store. We mixed margaritas and realized it was time for the sunset. So after 2 sips, we took the golf cart, called a buggy by the locals, to the west end of the island. We parked and walked onto the beach but just missed the sunset. We took a few “after glow” photos and got out of there because of the mosquitos.
Back at the cottage, be discussed our plans for the week, what we thought they would be interested seeing, plus the weather forecast. John and Tami took us back to Pinder’s to our dinghy and we headed to our boat about 8:00pm in the dark.
After we returned to the boat, we needed to make water. We were already on our second tank. We had to run the generator for 3 hours to fill our main tank. I’m sure our neighbors weren’t too happy with us.
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