I gathered, pretreated, and sorted our wash to maximize load efficiency. After a leisurely breakfast and lolling in the cockpit reading, we set out to the Rockside Laundromat dock just minutes from our boat. The laundromat was a happening place. Despite the fact that the proprietress, Ida was off on an errand, I was given tokens from the bins under the counter and told I could pay her when she returned. A group of cruisers engaged in animated conversation inside but I joined Ken outside at the picnic table to post my blogs and enjoy the beautiful view of the anchorage as well as a piece of delectable carrot cake (another perk of doing laundry at Rockside Laundry…Ida makes Banana Cake & Conch Fritters too!).
When I was paying for the laundry, we told Ida that we wanted to stay in Black Point for the school fundraiser on Saturday but needed propane. Isles General in Staniel Cay sells it and would be getting a shipment the next day. Ida offered to send our tank to Staniel and return it to us so we could stay for the fundraiser…proudly, she announced herself one of the Parent Council organizers. Propane problem solved.
Laundry done, we listened to the VHF for entertainment and heard the announcement for Happy Hour at Scorpio from 4-7:00pm. That took care of our dinner plans. When we arrived, there were a number of cruisers there already. We joined a couple at the bar and chatted with them and the bartender (the owner of a large castle-like house on the island). Another two couples arrived and it was one of those ‘where have we met’ situations. One couple was at the Heritage Music Festival in Georgetown despite puzzling and puzzling, we never figured out where we had met the second couple.
We also learned another ‘You snooze; you lose!’ lesson when we didn’t place our dinner order quickly enough and there were no ribs left. No worries. The chicken was good and the portions generous…more than we could eat for $10.00 each. As we were eating, we were joined by an interesting cruising ‘eccentric’ who worked as a masseuse and hairdresser. He announced to our group that he had a massage table on his 34’ sailboat and said he set up on the foredeck and charged $40.00 for an hour to boost the cruising kitty as he was headed to Puerto Rico for the summer. We all took a pass.