Along with "how much does it cost?" Probably the most common questions of cruisers is "what do you do all day?" Well communications, especially via telephone, can be very difficult and time consuming at best. As a general rule forget about those 800 numbers from out side the U.S. Except for U.S. territories toll free numbers don't work so before you leave get straight area codes and phone numbers for all the vital places that you think you might need while you are away. The reason that we didn't update the blog earlier this week is because we have been devoting a lot of our time to trying to find out if Pam's former employer sent her a particular form which they had sent her received last year. First we tried the email route to her former colleagues and despite their exhaustive efforts they were unable to get us a non-toll free phone number for the HR department. Then we tried the phone card route because a note in a local phone booth indicated that you could call toll free numbers from this phone booth. Wrong - dog breath! (Remember Hill Street Blues anyone?) So we went back to the email route as we had gotten a contact in HR but the replies were slow in coming. All that got us is a different toll free number. With St. Brendan's Isle, our mail forwarding service, we can view the envelopes of our mail over the web. St. Brendan's scans all the envelopes and posts them for us to look at. Once viewed we can decide on which ones we want sent to us and which ones we want shredded. It looked like a couple of the envelopes that they had were tax related, but we didn't want to have mail forwarded until we got to Falmouth Harbor. So we went back to try some other approaches via email, all of which came up empty. Then one morning I woke up thinking of the reality show "Amazing Race" that we use to watch. I remembered some of the contestants going to the front desks of hotels in foreign countries and asking to use their phones to make calls. I thought why not ask the marina office here at Jolly Harbor if it was possible to make a call to a toll free number in the U.S. We did and Pam got thru to a person in HR that was able to tell her that they did not send her the form this year. So, two plus days to accomplish something that would have only taken minutes back in the states. That is a long answer to the very short question of "what do we do all day?"

Since leaving the States I admit that I have missed the 60 plus cable TV channels and instant access to news. Doing the almost thirteen day passage to Antigua caused me to stop cold turkey. And since arriving her in Antigua we are still cut off from news. This didn't happen the last time we cruised the Caribbean back in 2000 because we received a news everyday from our INMARSAT-C satellite communications unit. But in the intervening years cost reductions have necessitated the elimination of the free service. So now I am getting my news from the internet, thank goodness for wifi. It's obviously not the same as the instant cable access but then again I have found that I'm less pissed off with less exposure to the political banter available on cable. I was a bit of a news wonk back in the States.

Yesterday, February 26th, we took the local bus for a shopping/sightseeing trip to Antigua's capital and primary city St. John's. The bus ride cost us 3.25EC per person each way, that's $1.21 in U.S. currency. The ride was about twenty to thirty minutes from here at Jolly Harbor and unlike the busses that we have use din the U.S. these drivers make change. The bus was air conditioned but it was hardly necessary as the temperature was in the high seventies with around 50% humidity - doesn't get much better than that in my book. During the ride we got a chance to see how dry Antigua is this time of year. Most of the vegetation is a very light green or light brown. Kind of like the lawn at the last house that we owned back in the early 90's. My friend Barry called it a sailor's lawn because a sailor wants to be sailing on the weekend not mowing or tending to the lawn. So in the spring he mows the lawn shorter than he probably should to stunt its growth. Sorry about the detour there. When we got off the buss in St. John's we were struck by the hustle and bustle. The bus station is right across the street from the market where the locals bring their produce and other products for sale. Pam didn't want to go to the market until we were on the way back so we followed our map to the shopping area downtown where the cruise ships pull in. There was one cruise ship in town and the taxi drivers were out in force. They were not as aggressive as we have experienced in the past but there were a lot of them. So while walking thru the shopping area, near the cruise ship dock, we must have gotten asked if we needed a taxi about every five to ten paces. They were all, generally, offering one our island tours. As I said they weren't overly aggressive so when you told them "no thank you" they moved on to their next potential client. We browsed most of the shops in that area and had a great pizza for lunch at "The Big Banana". An outdoor restaurant with trees growing up thru the roof. The Big Banana has free wifi a service that I saw several cruise ship passengers taking advantage of with their laptops. After lunch we wandered thru a few more shops and then headed back down Market Street towards the local market. We couldn't hear anything but bass tones in music played at ear shattering levels. Pam tried to talk to me several times and I told here not to bother because I couldn't understand here. The island music and rhythm reverberated and echoed off the buildings making me feel like I was walking inside a boom box. I always wondered what it would be like inside those cars that you have pass you on the street in the States where all the windows are up and you can hear the Rap or Hip-Hop music clearly outside. Now I know what it would be like inside those cars. When we reached the market the music subsided and we walked thru but Pam didn't see any produce that enticed here to buy. So, we boarded the bus, that didn't leave until it was full, for Jolly Harbor (bus #20). The bus has three fixed seats across, one on the left and two on the right, with a folding seat in the aisle. The last ones on the bus end up sitting in the folding seats so they must get up to let people off behind them when the want to get off. It was an interesting game of musical seats during the trip back to Jolly Harbor. When someone wanted to get off they just said "bus stop" and the bus driver would stop at the next one. The driver had better hearing than me because there were several calls that I barely heard that he must have heard.

As of the moment we are waiting for the wind to abate which is predicted to happen the middle of this week. Right now it is blowing well over twenty knots, 16 plus here in the sheltered marina, out in the open waters. Right now we are hoping to leave for Falmouth Harbor on Wednesday - we shall see.