The front came through today. We had no wind last night, and almost none in the morning. There were dark clouds overhead, so when we left the boat we closed it up enough to keep any potential rain out. We were hoping for some rain to wash the salt off the boat, but none came.

We left the boat fairly early and got to the Laundromat at 8:30. It opens at 8, but it wasn't open yet. We started to walk down the road to take our trash to the trailer they have at the town dock. A woman came by in a golf cart and told us she'd call and tell the owner of the Laundromat that we were there. By the time we got back from taking our trash the woman had arrived and she opened up for us. The Laundromat was very nice and clean and had about 16 washers and maybe 10 dryers, but it cost $3.50 a load to wash and $3.50 to dry. That's not too bad for here. Both water and power are precious here. The power usually comes from huge diesel generators, and the water is from reverse osmosis of seawater. The Laundromat had huge tanks outside where they recycled the water. And it's not every Laundromat that gives you a view of a crystal clear bay with huge rays swimming by. I did my best to take their picture. Check out the gallery, you can get some sense of their size.

One of the dryers didn't work right, so they gave me another token and I put that load in one another dryer. While that last load was finishing, Bud took the rest of the laundry back to the boat so he could move the dinghy to the town dock as the little dock by the Laundromat was getting crowded and our dinghy was being pushed around back, and with the falling tide Bud was afraid the prop would get banged on the rocks.

After I packed the last load up, Fuzzy and I headed over to Lorraine's Café, where Bud was going to meet us for lunch and an Internet session. As I was leaving the Laundromat I saw the mail boat coming in. He had to come right through the anchored cruisers and I took a photo. The captains who run the little freighters and mail boats through these islands must be pretty good. They don't have much room or much depth to work with.

I got to Lorraine's and the sat at the old table you see under the tree in the picture. That way we could keep Fuzzy with us and still get our lunch and Internet access. It worked pretty well, but they don't let you use SKYPE phones at Lorraine's as it takes too much bandwidth. Getting good Internet access is proving to be a real challenge. It's also expensive. Lorraine's just asks for a $3 donation towards the electric, but the lunch wasn't cheap. I had a conch sandwich and fries and a cranberry juice drink, Bud had a fish sandwich and fries and two bottles of beer. The bill was $33. Food is not cheap here, as almost everything has to be brought in.

This afternoon it started to get windy. We took our viewing bucket along when we took Fuzzy to shore and checked our anchor on the way back. The boat is now sitting 180 degrees from the direction it was when we set the anchor. The chain has pretty much straightened out in the new direction and the anchor has moved in almost that full half circle, but it is still buried, if anything deeper than before. I'm developing a real affection for that Rocna. If anyone reading this is contemplating cruising, don't hesitate to spend money on a good, big anchor. It will be one of the best investments you can make for your peace of mind.

It's actually nice to have the wind blowing again. Not only does it give us fully charged batteries because of the wind generator, it feels nice. We were even feeling a bit cool in the boat with all the hatches and ports open. We checked the temperature; it was 75 degrees. It's down to 73 now, almost blanket weather.