It's now Wednesday morning and here's what's been going on since my last post that ended on Monday afternoon.

After the download of a file(300 megs) took over 3.5 hours, I knew I had to go back to Digicel again!! Man, what a pain in the butt. Tracy was heading for the grocery store on the 0830 free bus and I was taking the 0900 bus for town. Off she went and off I went. Since she would be back first, we made sure she had the key to the boat as well as the safety lanyard for the outboard. She's been caught before with no key to get in Zephyr and had to "break in". Always helps when you forget to dog down a big hatch on deck.

As I sat waiting for the bus, along came a couple off one of the other boats that we know in passing so a conversation ensued and after hearing my tale of woe, advised me to just go the main office. Much better help so they say. Just by pass the little store we normally go to. They even told me the name of the small bus to take. It would have a sign in the front saying it goes to "Rhond". I did need to go to the bus station thats on the other side of the river. Once in town, I hiked over to the other bus station and talked to a driver and yes, he would take me right to Digicel. Cost:$3.40, about $2.00US. In I climbed and we took off, me being the only person in the bus. Where did we go? Well right over to the bus station where I came into town. He was trolling for more passengers. A couple came on board and off we went, going places I've never been before. We use a program called Sygic for finding places and I'd marked on it's screen where the Digicel office was. We weren't going any where near it. Oh well, I guess the driver knows where it is. In the end, he took me right to it. Not on my map program so I added it. Any way, I walked in and was directed to their "Data Doctor"by one of the sales people I've dealt with at the other store(small world I guess). I explained my problem on the SLOW speed I was getting. He accessed my account and then he listened and then looked at my wifi dongle and had me turn it on, got up and walked into the back offices telling me he would be right back. About 15 minutes later he returned telling me that Digicel had put a "choke" on my data speed as I'd passed one of their limits of data when we'd used over 30 gigs with in a month. He got the techs in the back room to "unchoke" my wifi stream so I could get the data at it's normal speed. Now we've heard of companies doing this to people that buy "unlimited" internet but we paid for a set number of gigs(18 gigs for $50.56)and not unlimited so we have no clue as to why they would slow us down but at least the problem was resolved. No clue why the "Data Doctor" at the other store didn't so what this guy did. She had the same information but I guess it pays to go to the main offices. Better help!

Since that problem was resolved, I discussed with my "Data Doctor" what was going on with Stat Counter, the service I use to keep track of how may people visit our blog. Doesn't' tell us who, just how many and what country they live in. No matter what we do, we just can't link up with their site using Digicel. Any other ISP company and there is no problem. I showed him what happens on my IPad and off he went again with the IPad to visit with the more senior techs in the back room. About 15 minutes later, he returns and says that they have never seen this happen before and are going to look at it more closely and get back with me. Guess we will see but as of today, I still can't log in.

Once done with what i could get done, I hiked down the street to catch a bus back to downtown so I could return to Zephyr. I found a bus and then started discussing with them about going down town. Their English wasn't that good but they told me to climb on and off the three of us went, no money changing hands. In the end, after about 15 blocks, they stopped at a bus stop and told me to get off and take another bus to town. I guess they don't normally pick up passengers. They dropped me off near Kooyman and Builders Depot and since we need a few thing, I hiked over and got a new clock for Zephyr and some caulk to fix one of our portholes(has a small leak). Then back on the road hiking to Burger King where I thought I might have lunch but by the time I got there(12:30) I wanted to catch the 1330 bus back to Zephyr having missed the 1200 bus so Instead of eating, I grabbed the next small bus and got into down town Willemstad at 1245 in time for a lunch at Mc Donalds as I knew they would be fast so I could still make the 1330 bus which I did. Once back at the dock, I radioed Tracy and she came in and picked me up and back to Zephyr we went. By now, it was 1430 so I started downloading some more shows for us to watch and they downloaded nice as fast as they are supposed to.(YEA!!)

This morning, just after 0800(Wednesday), we loaded all five of our gasoline cans into Puff and I took off for the fuel dock. Using the generator as much as we have been plus putting more fuel in the outboard tank, we were bone dry. I zipped over only to find they don't open till 1200! OK, back to Zephyr to wait till they open. Bad thing is that sometimes they run out of fuel so maybe I'll get some and maybe I won't. Stay tuned. If I don't and we run out, well we'll be running the engine a lot more to keep everything charged.

As for lunch today, we had Thai Chow Mein. Tracy had picked up some already chopped up and shredded veggies when at the store earlier this week and using her Thai Cookbook, it was amazing. All on a bed of rice and it was just great. Why eat out when she can make meals like this.

After lunch was over, I climbed back into Puff and took off for the fuel dock at the local yacht club. They have a reputation of being out of fuel from time to time and since we were out of gasoline that we so desperately need, I was glad that they had some. It was the first question I posed to the fuel manager, Francis. He didn't bat an eye but suggested that if I wanted to, I could fill up the tanks while they were still in Puff. A smart idea as it avoids lifting full jerry cans off the dock and into the dinghy. We put 19 liters in each of the five cans so that works out to just over 25 gallons which makes it cost $3.65 per gallon. That's much cheaper than the $4.67 we paid in Bonaire a 5 weeks ago. Diesel runs $2.37 per gallon and we will be taking it on next to top up our tanks though we shouldn't need much. It sure would be nice knowing what countries charge for fuel so you'd know when to fill up and when to wait. With us holding 220 gallons of fuel, even a few cents can make a difference in the bill. While the cans may hold 20 liters, we only put in 19 as it's easier to handle and one liter less really makes no difference in the long run.

I returned to Zephyr with a much heavier dinghy than when I left and we hoisted the five cans over the port side, covered then with sunbrella covers that Tracy made years ago and then strapped them down to the port rail with our stern tank on the starboard side. We had fuel again so we topped up the generator and let her run for another hour or so with the nightly top up for later.

Late in the afternoon, we brought Puff back aboard and I took some time for a nice cool water shower. Sure felt nice to be clean again. Hopefully we can go snorkeling tomorrow. It will be nice to be back in some cool sort of clean water and see the sea life.

It's now Thursday morning and we are up and at it again. We had the engine running by 0700 as we think that's to early to run the generator on deck. We start that at 0800. The morning net was another short one with very little offered.

In the afternoon, we headed in for the "Captains Dinner" held at "The Pier" restaurant. It's a gathering of cruisers that where the restaurant offers a flat price meal($20 Guilders) and it gets well attended. Each week it changes from Fish(last night), Chicken on a stick, Hamburgers and other dishes. Last nights was Mahi Mahi or Dorado or at least that is what they claimed. If so, they filets the smallest Dorados we have ever seen. Most Dorado is huge with nice big filets. I think most of us got the tail section. Still tasty though and it came with a nice side salad and French Fries. What they don't make on food though having a client boost of about 40 people has to help the bottom line, they make on drinks. Given many of the restaurants we've been to while no cheap booze, its more reasonable than most. Everyone had a great time swapping stories and trading information. Next week on Tuesday, Tracy and I will be giving a talk about our experiences as we crossed the Pacific. Many of the cruisers here are planning on going through the Panama Canal(along with us) and are craving information. Tracy and I sat down this morning and started making an outline of what we want to say. This is going to be interesting.

We started up our engine this morning to put back in some volts. Todays reading on our volt meter was better so maybe we are on the mend but time will tell.

A few weeks ago, we had our laundry done and it turned out well. This morning, I called them and made arrangements for them to pick up our laundry instead of us having to haul it all the way out there on the bus. They delivered our clean clean clothes last time they did it and this time we want to use their services both ways. We told some of our friends and they may be adding their clothes to the load and taking advantage of this laundry. We will be picking up the clothes at noon next to the dock. Probably return them tomorrow. I have to call them at 1300 so they can weigh them and let us know how much to pay when they return them. It sure beats doing them on board.