We woke with no real plan for the day except to say hi to Charlie Gaines and catch up with him a bit. Charlie single hands Migration, a 40 foot Caliber which is the boat Greg and I use to have some of you will remember, Paradigm. Anyhow we had a quick breakfast and Greg had a list of chores which included making water and cleaning fuel filter traps. I was going to be in the way so I needed to stretch my legs and elected a walk to town.

Paul and Charlie were going “hunting” for lobsters so Laurie, Stacey, Christoph and I went walking. Greg and Jaxon would “mind the anchorage” and take care of chores.

Christoph and Stacey picked us up and off we went to the charted path we knew to get to town. Once upon the land we noticed the old restaurant had a plane in the top of it. What a landing that must of been! We quickly picked up our path and enjoyed all the scenery of dogs (pot cakes they call them when they were raised here), goats, roosters, hens and yes.....even shark teeth.

The walk was long and seemed up hill....both ways (lol), but we finally arrived in town. It was sad to see the devastation. The police office building ...all the windows are blown out.....most homes have major roof issues....some seem barely inhabitable but there were folks in them. When we arrived at Maxines (the local grocery store), we picked up a few things and then were told we could go next door for a beer if we liked....she would open for us. As tired and hot as we all were, it was a delightful drink and our hostess was just as delightful. Jolly was her name and it suited her disposition. When I asked how her family made out in the storm she said they were all fine. There was no loss of life but the recovery of the homes was taking quite a bit of time. I wonder as I sit here what the legal issue is about bringing building supplies in to help folks like this. There are so many import issues with the Bahamas and the VAT and it makes me want to research it and see if there is a way we could help rebuild this fine town. Maxine herself is off the island, but I am sure she would be the one to ask about their needs. I mean if we could bring nails or hammers or some tools they could use in rebuilding, I would like to think that next year we could come with a boatload to help them. Oh well.....I will bank these thoughts for another day.

We worked our way back to the boats and got back it seemed just in time for lunch and a long evening of thunderstorms. The hunters had caught three lobsters and were happy so all were now home safe as we rode out the storms.