20th December

21 29 N
71 32 W

Weather, warm but overcast, wind 10 knots E, waves 1 to 2 feet.

5 MORE SLEEPS TO GO!

We had a really settled night despite or reservations that the anchorage might be rolly, it was only a very gentle roll so we were able to sleep OK plus there was a breeze blowing through the hatches all night to keep the stickiness at bay.
Gerry was up during the night at one point with the generator running as he had gotten up to go to the loo and noticed that the freezer temperature was too high and he needed to get it back down to the correct temperature and the quickest way was by running the gen set and powering it down. We were a bit slow getting moving but after coffee and crepes we were ready for the day. Gerry decided that his first job for the day was to jump in the water and check the anchor, he's been a bit paranoid since it got stuck just outside of West Caicos and wanted to see if there were any rocks that it could be stuck under here - there weren't any so that was all good. Out of the water, showered and dressed in clean clothes we decided to go across the harbor into town and see if we could locate a laundry and a supermarket. We got the dinghy off of the davits and ready to go, a small dive type boat had tied up to a buoy near to where we are anchored over an area called Admiral's Aquarium and there was a party of tourists snorkeling over the area. I suggested to Gerry that it might be a good idea to go across and ask the man remaining on the boat where we could find a laundry and the supermarket. They kindly gave us directions, neither was too far from the dock - great news. We got our laundry gathered together, dug out our backpacks and money, locked up the boat and told Priss that she was in charge until we returned. We headed into the somewhat run down dock and tied up the dinghy, the laundry was less than 100 yards away so we didn't have to drag the washing too far however when we got there it appeared to be closed. We asked a man who was just about to drive away from outside if he knew when it would be open, he kindly stopped his jeep and went and asked someone in the next building who said that the roller door just down and we could raise it to access the laundry. The man did that for us and then explained that we would need tokens for the machines which were available from the supermarket around the corner, he then offered to take one of us to get the tokens, Gerry went with him whilst I loaded 2 of the machines with our washing. Gerry returned with 20 tokens as the washers took 4 tokens each and the driers took 6 tokens each. It was a very expensive exercise as the 20 tokens came at a cost of $36 but it was worth it to have clean sheets, towels and clothes! After setting the machines to do their worst we headed across the road to a small supermarket where we managed to buy a few fresh vegetable items and a loaf of bread as we were checking out Gerry spotted that they had lobsters for sale and couldn't resist buying 2 tails - they have gone into the freezer and will probably be our Christmas dinner. I returned to the laundry to put the clothes into the driers whilst Gerry wandered up the street to try and find somewhere to buy some internet time. It was a successful mission, he returned with a phone card which allows us to
use the hotspot for internet access - we would be able to read our emails and all the comments that have been posted to our blog site at last! On that note thank you to each and every one of you that have made any comment to any of the blogs to date, we have read them all and I am very glad that someone is at least reading whatever rubbish I write! The unfortunate thing is that there is no way for us to reply to the comments which will ensure that you get to see the reply so if you have asked questions, we aren't ignoring you and if it is important I will try to address your questions in another blog or you might have to wait for an email which could take forever at the rate we get internet. I have just gone in and edited the last 11 blogs - it's been that long since we last had internet access and the email inbox is full to overflowing! Thank you to those who have sent us ecards, and to Kay for THE CARD - couldn't read what you had written though as the photo was too small, might have to wait for a while to see it.
Once our washing was done we made our way back out to the boat which had obviously been left in safe hands, there were no strangers on board and everything was peacefully quiet in fact the watch cat was fast asleep - how unusual! We stashed everything away and then the plan was to go and snorkel over the Admiral's Aquarium however before we had the chance to do that it began to rain. Hatches were closed up and the cockpit made water tight, then it stopped raining of course. By then we decided that we couldn't be bothered to go snorkeling so the dinghy got returned to its home on the davits and everything else associated with the dinghy got stashed away in lockers. It was then time to check on the emails, answer the desperate ones and delete all the spam before preparing and eating dinner. It's almost time to recharge the computer so I'm going to add the photo that I took of the rainbow this afternoon and get this sent off. We are planning on moving tomorrow morning and heading to Dominican Republic so it might be a couple of days until the next blog. Keep those comments coming!