A waste of a day
23 March 2020 | 18 20'N:64 56'W, Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas, US Virgin Islands
NC
22nd March
18 20 N
64 56 W
Weather; sunny with late showers, wind n/a, waves n/a
Today was sort of a disaster as far as doing anything was concerned. We had great plans, we were going to go to Home Depot then have lunch at Meat Up and then a possible visit to Cost U Less supermarket just because we were in the area. We left it quite late to start out, doing nothing very much out of the ordinary on the boat in the morning. Once we got our act together we donned our back packs ( who knows what we might buy!) and set out in our dinghy for the cruise liner dock which was pretty heavily congested -it gets worse by the day I swear! Anyway we tied up and set off for the safari bus stop just up the road, the roads were very quiet and there weren't many people walking around and Pueblos supermarket opposite the safari stop seemed quieter than normal. We waited patiently for a safari bus to show up (they don't run to a time table, it's a case of wait and hope) well we waited, and waited and waited, saw a couple of them going in the opposite direction, and waited and waited! In the end Dale was the first one to get bored with waiting and suggested that we give it a miss and go another day, suggesting that we go and have some lunch - yes, it was lunch time. Gerry suggested that we might try the BBQ place as Dale and Lorie hadn't been there as yet so we crossed the roads easily - usually you have to take your life in your hands and hope that the pedestrian lights are going to be in your favour at some point during the crossing! Gerry stopped at the ATM whilst Lorie and I clowned around taking photos of each other with a buccaneer statue and Dale just waited as far away from us as he could possibly get. Then we headed further along the shopping strip towards the BBQ place, however as we got close enough to throw rocks at the place it became evident that it wasn't open, uh oh, on to plan B. So our next choice of dinning establishment was the Tap and Still Bar where we had eaten a couple of nights ago, there was forensic style tape across all but the main entrance to the place and at the entry door there was a notice saying they were open but only for take away food - order round the corner. Well that didn't suit us as we weren't planning on going back to our boats to eat, on to plan C - with desperation setting in we spied the Chinese restaurant across the other side of the main road - maybe that was open. The guys, being the gentlemen they are, crossed the road to check it out and then yelled for Lorie and I to come across as yes it was open, we were having Chinese for lunch! Inside the restaurant was empty apart from one table with 2 young boat guys eating, we did the social distancing thing and sat as far away from them as we could possibly get - not difficult with the whole restaurant to choose from! We browsed the menus, picked our dishes and ordered drinks. The food was plentiful and delicious, if a little expensive for run of the mill Chinese food but we were just grateful that somewhere was open and serving good, hot food. We all agreed that this was going to serve as our main meal for the day, there was no need for either Lorie or myself to produce a dinner tonight, hooray! We did concede that we would have drinks and appetizers at around 5.30pm - making those is probably more hassle than cooking a full meal! After eating we waddled back to the dinghy dock and made our way to our respective boats for an afternoon nap. Later we prepared some appetizers and joined Dale and Lorie on their boat for a couple of hours before returning home and reading until it was time for bed. All in all it was a most frustrating day as we got nothing done but we now know that we are well and truly in the throes of the madness that has taken over the world here in the USVIs where to date there have been no cases reported of Corona Virus. Oh well if you have to be stuck somewhere here is as good a place (and better than many) to be stuck, at least we have plenty of toilet paper! We will be trying the Home Depot trip again tomorrow probably.