Every 7 days or so we need to go to port to do laundry and put water into our boat as well as to search for an Internet connection. The internet is how Daniel updates his school work, takes assessments and does the subjects that are hard to do with his books. It is a challenge to find good connections when we are at anchor. Therefore, we sailed back to Spanish town with building winds of an approaching tropical storm which was headed for Puerto Rico and was creating a lot of wind and waves. The storm was to build in the next days.

From Spanish Town which is in the middle of the island, Daniel and Kim hiked up close to North Sound via Gorda Peak National Park and captured great views of Virgin Gorda, which is by now one of our most favorite islands. In the mean time Maria decided to walk around Spanish town and stumbled into a beautiful little house near the airport which is located on the other side of Spanish town. This was a craft store built by the woman who made just about everything sold in the store, Geraldine Maduro. Geraldine was born and raised in Virgin Gorda. Her ancestors were more West Indies (as opposed to black) and she looked more like someone from the country of India. She had lived on this hill for 30 years with her husband, built her own little house and made a living doing various things. Her dream, however, was to have her own craft store as she is an artist at heart. When she went to the bank to get a loan to build her store 2 years ago, the bank officer told her "we cannot give you a loan - you should have enough money of your own to build your store!" This, of course, was absurd as she went to the bank because she did not have money of her own! So she took matters into her own hands and got the help of her local friends who have known her for her generosity and built the shop herself in two months!! This was very courageous on her part as she had no architecture or professional help guiding her. She used the foundation of a cistern as the foundation for her store but left the cistern operational to gather water. She designed the interior and painted her shop in beautiful colors - pictures will be found in the album of pictures to be posted.

This is the first opportunity we've had to interact at length with a local person who is not working near the marinas or near tourists. It gave us a glimpse of a people who have endured a lot and are not afraid to build their own roofs and make their living from the land and things around them. Gerry's Crafts futures many ornaments made of gores and shells she finds on the beach.