We listened to Chris Parker this morning. Winds are going to be somewhat variable on Monday and the sea state should be fine to go to Cat Island. There are three other problems, though. First there is an increased chance of an occasional squall and the further north we go (we'd end up about 60 miles further north) the greater the chance of hitting a squall. Second, Rick and Carol on Rhapsody aren't going, they are worried about the squalls and Carol isn't feeling well. And the deal breaker, Bud's planar faceitis (if that's what it is) got worse after the walking we did yesterday so he definitely should stay off his foot. He'd be using it a lot to sail up there, then when we got there I'd have no one to hike up to the Hermitage with, and that's the main draw of New Bight, Cat Island. So we've decided we should stay here and try to get Bud's foot on the mend.

We hadn't made that decision this morning, because Rhapsody hadn't decided yet. We just went about our business. We loaded up the computer and the water jugs and took the dinghy to the beach. Fuzzy and I walked to the car after greeting Jennifer and Mark and their two dogs from Starlet. Actually, I had to carry Fuzzy once we left the beach because he doesn't like walking on the rough stone of the path. He does like riding in the car, though. I loaded the computer and Fuzzy in the car and drove the mile or two to Long Island Petroleum where I paid for 20 more gallons of water. Fuzzy happily waited in the car while I walked down to tell Bud the water was on and chatted a minute with two other folks (Norma and Jay on Priority) who had just gotten back from a few days in the Jumentoes. They really enjoyed it and gave us more encouragement to go. When I paid for the water I asked about Mr. Pinder's place because Bud and I hadn't found it yesterday. He gave me good directions, and I thought to ask if there was a sign out front. No sign; that's why we'd missed it. So while Bud was filling and ferrying water jugs Fuzzy and I drove the five miles or so up to find Mr. Stanley Pinders. He was just coming out of his house and was in a hurry because he had to deliver a car to someone who called (he also rents cars). He solved his dilemma by selling me a bag of vegetables he'd put together for someone else (he'd get them more later) and having me follow him to his garden so he could cut me some more bok choy. That was where I missed my first photo opportunity. Mr. Pinder's had about two acres under cultivation, and I think by Bahamian standards he had good soil, but any of my gardening friends in the States would have deemed the patch untillable. I don't think the soil was more than six inches deep anywhere in his garden. He did have a well and irrigation set up and he had a good looking garden. The arrangement wasn't precise by our standards, since plants were put where the soil would support them, which meant no rows and an odd arrangement of species. It seemed to be working. We got some nice tomatoes, peppers, a solid head of cabbage and more bok choy. I wish I had taken a picture to post but I never thought of it until about an hour later.

Once we had the vegetables Fuzzy and I dropped the garbage off at the government dock and waited for Bud to come. He picked up some groceries and then took Fuzzy and the groceries back to the boat. I put the computer and some books I wanted to exchange in a corner up in the restaurant at Long Island Breeze and filled the car with gas (we'd used well under a quarter of a tank and it still cost $19 to fill it) and took the car back to Fox Auto. I'm sure most of the people who are reading this blog have returned a car to a rental agency in the US. Someone comes and checks the car over, makes sure the tank is full, has you sign another sheaf of papers and your done. You usually leave the keys in the car. Not so at Fox's. The woman at the counter asked for the keys and said, "That's it." We chatted a minute about the day we'd had using the car (I didn't mention driving it down the track to the Columbus Monument) and I walked out.

I went down to the dock to wait for Bud to come back from putting the groceries and Fuzzy aboard. That's when I missed my second photo opportunity of the day. This time I did try. I was sitting and looking into the water that was about five or six feet deep in the area of the dock when suddenly I saw a very pretty little sea turtle. When I say little, I mean only a couple of feet long, not like the big ones that are three, four or more feet long. Of course by the time I dug my camera out of my purse h was underwater. He surfaced again, but so briefly I had no chance to get the shot. When Bud got back we went to Long Island Breeze, we had lunch and I used the Internet. I got to post the pictures from the last two days, but alas, no photo from today.

That's also when I learned about Carol on Rhapsody and we decided not to go to Cat Island. We'll attend the Super Bowl party at Long Island Breeze instead. Hopefully Bud's foot will get some better and we'll get to go to the Jumentoes next week.