Sailing the Windward Islands

Phil had not checked-in to Customs yesterday because it was too late. The first thing today is take care of that problem before we are thrown into jail. We got the ship's papers and jumped into the dinghy. It had worked well after Phil and Dick patched the gigantic hole in the bottom taking us to the party and back. But this morning the pontoons were a little low on air. So on the way to Customs I tried to use the air pump to add more air to the pontoons. The dinghy ride to Customs would be a long one. But as we got further from Souverain, the more the dinghy started to sink. I tried to pump faster, but it wasn't working. Phil turned the dinghy around and started heading for Souverain. Because of the deflated pontoons and the water in the boat, we couldn't go that fast. I started thinking of how I could swim and keep my camera dry. We did make it back to Souverain before the dinghy sank. After having a beer to celebrate our cheating death(again), we assessed the situation. It appears that the floor board have hinges that have a plastic rod to hold them. This rod worked it's way out and punctured the pontoon. We also found out, the air pump hose had a crack in it. So all my pumping while we were sinking, wasn't working. Time for Plan-B. All the guys with boats were offering taxi service to shore or to Customs. We will just use them. Well yesterday they were falling all over themselves to help us. This morning, nobody. One of the men from yesterday gave us his card. It had his cell phone on it. Phil called, but he was up the river on a tour. He told Phil to call on channel 16 for a water taxi. We were afraid that we would have the whole town coming to our boat. We made the call. No one answered! We tried again. Still no answer! Where was everyone? We sat around for about an hour. Finally one guy comes by. He said he would take us to the Customs after he checked on a incoming boat. He came back, eventually. The Customs office closes in 10 minutes. We jump into the "Water Taxi' and head for Customs. All the other boats we have seen before were fast, accept for this one. We arrived at Customs at 1:00pm. just as they were closing for lunch. Customs would reopen in one hour. We headed into town to find some lunch also. Plymouth isn't that big, but want to find a quick lunch spot. While walking through town, Phil's shoes starting falling apart. This is apparently how Phil knows when it's time to buy a new pair of shoes. We looked in a few stores and then we found the Grand Bazar. In the back was a whole shoe section. I thought it was funny that in Fort de France we made fun of all the shoe stores and now Phil needs one. I took the picture of Phil in the shoe section. A lady came up to me with a mean face and asked why I was taking a picture of shoes. (She obviously hasn't been reading my blog.) I pointed to Phil's old shoes that were now in pieces and said "He needs new shoes!". She started laughing. In fact the whole store was laughing. Phil did find a pair that he liked and tossed his old ones in the trash.