Thursday, May 20, 2010
After debating back and forth with myself about what I wanted to do, I finally decided to head across the North Sound from my anchorage spot off Prickly Pear to Leverick Bay and take a dock spot there using the special TTOL rate (where else in the BVI can one dock for $30 regardless of boat length?). I said “hello” to the manager, Nick, and managed to help him with some work and promptly cause him to lose a bolt assembly and then upset a box full of nuts & bolts… he’ll not be accepting any help from me in the future 🙂
I rented a car and headed to Spanish Town to clear in and managed to get in a spot of trouble by telling the customs officer that I was anchored in the North Sound instead of the official port of entry, Spanish Town. I should have lied, they never check. But told the truth and was severely chastised and considered myself lucky not to be fined!
After successfully managing to clear in I headed off to the Mad Dog Café for a BLT sandwich (it was just as good as I’d remembered!) and reminisced that the car rental was by far the simplest I’d ever done – I walked into the Leverick Bay office and asked if they had a car, they said “yes” and gave me the keys and asked if I knew where Speedy’s garages were and I told them “yes”. Within 10 seconds I was out of the office and looking for the car. The idea is that you drive your new rental to the offices outside of Spanish Town and fill in the form and make payment – simple and effective and impossible to imagine happening anywhere else.
The rest of the afternoon was spent doing laundry and assorted chores aboard the boat – preparations for my imminent departure and return to the real world in Europe.
The boat next to me is a new Grand Soleil 54, the boat that I really wanted but didn’t look into because it was both too pricey and I was worried that the sexy Italian looks hid flaws in design. The owner is (rightly so) proud of his boat and spent the daylight hours working on the teak decks making them look even nicer than new – the boat is beautiful and looking at this model has made me rethink getting one. It is elegant and looks sleek and fast just sitting there at the dock…
I learned a new word from my old Phi Tau chums, “gambrinous” (gămbrī`nəs) so I promptly went out to research the term, first at the Jumbies Bar at Leverick Bay where I also had a spot of dinner, then took the ferry to Saba Rock to perform some more field work and was most certainly gambrinous by the time midnight rolled around.
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