5/23/2015 – Now in Blackpoint to attend the cruisers BBQ held to benefit the school. Two business women, Ida and Lorraine, are the cooks. Lorraine owns Lorraine’s Café and Ida the laundromat. Cost is $10.00 per person.

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They had BBQ ribs and chicken with a Bahamian rice dish and potato salad. It was supposed to be at 12:00 noon then 12:15 and finally ready by 1:00. Food was good but not spectacular. Only a handful of cruisers showed up.

5/24/2015 – It’s Sunday morning here in paradise; Blackpoint Settlement, Great Guana Cay, Exumas, Bahamas to be exact. The phone company must have completely shut down. No phone service, no internet. The tower is in plain site within a quarter of a mile. Maybe they are servicing the generator (not likely since it is Sunday), or it ran out of fuel. If it ran out of fuel it will be Monday before anyone is working to refuel it. We have a wide trough over us for the next day or two so maybe we can blame it on the weather. Don’t know what the current weather is because it is Sunday and the SSB weather broadcasts are not happening. Staniel Cay has a VHF weather broadcast at 8:30 AM but it is Sunday so maybe it too will not happen. Anyway, I will have to wait until 8:30 to find out. Wonder if I call MAYDAY on the SSB will someone be listening? It would be my luck that someone is and now I am in trouble for issuing a false alarm. Don’t they know it was just a test? A fellow has to know if he calls that someone will hear. Maybe I should blow the conch and someone will answer.
It is 8:30 AM and the weather lady said the internet is out so there is no weather report but the current weather should continue through Wednesday and hopefully the internet will be back up by then.
If we had no internet would we become unsocial? What no Facebook, no linked in, no e-mail!!!!! How does one express them self? Surely we will not be expected to talk directly to one another. Would a phone become a dumb phone in which we would have to actually speak? How in the world would we use emoticons? I suppose we could carry flash cards for that purpose. Otherwise we might have to sharpen up our smiles, frowns, growls, and snarls.
Disclaimer: The above is a result of boredom and should not be confused with reality unless you are in the Bahamas.

5/25/2015 – The internet is back to working but have to go ashore to use, even with my Wi-Fi extender. This afternoon we moved the boat closer to the laundromat dinghy dock and we were able to get the free Wi-Fi right on the boat. I coupled the extender with a router and both our laptops had internet access. Sure saves on internet cost. I was able to upload all the pictures to the website. Bahamas prepaid data is $43.00 for 2 GB.

5/27/2015 – We have been waiting on two items and our mail to arrive at Watermakers Air in Fort Lauderdale so they can bring it to us in Blackpoint. Today all three packages are there so they can consolidate to cut freight cost. They normally have two flights a day but it might make Friday’s single afternoon flight. Freight cost is $45.00 plus duties and VAT.

5/29/2015 – E-mailed Watermakers to get confirmation that our stuff was on the flight but no answer by 1:00PM. We walked to the airport to wait not knowing arrival time. The plane landed about 3:15 and luckily our package was there. We had quite a shock since the paperwork showed $194.00 duty and $38.00 VAT which was unexpected since boat items are supposed to be duty free with your cruising permit. Upon returning to the boat, we emailed Watermaker who checked with customs and they agreed with our assessment. It looks like we can buy supper tonight after all.

5/30/2015 – Today it’s back to Staniel Cay for fuel and water. We anchored near Thunderball Grotto so we can snorkel tomorrow. The anchorage is in view of the cut to Exuma Sound. This afternoon it is calm and smooth but during the night as the tide came in we were treated to continuous surge which severely rocked the boat making sleep difficult. I think after snorkeling we will go back to Blackpoint for the night.