Day 5

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Today was an adventure. My friends here wanted me to gather some survey information for them, so I was on the 8:30 ferry to St Vincent. Its about a nine mile crossing (1 hour), so once I reach St Vincent the next job is figuring out where they keep the land records. I head down Front St toward the police station for a start.

One of the many "aggressive" taxi drivers stops me to talk. I ask him where the land records might be kept and..(once I convince him that I don't mind walking and won't be needed his services)...he gives me perfect directions. After a few hits and misses, I find the right building and office. Mrs Williams-a mid twenties professional finally understands what it is I'm trying to locate and tells me to come back in a couple of hours and she might have it.

With a couple of hours to kill I head down to the local Ace hardware to have some keys cut for my hosts. Ace is out of the type of key that I need, so they send me down to a little shack on one of the side streets that I remembered passing on my way to the office of land and surveys.

The proprietor looks like a transplanted arab/islander. He cuts the 6 keys in about 10 minutes for the bargain island price of $60 EC (about $24 US) I spend the rest of the two hours walking around town and everything looks just as I remembered it from the last trip.

Noon, and its back to the Land and Survey office. I mistakenly ask for Mrs WilliamSON instead of Williams, which is confusing to her co-worker cause Mrs Williams' 6-year old son is there (along with some of his shcool mates in the office for a lunch break from class) She tells me she has all the documents laid out but hasn't had the time to copy them. 15 minutes later she emerges with the copies-some of which need to be cut and pasted together. All together its 25 pages for only a $1EC each (that's only 40 cents US each). I ask her if she could locate a couple of more properties if I gave her a couple of more hours. She quickly shakes her head " No, not today" I get the feeling she's already had to make more copies before lunch than she is used to making in a day.

Since I can't get anything else done here on St Vincent, I hustle to make the 1:00 ferry instead of the 4:00 I had originally planned. I arrive at the ferry terminal at 1:02 and just make the boat before they leave the dock.

Back home on Bequia, I'm much happier with the fewer people and the slower pace. Alan spends an hour pouring over the copies trying to make sense of them until we're both too tired to study them anymore. Simon, James, and Sarah are talking about going for a swim so I tell them to meet me at Low Bay and strap on my running shoes. I thought I could beat them to the beach, but with the steep hills, they passed me a half mile from the beach. The swim was great and there were some 4-5' breakers that made for some fun in the surf.

After the swim, I ran back to the house by way of the Belmont walkway. The sun was about to set so I hurry home to get my camera, then back out. The sun goes from full to gone in no more than 3 minutes. You have to be in the right place at the right time to get the perfect shot.

James whips up some delicious past for dinner and we all sit down to watch one of the worst movies that has ever been made--The 'Mist". Poorly written, acted, directed. Just a sorry excuse for a movie. (I hope I haven't offended and "The Mist" fans).

I think its a good night for an early to bed. Tomorrow is another sail to St Vincent and back on the Friendship Rose.
Ya Mon, Bequiaj

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