The mailboat came into Morgan's Bluff this morning, and the pier was a bustle of activity. I went in with the Whaler, anchoring the stern out, and tying the bow off ashore, and wandered over to see the biggest event in town.
The almost non-event in the community is the smoky fire that has been burning to the south, visible to me yesterday and today. The brush fire is substantial enough that it would be making the news if were in the States. I've been in Andros before when fires were burning, and nobody seems to pay them much attention.
I asked directions to Nichols Town, and more specifically, the Batelco office. The man told me, "Its too far to walk." I had walked less than half of the 2-3 miles when the second vehicle passing by offered me a ride. I did even better coming back.
If you are walking, the road makes a loop to the port, and you can choose which ever side you are closest to. From the mailboat, walk against the one way traffic until the road merges back into two-way traffic, and bear right. Go to the 4-way stop, and look to your left. You will see the Batelco tower, and the sales building is right there as well.
I got a new SIM card for my Bahamian phone, along with a new phone number. This enables me to communicate with my friends in the Bahamas, as well as receive emergency calls from the States. My ATT phone has all its calls forwarded to a dead-end number, so they never hit my voicemail, to avoid the $200/month I was charged last year from calls that had gone to my voicemail, even though I'd not answered the phone. ATT told me this way, I can still use my domestic text plan for incoming texts, and outgoing texts are charged against the international plan. I can still make outgoing calls with the ATT phone.
This useless info to my friends at home is for the benefit of the boaters following the blog. They don't care about a lot of the other stuff I do, so, maybe I can alienate all my readers. By the way, if you are a boater reading this, be sure and post a comment sometime. It won't be posted if you don't want it to be, but at least I can read it, and I'd like a better idea of who is reading the blog.
I crossed over to West Bay, New Providence, and entered from the south. I couldn't believe all the changes since I was here last. There is a hotel (I guess) clearly visible, though inshore, from the bay. There has been some new building along the edge of the bay, and a lot of the Australian pine trees in the southern side are gone. I don't know if they were removed as exotics, or if a storm took them out.
I used to anchor here a lot with the other boat, since the diving is spectacular on the walls to the SE and to the NE, pick which ever is in the lee. Stuart Cove has sunk a lot of different wrecks in the vicinity, the water is clear, the fish are abundant, and I LOVE diving walls!
I have a lot of fond memories of West Bay, and reacquainted myself with the cut to the north with the Whaler. Since I've never been in here with this boat, I wanted to confirm the depths.
One big change since I was here last is wi-fi! With my wi-fi amplifier, there are several unlocked signals, allowing me to check my email, and post this blog.
The only thing that could make tonight any better is if it rained hard enough to wash the salt off the boat!
Distance travelled today: 30nm.
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