6 June 2009 -- South Caicos

Am falling into a relaxed routine while waiting to cross to the Dominican Republic, of listening to a couple of morning weather broadcasts, followed by cooking and eating brunch, then reading, swimming, or boat maintenance.  Hate to leave the nice weather and peaceful anchorage here for the more populated, less peaceful, more foreign harbor of Luperon in the Dominican Republic.  But, waiting can get boring, so we decided to go to town again.  Mark was running low on fresh water and fortune brought us a local fellow in a pickup truck who offered to fetch some water.  Fresh water here is collected from seasonal rains and a government-built condenser system.  As such, there is no city water supply like we know in America, so outsiders have trouble accessing the fresh water supply.  After returning an hour later with the water, the guy told us about a fish fry at the nearby Trench Town Bar.  Like most events so far, it was over billed and at times we were the only patrons in the bar.  The younger men typically wore their hair in unwashed Rastafarian dreadlocks, and wore baggy clothes with pants that seemed to be suspended only by a constant one-hand grip on their crotch.  A belt seems much more pleasant.  In fact the middle-aged men have discovered belts and haircuts, but maybe only because bellies make reaching their crotch difficult.  The food consisted of conch fritters, chicken souse (a local form of soup or stew), and fried bonefish.  The conch fritters were gooey and poorly prepared, while the chicken souse wasn’t even ready yet.  But, the bonefish tasted great.  It was seasoned and cooked just right and the meat itself had an excellent flavor.  However, bonefish is well-named because it contains a tremendous number of fine bones with branches that make removal almost impossible.  A group practice of the Heimlich maneuver should be conducted before eating bonefish.  Back in the bar, the two young Dominican women bartenders watched television and dozed, while many of the patrons wandered in and out, drinking from personal bottles of liquor and smoking marijuana.  Open container laws, drug laws, and food handling regulations seem to be missing, but overall it was a very peaceful gathering for such a dissolute slice of humanity.  The town only seems to come alive after dark.  No wonder most of the people we see during the day are sleeping.  At 8:00 pm we moved to another establishment to watch a Red Wings hockey game.  The two female bartenders there were chatting with a couple of Dominican friends and everyone seemed content to watch a hockey game.  A couple of guys from India came in and kept eyeing the Dominican girls.  The obese Dominican girls presented a definite body mass mismatch to the skinny Indian guys, but the Indians kept hoping.  With the Red Wings winning 5-0, it was time to head out to the boats and get some sleep.