Civilised
Quest
Jack and Hannah Ormerod and Lucia, Delphine & Fin
Tue 21 Mar 2017 00:21
The girls went over for a sleep over at MickBeth’s last week. As well as captaining MickBeth, Mike also captains commercial aircraft and so when he works, they park their boat in a marina. This time they took MickBeth to the centre of Road Town. Jack and I took our girls over with the intention of leaving them but as all great plans get thrown to the dogs, we stayed. Went out for a seriously questionable Chinese. Met them afterwards polishing off ice cream in the Italian Ice Cream parlour. It was brilliant. All four girls giggling like magpies. Beth had to get water. This meant taking her big empty bottles over to the water station. Being water maker aficionados on Quest; I see these water stations everywhere in the BVI and just ignore them. But they are amazing things. We discovered a water station is a tap to the mains with a five µm filter. For a US dollar you get a gallon of fresh, clean, de-salinated water. The BVIs is the driest place we’ve been to so far this side of the Atlantic. How different would these little islands have been before the age of the de-salinisation plant? Everyone’s heads would have been turned towards this precious problem. Now? Empty bottle: water station. The natural world versus mainstream civilisation. For sure, this island is a stepping off point. Hang out with the surfers long enough and you’ll see them. They come when the rest of us are set to go home. Ready to surf in the cooler dusk. We met one guy with long, blond, curly hair who was excited to have finally installed a rain water shower. ‘Where do you live?’ ‘In a shack,’ he replied, grinning. ‘We call it a bird house since the birds live there too.’ Steve the surf instructor, who incidentally goes by different Quest-given names of Ben Gunn, Hindu Steve and our new favourite, Hagrid, though he did get his own back the other day by asking Jack if he owned more than one outfit since he noticed Jack always turns up wearing the same thing, lived in a tent until last September. A pioneer’s-style house sits behind the surf school. Until last September it was owned by an elderly man. ‘I slept near it at first,’ Steve said, 'then I moved in, slept rough and finally just moved my tent inside. The owner didn’t mind. But since he died, his daughter’s boarded it all up and I had to move out.' ‘Where do you live now?’ He pointed up the hill at the side of Josiah’s Bay with just two roofs visible. 'I live up there. The main house is used for short-term lets. I look after the gardens. My place is a shipping container too. Only half the size of the surf school.’ We squinted up, trying to imagine it. Steve let out a sigh. ‘It’s beautiful up there.’ Back to the girls’ sleep over. The water station we were using was in Bobby’s supermarket car park. As we were filling the water bottles, a group of women emerged from a side building, locked the main door and walked off into the night. ‘What store is this?’ Robyn asked, her curiosity piqued. ‘Oh, it’s a department store,’ I said, having been in it some weeks ago. Robyn gave me a look. ‘Really? Department stores usually have perfumes and jewellery.’ ‘Oh, it has perfume and jewellery,’ I said, cancelling out the memory of plastic earrings and deodorant sprays along a small section of aisle. Lulu hung her head while MickBeth’s crew looked on, incredulous. ‘Ma, I think it’s time we got you back to civilisation.’ Civilisation? I thought about Steve’s shipping container home, the surfer who lives in the bird house, roosters strolling about this island while harangued hens look on. I thought about the Trellis Bay Market ladies who know without asking that Delphine’s bacon, egg and cheese sandwich doesn’t take ketchup. People who seem pretty aloof here until you discover warm skin to hang on to while you’re all laughing. I thought about the musky sweet smell of Josiah Bay’s bush plants and waves that break turquoise upon her sand. Civilisation? Hmmm. Love from Quest and her crew xx          |