Pusser’s Inn is based on the historic premise of the Caribbean rum that was served to the men in the Royal Navy as their daily ration.  The cocktails were rum based, and rather delicious, slipping down very easily.  Unfortunately the food was neither Caribbean nor British, I am really sorry to go on about this but we are in the British Virgin Islands.  As we entered we were greeted by a scruffy American man in need of a haircut who we assumed was the local drunk who liked his rum but worked out eventually that he was the owner.  This became obvious when he started directing the chubby waitress to tables waiting for food and drinks, telling her “you’re gonna lose some weight tonight” and apologised to us for our long waits without actually doing anything about it.  Bob chose “fish and chips”, which arrived “wrapped” in a “New York newspaper”,  I chose lobster macaroni cheese which was so greasy with processed cheese, that it made me sick, literally, in the Ladies within moments of finishing it. I can’t blame it on the lobster, there were only 5 chunks in the whole dish.

This morning we very protectively hoiked our various bits of auto steering gear, rather heavy and bulky, into a very bouncy dinghy, the waves continue to be very choppy here.  Safely ashore, Bob went for a long hike in search of a taxi, all with the number plate TAXI.  Another cruise ship was in so they were all taken so instead a lovely chap called SImeon decided to be our taxi.  He took us over to Nanny Cay and the Cay Electronics who had said they would look at the kit if we brought it in.  We were greeted by a lovely bubbly girl, Lisa, in a very pretty summer dress but the two British old codgers who were the muscle behind the set up were distinctly unfriendly, and really couldn’t give a damn whether we were able to return to St Lucia in time for our flight home.  They seemed to think that we were wimps for needing auto steering at all.  All we could extract from them was a grudging “we will see if we can look at it in the next few days, hopefully”.  Not very inspiring in the confidence department.

While we had SImeon in our clutches, we then asked him to take us to a phone shop to try and sort out Bob’s mobile which is refusing to work.  We ended up at the Said brothers emporium.  One brother is up a back stair case with his phone shop while the other brother is downstairs where he unlocks phones and sells phone credits amongst an array of household linen, very much like Shamrock Linen in Devizes but without the rude owner.  After much cogitation, consultation with a forthright taxi driver, who sadly lost the “who can get on to a website faster” competition with the upstairs Said brother, it was very competitive, Bob bought a phone and Sim card for Caribbean use.

Our next stop was the supermarket for a good stock up.  It was relatively enormous and had a splendid array of American goods (I won’t go on about it again, I promise) but did stock gin, tonic and limes so we are at least covered in that department.  Simeon helped us into the dinghy with our hoard, a very nice man, and we puttered back to WIndy feeling like pirates as we awkwardly manoeuvred the various boxes aboard while being tossed about energetically by the waves.  After our frenetic morning we have hunkered down this afternoon, quiet reading and snoozing in the sun.  Bob has done engine checks and now Gerry is singing, he has developed a habit where he ahems to clear his throat a few times before bursting forth.