Mr. Dick

So, about a month ago a lady came by with an ice cream truck in St. Thomas. Yay, ice cream! well, now she seems to be a fixture on the dock on hot afternoons.... In this picture, notice the nice line. I hope she doesn't talk to the kiddies like she talks to us..... HARD OR SOFT??? HOW DO YOU WANT IT? Right, I told her to mind her manners or I would buy an ice cream truck and call it Mrs. C&*$#!

Guard Crab in Action, don't mess with us!!!

Norma H vs. Karma

Okay, so this was bad. Monday morning we are in St. Thomas getting ready for the day when the M/V Karma starts making her approach. As a bit of background, Karma is a smallish, wooden, former fishing boat that runs "down island" from St. Thomas on a weekly basis. Her crew is a bunch of guys who have all been there for like 10+ years and appear to have no other home. If you have a barrel full of brand-new K-Mart apparel that you want to send home to Dominica, Karma's your girl! Anyway, she arrives on Monday morning a few hours after we do, and usually docks much further down the dock, but the Cap Caneille was in from the DR and took her spot, so she came down our end to hang out with us Boricuans. (Boricuas?) Just a typical Monday so far. Right. Well, from what I can surmise, the Capt. made his approach and got a bow line out. He then put it into reverse to bring her alongside, at which point the throttle apparently got stuck. I heard a commotion and looked up in time to see her backing up at full speed...straight into our starboard bow. Remember that old joke about sea math from school? "Wood and fiberglass go into steel once with no remainder?" Well, here it is.

So they spent the rest of the day with the fiberglass dinghy alongside getting repairs. Not good.

No apparent damage to the Norma H I'm happy to report.

$2500

So, this past Wednesday Mario - one of our AB's - walks up to Chris and gives her 25 one hundred dollar bills..... what is this from? Mario says that he is carying the money from Mr. Kuku to Mr. Gelo..... OK, so, one of our AB's is carrying 2500 bucks from KUKU to GELO? yes, this is a crazy business. See, Gelo (pronounced Jello) sent Kuku (pronounced Coo Koo) 500 lbs of Conch, and Kuku was paying for it. AH, of course. How could I be so silly to want to be in on deals like this.

Guard Crab

Well, maybe it's the sun, maybe it's the stress, maybe we are a little nuts? Here is a picture of our 'Guard Crab' on St. Croix.

Brick man, where are you? Would you like a job?

Different World

Today, Sunday, Chris and I went grocery shopping. 2 PM nice normal thing to be doing on a Sunday afternoon. Chris was looking for yoghurt, I was looking for Chris (she can be elusive) - as I was searching the aisles for Chris, I noticed that there was a girl giving out free samples at the end of an aisle.... hummm I wonder what she is giving away.... Hot Pockets?... Tacos?.... Nope, BOOZE. There was a shot girl at the supermarket. It wasn't just any kind of booze either, it was Pinch (single malt Scotch) $50 bucks a bottle. SHOTS AT THE SUPERMARKET? SUNDAY? Now I am starting to understand Ricky Martin's Livin la Vida Loca.

Just so you don't think this is out of the ordinary, there is a gas station near the dock that has drink girls selling beer on Fridays as well. Strange place.