Taking care of business (not without pleasure)

So we realized sometime after we left Emerald Bay that our (brand new) refrigeration system was not really cooling as it should. It had been excellent all through the trip down the ICW and across to Bimini and down the Berry's and Exumas. By the time we got to Provo ice was melting in the freezer, drinks were not cold in the fridge, and we started to worry that if we were leaking freon we would burn out the compressor. So, we took some of the meat and poultry to the freezer that that South Side keeps for ice, and asked Bob, the proprietor, if he could track down a refrigeration technician. The first guy was booked until the next century, but he did find someone to come out yesterday. He was more than competent, quite thorough, and diagnosed the problem within an hour - a pinprick hole in the plate that surrounds the freezer compartment.
Full disclosure - JP bought an ice pick for Leigh to keep her from using the can opener to break up the ice. This may have been a tactical error, but we now know that the plate is considerably more fragile than we thought, whatever might have been the cause of the hole.
By last evening, the hole was well patched and the fridge and freezer back to full function - but we spent the entire day on the boat, despite having picked up a rental car in the morning. We dined out at the Tiki Hut at Turtle Cove Marina - that's the sunset picture above.
Today we waited a little while for the technician to return (to confirm that the fix worked, and to get paid), but decided to head off for our errands late morning. A marine chandlery, a home depot type place, a bookstore, a pharmacy and a supermarket. These are places that we have never seen in the islands - the home depot type place and the supermarket in particular are completely US style (at about double US prices, granted). I walked around the supermarket with my mouth hanging open - it could have been Publix, or a super Stop and Shop, or a brand new Safeway.



Between our trip to the chandlery and the home depot we went to lunch at "da Conch Shack" which has one of the best locations on the Island, and really good food. The conch items (conch salad and cracked conch) were good - the fried grouper was excellent. The rum punch wasn't bad either.




After putting away the overabundance of food that we bought (in celebration of the fridge/freezer fix AND the supermarket), we stayed on board this evening, eating chili and listening to the 30+ knot winds that are blowing, even in the marina. Should lie down a bit by tomorrow (Thursday) evening, but we probably will stick here until early Saturday morning before resuming our journey to the southeast.