The country and town you visit may be picture
perfect but your travels are made by the people you meet. This is certainly the
case in Matthew Town!
We lifted anchor from Hogsty Reef at 0400 hours
and by the time we reached the anchorage in Matthew Town it was 12:28 PM. We
hurriedly checked the anchor had a good
grip and dropped the dinghy, motoring over to the Harbour. Two Haitian barges took
up the South Western corner and the bow of a sunken boat stuck up in the
Eastern Corner with a small fishing boat was tied to the wall just behind it.
The wall was 6 to 8 feet high, not possible to disembark from the dinghy
easily. 
A smartly dressed local waved us over and
suggested we tie onto the fishing boat and climb over it to the lower rock bank
at its bow. He assured us it was his friends boat and there would be no
problem. That's how we met Kevin! He informed us the supermarket closed in 20
minutes and he would be happy to drive us there. We, of course, realized this
was his business, or as he informs the authorities who challenge him about
being a taxi, a charity service to visiting Yachties. Whatever it was we were
happy to take him up on it.
Thank goodness for Kevin; as we soon realized
without him we would have got nothing done at all, being weekend and the town
was virtually shut down. He loaded our
diesel cans into his boot (trunk for American readers) and off we went about 3
mins drive to the supermarket. We managed to stock up on a few items but they
were short of nice fresh veggies. No problem he assured us he knew of another
little store who would have. There we met the sweetest lady, Jocie, who
informed us proudly her tomatoes and veggies were home grown on the island.
You realize this is a feat when you know a
little history of the Island. It developed around the Morton Salt factory, in
fact as you spot land you may be fooled into thinking the high white dunes are
sand, they are however salt. The factory is still working and employs most of
the islanders. We were informed with the high salt content everywhere growing
vegetables and other plants is not easy!
Once we had stocked up at the soon closing
Supermarket, it was time to check out of Bahamas. Kevin assured us he would be
able to find an officer to do the job despite it being weekend. Driving over to
their offices he knocked and banged on the door with no response. A number of
phone calls also generated no response. We knew Dominican Republic insisted on
us having check out papers from the previous port and our hearts sank. Kevin
was not perturbed at all. We stood chatting in the sun until just after the
lunch hour and then he banged again. Lo and behold the door opened to a very
smart efficient looking officer. No one would have guessed he was probably
having a siesta and we had disturbed him. We expected a little attitude for
bothering him on the weekend and during lunch but we were wrong. What a nice
professional, efficient man. Officer Penn, we salute you , thank you. |
| Ramona |
We figured we had probably exhausted the island
of great people but boy were we wrong. The next introduction was to Ramona She
manages the service station for her dad, who is, according to Kevin, as old as
the hills, he has been around forever. He guesses him in his 90's.
She managed to fill some diesel cans but then
the pump stopped working. No problem her dad, Uncle Leon appeared wobbling and
holding onto a staff. He plonked himself down behind the old gas pump and
proceeded to prime it. After some time he was not having any luck and Andre
suggested we go down to the Harbour and use his pump there. Leon had a good
Laugh at himself for not thinking of it earlier.
 |
| Uncle Leon fixing the pump |
It was there I got to chat to him. What an
intelligent, interesting, well travelled man. He has seen most of Europe, been
in London numerous times, travelled to Cuba, Puerto Rico and many others
including South Africa where he went on a game viewing safari. He has a super
strong personality and his tales of the ineptitude of the Bahamian medical
service had me giggling. That was one of the reasons he visits Cuba every six
months, for good, cheap medical care. He had so many interesting stories to
tell but unfortunately we had to go as by this time it was almost four o'clock
and we still had to unpack groceries, and put the diesel in the boat.
We also discovered Ramona's husband is missing
at sea. He and two friends were heading for Jamaica (his home town) they sailed
out of Matthew town and have not been heard from again! Their boat 'Fatal
Attraction' has not been found or heard from. As you can imagine it is not easy
for her and their children. Not knowing must be the worst!
There is something special about the Matthew
Town people. Our chat with Kevin, while waiting for the Customs official was
very interesting, he is an intelligent, dynamic entrepreneur. We wish him well in his business and any
future endeavours.
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