Life Raft

Friday 18th June
We had a little rain this morning, but with the approaching front moving this way (East) from Africa, it was expected. Bob has been tracking the storm for the last week, and was relieved as it was downgraded from a 60% chance of becoming a major storm to only 10%. Between the showers yesterday Bob went ashore to rent a car. We carefully took the life raft off the side of the boat and thanks to our strong son Edi, we got it into the dinghy and ashore. Life rafts need servicing every few years, an important task bearing in mind it could be the only thing between you and the open sea, should disaster strike. The raft was last serviced in Rhode Island in 2006, when we bought the boat, or at least we were told it had been inspected! We drove to the store where we made an appointment to go back at 3:30 to watch them opening the raft. It’s important to know what’s inside, and how to operate it. Leaving the shop we drove to the Bovine industrial estate, as I had been told there was a marble and granite workshop there. I was looking for an off cut of marble that I could use to make bread. The guys in the shop were really helpful and cut me exactly the size I wanted from an off cut they had. Happy with my marble board we drove back to Red Hook, where we had lunch at Molly Malone’s, before returning to the inflatable shop for the opening of the raft.
The sealed plastic bag around the raft was not in great shape; there was water and mold inside. However once open, the raft inside the plastic bag looked to be in reasonable shape. They blew it up, and Edi and I were amazed at its size. It’s an 8 person raft, although looking at it, there is no way I would want to be in there with 7 other people. The operation of it was explained to us and the contents inspected. They told us there was no way our raft had been inspected in 2006; it probably hadn’t been inspected since new. Thank goodness Bob decided to have it done now, its such an important safety feature of the boat.
The grocery store was right across the road from the inflatable shop, and I was prepared with my shopping bags and grocery list. Bob and Edi took one cart and bought all the drinks, while I bought the food. We had 2 carts overflowing with goods. All the food and drink only just fitted into our little car, and as we headed back to Charlotte Amalie the car struggled and groaned its way up the steep hills around the island. It took two trips to get everything back to the boat, and then an hour for me to stow everything. Fortunately the rain didn’t start again until we were all safely back on board, but then it rained, and thundered, and the lightening flashed all around us. It rained heavily all night.