West Indies Island News

You see, the Mollymawk is an ocean cruiser and is built to use very little fresh water. On an earlier voyage from New Zealand to Chili, the crew of 4 only used about 1/2 gallon a day per person. You don't want to run out of water in the middle of oceans for obvious reasons. So, there is no fresh water shower on board as it would use too much water.

And so, in these middle lattitudes, where temperatures are in the upper 80's every day, fresh water showers are very welcome. Salt water bathing just goes so far.

And although the islands are becoming blurred, I can still remember each shower. So here we go.......starting in the south.

Port of Spain, Trinidad - Nice clean facilities but no hot water. Cold water was very welcome after the first day because of the heat. Somedays, I took two showers since they were only about 100 feet from the boat.

Grenada Yacht Club, Grenada..... Free showers but cold water only. It's so hot, it didn't matter. The sign said "No washing clothes in the sinks or shower". The skipper got caught!!

Union Island, The Grenadines - Showers cost $5 EC(about $2 US) at the Anchorage Yacht Club. I gave the lady a $10 and she gave me the key to the shower. She waited until after I finished to give me change. She at least could have come in and scrubbed my back while she waited. Cold water only here too.

Union Island again- Coxy talked the lady who ran Castella's into letting him use her shower. The water smelled bad and was obviously stale. And cold. I think she charged him $5 anyway. There was some discussion about getting his back scrubbed too, but I think that ended up a little stale also.

Bequia, The Grenadines - It cost $5 EC for a cold shower. The showers were in a open hallway between the front office and the back where laundry was being done. You had to hang your clothes over an electric wire and dry off in the middle of the hallway. They gave me a brick to keep the door closed to the office. I call this "Taking a cold shower with the brick behind the door and the clothes on the wire and drying off before someone comes to wash their clothes."

Marigot Bay, St. Lucia - My first hot shower since leaving the states! Wow, was it good!! I forget the cost. The facilities were clean and nice. I washed my hair twice, my body three times, and the good parts 4 or 5 times!!

Rodney Bay, St. Lucia - We stayed in a marina so I had all the cold showers I wanted for free. For three days. I was in heaven.

Roseau, Dominica - No shower but the hotel which provided the mooring buoys had a fresh water swimming pool which was just as good. I think I stayed in the water about 2 hours here.

Pointe A Pitre, Guadeloupe - Nice showers when they were open. Cold showers for free(we were in a marina). But you had to push a button on the wall every 10 seconds to keep the water going. And they refused to put toilet paper in the toilets. The French are just cheap sometimes.

English Harbor, Antigua - Nice shower facilites that cost about $2.00 for a shower. Again only cold water. We were able to take showers for 3 straight days here.

St. James Club, Antigua - Couldn't shower but the pool was nice until we got caught.

Jolly Harbour, Antigua. - Free showers again. Cold showers again. They were right behind the customs office. When we checked out, customs was late opening as usual. So we just took another shower while we waited.

St. Barts - Free shower facilities and toilets were provided for the whole yachting community by the French government here. Sometimes the French are nice. The facility was unisex with private shower stalls and toilets but a long open row of sinks and mirrors. It was pleasant shaving and brushing my teeth after my shower with ladies running all around. I won't discuss the men doing their morning thing and the "sounding off" going on behind closed doors. Needless to say, there weren't too many ladies in there around 9 in the mornings. Again, you had to push that damn button every 10 seconds. Sometimes the French are still cheap. And of course, only cold water.

Marina Bay, Tortolla - We were moored in Marina Bay and there were supposed to be showers on shore. So we went ashore about 7:30 PM for a shower and then a drink. The showers were open, but no lights. There was a sign that said, "Deposit 4 quarters in the slots for 2 minutes". This has been voted "Most dehumanizing way of taking a shower" by the crew of the Mollymawk. What a bunch of sicko's. It makes you feel like a car in a self service car wash. At least at the car wash, you can get waxed too. What do you do when you are all soaped up, the shower turns off, and you have no more quarters? Walk to the office and ask for change??

But we had no quarters. The local store was closed. The port office was closed. We had no way to get quarters. So we tried the knobs anyway.

And as luck would have it, one shower worked all by itself. The skipper took a shower(and washed out something). Then I took one. And another. And another. And another. I figure I would have spent about 20 quarters if I had been paying. By the way, the water was HOT(my second hot shower since leaving the US on Jan 21). It serves them right for trying to make you feel like a car in a self service auto wash.

But the shower of the trip goes to Coxy. The last afternoon before he left, we were having a beer at an open air restaurant/bar in Antigua and Coxy noticed a garden hose just beside the restaurant. So he asked if he could use it for a shower that evening and the owner(I can't believe it) said yes. So later, we go to the restaurant for dinner. The skipper and I have a beer at the bar while Coxy takes a shower with the garden hose which is right by the tables and in plain view of every table and bar seat in the place. He's fully nude, of course. Later that evening after dinner, I believe he had a good discussion with someone at the bar on the moral ethics of nudity in front of 3 year old kids. I'm surprised the guy at the bar didn't go have a garden hose nude shower himself after Coxy finished with him.

Mollymawk News Editor

Dave