Journey on a Woods Sagitta catamaran: Mayaguana

There isn't a lot on Mayaguana - 250 people or so, some going overseas to find work, and coming back when there is work available at home.

Customs and immigration was a little concrete shack down a track, and there we cleared in, filling in a lot of forms, and having stamps carefully put into our passports. I took out my credit card to pay the $150 and was told it would have to be cash, and I didn't have that much, and there was no way they could take my card. There is no bank on Mayaguana. Several phone calls were made to Nassau for advice for how to proceed. Phone my bank and ask them to send a money order? What's a money order? How about a direct transfer, account to account - I could do it online? That was no good. Anyway, possibilities were invented and dismissed for an hour or so, until our imaginations ran out, and I suggested that we just clear in at the next opportunity. That was no good, as our passports were already stamped. Unstamp them, I suggested. Not possible I was told. Sure, you put the stamp in, you take it out. Just scribble it out. Horror! That can't happen. So we are bound now to take out some cash at the next ATM (a few islands from now) and send a money order (whatever that is) from the post office there to the post office in Mayaguana - which is the same shack as customs and immigration.

The lagoon we were anchored in was either shallow or very shallow, so we were anchored quite a way from the shore. As an experiment, I attached the 6hp engine to the dinghy and we motored in. Not ideal, the shaft being too long. And not too good for the dinghy either - it being a nesting dinghy, and the seat that hold the two parts of the hull together is beginning to flex. But with another dinghy, I'm sure it will work fine. The big prop and low gearing means the dinghy goes at 4 knots or so at little over tickover, but doesn't gain much speed by turning the throttle. 4 knots will do.

We caught our first lobster. I killed our first lobster, in the usual way it's done. Sounds terrible, but I was a little relieved to see how quickly it was over anyway. So, a new food source for us - there seem plenty of lobster. None of us were exactly delighted at the taste though. It must be an acquired thing, so we decided we'd have a go at acquiring it, on account of being fed up with rice and beans.