Speightstown is our nearest town where we can buy supplies. I like to imagine if we drove there. We’d turn into a car park, find a parking spot, maybe reverse a bit. The whole thing would take a few minutes.

Instead, we go by dinghy. No big deal, right? Except the pier to tie up to in Speightstown is closed down. It seems it’s been hit by one too many waves. Parts of the pier are hanging off and missing. There’s a fence that’s been added to the entrance from the promenade with a lock tying it together, so no one goes in. It’s a sensible thing too, since parts of the pier’s floor is missing. You have to walk carefully on the concrete edges not to fall in. The wooden railings on the sides are either loose or missing. Then, either side of the entrance, are big, brown boulders. The sea growls here – even the soft, warm Caribbean spits and heaves waves onto the pier. This is where we have to tie up. 

There’s a reason cruising makes us feel like sneaky teenagers. We found a part of the pier away from the waves that we can climb up from. See, it’s much quicker by dinghy to Speightstown – a few minutes – than walking from our anchorage – 20 minutes. So we tie up and clamber the railing. Before we do this though, we throw a stern anchor from Edna so she doesn’t smash into the pier. Because we are responsible, sneaky teenagers. You know that feeling when you are pulling yourself up, working your way through small entrances in between panes of wood and over downed street lamps? With a cool bag, a number of re-usable bags and a pair of flip flops? Yep. Just like driving. 

The crabs see us coming. They scuttle under the wooden planks and down the sides of the pier. The rest of Speightstown doesn’t seem to notice us. Or if they do, they don’t say anything.  

Adjust cap, act like normal person. Look straight ahead and go to Eddie’s supermarket. Much as I dislike Jordan’s supermarket in Bridgetown – not the staff; the staff at Jordan’s are ace. They even have a memorial in the middle of the store for a deceased member of their team. Just that Eddie’s for me is the gold standard of a very clean, small supermarket. When I mean choice, I mean eggs, A few types of vegetables. Not tomatoes every day. And cheese. Not cheddar cheese or information about where the cheese comes from. Just cheese. I’m fine with that. It’s so clean in there. The only bummer is there’s no sour cream. 

Oh well, I can get sour cream from other places. And Eddie’s isn’t any more expensive than Jordan’s. Or the really big supermarkets which are all out of town: the Massy chain. Eddie’s also has a revolving checkout. By this, I mean the conveyor belt at the check-out doesn’t go in a straight line, but in a circle. It makes my heart do funny things. The ladies laugh when they see me coming. ‘You want to take another picture?’