We’re still in Mayreau today. Had a hike the length of the island yesterday and also had drinks and dinner at two different establishments last night. (Also had a good talk with a nurse from Denmark – another story for another day.) I’m sure Chris will post a bunch of pics about the beauty of the island and the friendliness of the residents later.

For this post, I want to tell a quick story.

Our generator has been broken for several days now. The feed / cooling water pump seized and the fuse blew. We will need a new pump to fix it. Along with that, we needed a new fuse. The top pic above is a pic of the fuse. It is a standard 10 amp fuse that you can find at almost any hardware store and probably even some pharmacies in the states (and Walmart, Target, etc.)

Knowing that there aren’t many shops on Mayreau, I was doubtful that I would find one, but wanted to see if they had anything because the islands for the next 5 or 6 days are going to have nothing. During our walk, I had Chris walk into a grocery to check it out for what food they had (I had forgot my mask) in case we needed anything urgent. On the way out, the owner also walked out and said hi. I asked her if she knew where to get a fuse on the island. She didn’t know for sure, but suggested we talk with Arthur next door who runs a boat parts store. We were a little hesitant because just moments before, Arthur had been doing a little shoving of another guy in the street and we didn’t want to get in the middle of any local issue.

But we went back, walked up to his entry door, and asked if he had any fuses. I showed him the fuse and he said no.

Then things got interesting. He said, pointing to the junk car across the street (literally 15 feet from his front door), hey, why don’t we look in there? I though maybe he had a stash of spare parts in the car. The guy who he had earlier been shoving opened the door to reveal an old, junk car. The back seat interior is the third pic. What he had meant was that cars have fuses and why don’t I see if the junker still has some in it.

So I hesitantly crawled across the front seat to look under the dash (pic number 4 – nice butt shot, honey). The dash was a mess: broken, wires everywhere, pieces yanked out, dirty, and completely open to the elements. Anyway, sure enough, under the dash on the driver’s side (the right-hand-side), was the standard fuse box that most cars have. And sure enough, it had about (4) 10-amp (red) fuses. I tried to get them out, but couldn’t wedge my fingers in enough to get a grip, so I got out of the car and asked Arthur if he had a pair of needle-nose pliers. He did and handed them to me. I dove back into the junker and yanked out the 4 red fuses. They looked good.

I asked him how much he wanted for them and he said whatever I thought they were worth. I gave him $4 EC for all 4 and he seemed happy. I was also happy because I doubt there are any others on Mayreau or any of the other islands for the next 5 or 6 days.

I got back to the boat, plugged the fuse in and the generator worked for about 45 minutes.

P.S. The cooling water pump froze again.

P.P.S. When we went in for dinner last night, Arthur happened to be at the beach landing, recognized us, and asked how the fuses had worked out. I was surprised that he recognized us (probably not everyday he talks someone into salvaging from junk cars).

All-in-all a telling story about the friendliness and genuineness of the people we have met on Mayreau. More on this later as Chris tells about drinks with Bobby at Righteous & de Youths and about Dennis at Dennis’s Hideaway.