Riviera Beach City Marina, Florida, USA

We spent some more time on the internet this morning trying to source all the things we needed for the jobs we needed to do and working out how and where we could receive them. After spending ages selecting what we wanted I called to try and place the order (not wishing to risk them being out of stock and unable to deliver whilst we were still here) only to find it was a national holiday today for American Independence day. I was also unable to get hold of the Furuno agent I’d located to see how our warranty request was going. Feeling like we not going to make much progress today and with the party starting all around us as live music started up about lunch time from the Tiki bar we began to think perhaps we should be joining in with the local customs instead. So we decided to down tools.

All through the day there had been a constant stream of small power boats passing with local boaters out to join the party with music going and stocked with cooler boxes. Peanut Island opposite the marina, formed by the dredging of the Intercoastal canal in the 1920’s had one tent on the beach when we arrived yesterday, but through the day a whole line of them started appearing with power boats rafted all along the shore. The ferry across was full every trip and running about every 20minutes all day.

I decided I wanted to go shopping and was told this was a big US shopping weekend, so I headed out on the bus to the Garden Shopping Mall. I was a bit confused with the system of the automatic money machine on the bus and needed a bit of instruction from the driver. This prompted the crowd of locals stood in the gangway to immediately ask me if I was English, I wasn’t sure if this referred to my accent or my inability with the machine but agreed I was. There was a bit of good natured joking about being English – which was to become a bit of a theme for this Independence weekend but it was all in good fun. I asked them to warn me when I was at my stop and the driver agreed to shout me.

I loved looking out at first the variety of shops along the route golf cart stores, Thai massage, book swap store. We then got into the seriously rich neighbourhood with immaculate landscaping, impeccably equidistant palm trees all down the central reservation of the large streets. The bus was air conditioned with a cycle rack on the front, used by three of the passengers and then a lady in a wheel chair got off the bus suspension lowered and the integral ramp was lowered down. All very efficient, the buildings were well spaced and traffic running smoothly and it was actually a welcome change from the more rustic nature of the Caribbean.

Bloomingdale’s at the Garden Mall

I was very excited on arriving at the enormous Garden Mall to see it contained a Bloomingdale’s, Macey’s and Sears. I was completely ignorant as to what any of those stores sold, but the names were so familiar and iconic American that it was all part of the experience. The centre of the mall had water features and flower displays and marble toped public tables and was really pristine. As much as it would have been lovely to go on a wild spending spree in the mall, on a cruising budget that is really not the idea, so I restricted myself to the new bedding and mobile phone that I had come out to get. I was never really a shopping addict in the UK, but something about being in the Caribbean for so long where it is hard to get what you need makes it a fun experience. I managed to get all that I needed, new pillows, mattress covers and a pay as you go mobile phone. The size of the bags I returned with were satisfactorily large that I thought Kevin would probably panic I had been on a wild spree when he saw me!

Beautiful shopping malls in Florida

I love how friendly all of the Americans are, I was walking past a lady and her friend sitting in their garden having a drink when I got off the bus and one of the shouted out to say “ooh lots of bag, looks like a good shopping trip!”, I said I was sorry to disappoint but the huge bags were pillows. Kevin did look duly worried when I returned but was suitably impressed by the good prices here.

We even got a USB TV dongle allowing us to pick up TV on the boat. However, our first attempt seemed to suggest that we had only got Christian and Spanish language TV, so we decided to cut our losses and go to the Tiki Bar to join the party to could hear going on there as the 4th celebrations continued.

Kevin and our bargain beer bucket ironically of Bahamian beer at the Tiki bar