An Encounter with the Filter Boss Boss

(Terry)

So I’m walking along a street in Marsh Harbor, Abacos after a fruitful trip tracking down a) rechargeable batteries and b) a recharger.  Of course, this is not the first world so the charger and the batteries are sold in different places.  The place that sells batteries hasn’t a clue where you can buy a charger and the place that sells chargers doesn’t have any batteries.  Ok, so we manage to get the two combined and home we go to the boat.

We’re walking along this major street and we come across this group of people who’ve just left a hardware store.  The one guy asks “Are there any more hardware stores around there” i.e. where we’ve just come from.  Yep, there sure are I say.  There’s an Ace Hardware, a US chain, around the corner and up a ways.  Ok, cool, we know where it is but unfortunately it closes at 4.00pm as we found out.  So the party decides tomorrow will be good and we all turn and begin walking back to the marina/s.

The guy I’m talking to says where have you come from so I say we’ve been down the chain a bit in the Exumas and we originally crossed over from Florida.  So he then says “OK, you’re Australian and you’ve come over from Florida so you must be the guy who bought one of my systems”.  It’s Andy Keenan, the owner of Filter Boss!  We have a Filter Boss system on board and as fate would have it I’m walking along a street in Marsh Harbor in the Bahamas with a guy I’ve been emailing back and forth re a minor fix to the system.  I think I’ve said on this blog before – It’s a small world.  We could just as easily have been on the other side of the street, or simply walked on past.  Unbelievable.

We arranged to meet later in Mangoes restaurant but he came by in his dinghy to say plans have changed and they’re over in Snappas bar for Happy Hour.  Happy Hour in Snappas today is a bucket of Heineken (4 in ice) and a dozen conch fritters for $20.  So we sit at a table on the deck with Andy, his wife Carol, and four of their friends for beer and conch.  I called it a day at 6 beers but only because we were the last ones there.  Great night – interesting people with a huge range of stories to tell and pleasant company to boot.  One of the ladies we were talking to on a Bristol 40 was actually a horseback guide in Yosemite National Park.!!  It’s a great life.