There is a supplement to this story. I mentioned keeping on schedule. I was anxious to book back to the ship, recover my little girl from the camp on board and rush back to Paradise Island to meet up with my wife and son. I caught a taxi van which took me back to the cruise ship dock. I was consolidating my kite gear on the pavers in front of the van and assumed all my gear had made it out of the back of the van. The big stuff was there for sure but my control bar was still in the van. It didn't discover this for another day. Kiters will know just how expensive control bars are these days, about $400, ouch!!!
Kite control bar
I went through my recollection trying to figure out where it might have gone missing, during the forced march 1 1/2 miles back upwind, on the street, where? Then it hit me, it was probably left in the van. Amazingly, the driver told me his name and car #, which far more surprisingly given how rushed I had been I partially remembered. I still thought the bar was lost and went on to deal with other things.
I was thinking about it the next day and figured, why not call the Ministry of Tourism in Nassau to locate the folks that license taxi's, give what limited information I had in the hope of contacting my driver. I eventually ended up speaking with a Ms. Tina Lee, in Cruise Development with the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism. I told her my driver's first name, gave her three possible taxi numbers, described the van and where I was dropped off. I was very surprised to hear from here the next day that not only had she located the driver but that he had my control bar! Ms. Lee recovered the bar from the driver and passed me on to her colleague, Francenia Clarke with Visitor Relations of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism & Aviation to make arrangements for the return of the bar. Ms. Clarke walked to the local Western Union to pickup money I wired for mailing of the bar and then delivered it to the parcel service.
Long story short, this is what arrived at my office yesterday.
I am very impressed by the response and effectiveness of Ms. Tina Lee and Ms. Francenia Clarke of the Bahmas Ministry of Tourism.
Thank you very much for returning my control bar to me!
You said it first, but I say it often myself, it really is better in the Bahamas!
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