Friday Night at the Tiki Bar

The rainy season is here, and already there have been four named tropical systems ; none of them thankfully near us. Prickly Bay has been transformed from the karoo /bushveld dry scrub, to a lush green tropical paradise . Its easy to keep the water tanks full, without having to buy water from the marina. World cup soccer, and the pubs happy hour specials during matches has brought all the cruisers together in a fun way ! The current status of the teams is being likened to a repeat of the Second World War ..... France capitulating without a fight, Italy running away from any action, Germany and Britain slugging it out, America joining in late.. etc etc All in jest of course, and lots of laughs.

Friday was Larry D'Aguiar's birthday, and all the SA contingent were invited to the Tiki Bar for a party that night. The Grenada cruisers net at 7.30am is very good, and keeps everyone up to speed with weather, social events, technical services, and treasures of the bilge. Fridays net controller was "Miss Kitty", who is a Texan lady with a Dolly Parton sing song voice, and a wicked sense of humour. She introduced the weather update as follows: " Now Jonathan sweetpea honey, its been raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock in Texas for the last few days... can we expect more?" The answer was Yes, and it did ! But that did nothing to ruin the Tiki bar jol.

After the weather report, Alan Cook ( of Hout Bay Handiman) who is almost a permanent resident here, pitched up in his dinghy, and demanded my participation in singing Happy Birthday to Larry. It set the tone for the day!

A Steel Pan band play every Friday evening, followed by a dance band. The dance area was initially highjacked by a very smiley, happy fellow , whose lift obviously did not reach the top floor. He danced with a rum in one hand , cigarette in the other, earphones on his head, a collection of wooden pigs, and a inane grin on his face. He was followed by a group of Oklahoma happy clapper teenagers , in Grenada "to do Gods work". They formed a big circle and gyrated in a very Carribean and UnGodly sort of way,! This could lead to great" sin and wickedness", and be a bit of a challenge to their leader Pastor Paul!

The music was very good, and one of the highlights was the Bob- Celli medly, where they performed a fusion of Bob Marley's "No woman , No cry", with Andrea Bocellis "Time to say goodbye". Cruisers , young and old , kids and locals, were singing and dancing along ..all having a great time. The rain would come and go, without a beat being missed! I suppose it was helped a bit by the rum, beer, and Tequila's When the band packed up, and we all took to the dinghies, I was full expecting to sign up new members of the Cormorant club! Nobody, it seems, fell in the drink, last night... so no new members! We must be growing up at last ! Both Alan and Larry, however claim to be members of an even more elite club.. The Penguin club. They both claim , on previous occassions, to have waddled up to a dinghy dock, and tried to jump into their dinghies, missing them completely!

Birthday in Grenada!

Finding ourselves all alone in St Davids Grenada, with no cruising companions, and Kate back in RSA, we decided to plan a really c o o l Carribean birthday celebration.

We would start off the morning taking a brisk walk up to the main road, pick up a bus to the nearby Rum Distillery Estate, do a little sightseeing, taste a little rum, return to the Marina for fish and chips, and a cold Carib, take in an afternoon nap, before dinghying over to the beautiful Belair Estate Restaurant, where we had booked a table for a romantic dinner ! Things don't always work out as planned!

The 15min walk up to the main road was a bit hot and sticky, but nothing like as uncomfortable as the bus ride which followed! That was white knuckled, sweatpouring raw fear! Ever since the drivers of Grenada traced Lewis Hamiltons roots back to Grenada, they have tried their utmost, to prove that he is not the only guy around who can drive fast. Despite having asked the boychick/ conductor/fare collecter that we were getting off at the Westhall Rum Estate, we sped on past in a cloud of dust and shattered nerves, only managing to get off many miles further on. We crossed the road, and flagged down a bus going back the way we had come: Thankfully not a Lewis Hamilton wanabe! Our guide at the Rummary was an encyclopaedia of Grenadan history, and we learnt about a lot more than the art and science of rum production, including quite a lot about the American invasion of Grenada, when they showed too much of a liking for Castro. Ironically, the Westerhall rum distillary makes and exports a brand of Rum called "Havana" specifically to the Cuban refugees now living in Florida. The Havana rum recipe, which includes elements of coffee, tobaco, and vanilla, was leaked to Westerhall for this purpose, when Castro nationalised the original rum distillary in Havana.

After a little tasting, we managed to flag down the Island Water world delivery vehicle , en route back to St Davids, where they have a shop. The local electronics expert, who was testing the new, and faulty Raymarine chartplotter, needed to conduct some tests on the boat, while talking to the Raymarine technical guys in USA. Having done so, they concluded that it was indeed faulty, and needs to be replaced. Unfortunately,,,,, they dont have any in stock at the moment at Raymarine, so we will just have to wait, .. my fears confirmed.

This messed up the fish and chips and afternoon post rum nap part of the plan, but what the heck, we still could look forward to dinner ! The first thing we had done in the morning was to up anchor and move, once our German neighbour had hauled out, and moved out from above our anchor. The new spot we had chosen proved rather too shallow as the the wind swung 180degs, and a few bumps on the rudder indicated that it was time to move again! So a quick relocation, anchor, swim and cockpit shower, before heading off to the Belair Estate Restaurant . The only other two patrons, in this very elegant establishment , with open air dining overlooking the bay, were two serviette wielding Frenchmen, swatting legs, arms and faces, as they were attacked by mozzies. Smuggly armed with our "F off" insect repellant, we thought we would be spared.. No such luck! With the French yelling "Zay are Vampires ", we were soon re applying "F off" to every bit of exposed flesh, while we ordered our meal., Grilled snapper for Mary, and Creole shrimps for me. We knew it was a "B" price range restaurant, but said birthdays come but once a year. Mary's two Snapper fillets came to R150, and my 6 little shrimps and a blob of rice about R180. R30 a shrimp!! Add four rums and a tip , and your'e over R600 down the tubes for a very modest meal for two! And to add insult to injury, the vampire mosquitos attacked us through our clothing, so we had to leave in a rush to apply anti itch lotions all over back on the boat! Not quite the celebration we had planned!