A new time in history has been developed. There is now BAA (Before ARC arrival) and AAA (After ARC arrival). In last week’s blog, I explained the expected arrival of 72 boats from Europe to our little marina in Grenada. We have renamed the ARC the Baby Brigade. I have not done an exact census but I would guess every boat that arrived had at least 4 children aboard ages 3 to 13 years. Since I am pretty sure kidnapping small children for free crew was outlawed some time ago I just had to determine that they are a really prolific bunch of folks! Prolific and very boisterous. Gone were the BAA days in the pool of relaxing and solving world issues. AAA pool life strongly resembles the scene in Caddyshack where all the caddies are invited to the private club for the day. For several days, we stared longingly at the pool and then walked sadly over to the showers. Alas, AAA showers were also now in play. Long lines behind squealing children playing in the showers. Don’t get me wrong. I love kids. I have worked with screaming, wild children for over 30 years. I could sit in a room full of them and not even bat an eye. However, retirement has fully settled upon me and now I just want to scream, “Baby Brigade! Get off the phones and get your children under control!” One day when the parents were no where to be seen, we contemplated trying to trick the kids into believing that the pool was closed for adult swim…but since we could not figure out which language they might understand, that we could actually speak, we plodded our way back to the boat in defeat.
Bill noticed one day that the ARC boats pulling in were being greeted by hosts with rum punch. What?! BAA we had not been greeted with rum punch! We had barely been greeted at all. He watched with growing envy as boater after boater cheered and toasted with their icy rum punches. One very late afternoon when we had outlasted the Baby Brigade and managed to find a corner in the pool, an official looking woman carrying a clipboard went walking past. Bill said, “Hey, where are our rum punches? We never got a rum punch.” She looked surprised and started flipping through her clipboard, “Which boat are you on?” Bill stated, “We are on Gone Galt. We are not with the ARC group.” She sighed and shut her clipboard preparing to move on when Bill went into full sales mode, “You’re from the Grenada tourism group, right? We’ve been tourists since July. We have paid the marina fees which pay the marina employees, we have eaten at restaurants, we have done tours, we have hired locals to do boat work. Don’t ya think we’ve earned just a little rum punch over the months?” Laughing at his undeniable argument, she walked away and returned a few minutes later with a tray full of rum punches. At least if he could not get in a shower, Bill had a rum punch victory for the week! Not all AAA changes have been negative. The biggest change has been with the marina restaurant. A typical night out at the restaurant BAA was the following: Walk into empty restaurant. Get scolded for not wearing a mask. Put on mask. Take temperature. Walk two feet to table. Take off mask. Wait for server. Wait, wait, wait. Give up and go to bar to order drink. Bring own drink back to table. Wait on server. Give up and walk up to bar to get menu. Wait to order. Give up. Walk back to bar and place order. Wait for food. Receive food which included only main item, no side dish or garnish. Eat. Wait for check. Give up. Go to bar to pay. Leave after listening to same terrible three songs on radio with bartender singing off key for entire dinner hour. Now, in our new AAA reality, we had the following experience: Walk up to bar full of people. Get scolded for not wearing a mask. Put on mask. Take temperature. Walk two feet to table. Take off mask. Server shows up immediately to take drink order. Receive drinks. Server lights candle on table. Server takes order. Server brings bread and butter to table. Manager walks by to check on us. Server brings large plate of food. Server brings new drinks. We sit and listen to the twelve piece steel drum band playing ABBA’s Dancing Queen (you really haven’t lived until you experience ABBA in steel drum) followed by the Bee Gees. Our server brings our check. We pay without issue and happily go for a walk on the docks. We are not sure where they have been hiding the AAA employees for all the months we have been in Grenada but they obviously sent them to charm school during our time in the States! Now that the end of the ARC week is approaching and the families are fleeing the marina, we are curious to see what the return to BAA status at the restaurant will be….we fear that Bill will once again become our server and our little candle will disappear into a distant memory along with the ABBA playing angels. We continue to get Galt spruced and ready to go while waiting on a good weather window to make the jump over to Carriacou. Fingers crossed that the waves settle down soon so we can get on the move! We are hoping that our slight delay may give us a little space between us and the Baby Brigade but only time will tell. I hope you have a wonderful week full of holiday cheer and just a little ABBA to brighten your day!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
|