Are you stupid?
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| Carriacou |
The question, delivered in a West-Indian patois, burned through me like a hot knife.
"Excuse me?"
"You put the boat name in the wrong place" was the retort from the fat, lethargic functionary at the Customs and Immigration Office.
To be 52 years of age is to be self aware. There are lots of people I've met who based on their superior intellect (if not superior manners) could justifiable inquire as to my level of intelligence. I didn't, however, include this fleshy oaf among that group.
Kirstin, while seemingly friendly to all in her midwestern way, is quite protective of her husband. When provoked, she can be surprisingly aggressive in these situations. So, I quickly gave her that pained smile that said (in our own unspoken, microwave communication) "Sweetie, let that one go". We subsequently found out from talking to other cruisers that this woman seems to think everyone who walks through her door is stupid.
So, stupid or not, we are now officially in Grenada..........the island of Carriacou to be precise. L'ORIENT's home for our next 9 week stint in the US now lies only 40 miles away. Grenada is a rugged, beautiful place and the people (with the exception of my Customs and Immigration Officer) are quite friendly.
There are about 40 other cruisers here.........although we've given them the slip and move anchorages. The island is about to have a regatta of local and historic boats. We're not much interested in that, but wanted to get to know the island better since we didn't have enough time in 2012. Of course we rented a scooter. The ride was fun, but given the island is only 12 square miles, we quickly discovered................there isn't much to discover. The highlight of the ride was getting yelled at by an old white lady about not wearing a helmet (they don't give them out at the rental place).
What we didn't count on was a volcanic eruption. A good friend in the next bay sent us an email yesterday with the subject line "Volcano Warning". I briefly thought how does she know that we went to the Caribbean Jerk restaurant for lunch? But seriously, we are about 13 miles away from an underwater volcano memorably named "Kick em Jenny" - while there has not been an eruption since 2001, the next one is supposedly due in 24 hours. Such eruptions have set off very small tsunami waves in the past (around three feet) so the email and the subsequent news conference we listed to on the radio definitely got our attention. Nothing yet.....
What we didn't count on was a volcanic eruption. A good friend in the next bay sent us an email yesterday with the subject line "Volcano Warning". I briefly thought how does she know that we went to the Caribbean Jerk restaurant for lunch? But seriously, we are about 13 miles away from an underwater volcano memorably named "Kick em Jenny" - while there has not been an eruption since 2001, the next one is supposedly due in 24 hours. Such eruptions have set off very small tsunami waves in the past (around three feet) so the email and the subsequent news conference we listed to on the radio definitely got our attention. Nothing yet.....
Anyway, we continue our march south on Sunday. Should be fun to be back in Prickly Bay!