Wednesday 24th February (Lini’s Journal)
Brindabella's Web Diary
Simon Williams
Mon 8 Mar 2010 13:43
Brindabella was now strewn with the contents of Simon’s holdall;
bags and boxes of goodies everywhere. After breakfast on deck we then
trashed the cockpit too under piles of wrapping paper and presents.
I’d bought him chocolate and Australian liquorice to eat, two local
rums to drink, a new Leatherman penknife to play with, a print of an
antique map of the Caribbean and my painting to look at, a bronze
turtle to remind him of our trip and he had a lovely card and message
from CJ. Emails and text messages arrived too.
We spent the day pottering, Si putting the new boat spares away and
fitting new door locks and me taking the sprayhood off to continue
replacing the stitching.
All too quickly it was time to pack up and prepare for sundowners:
Today we were having a birthday party. I’d reheated the mini savoury
scones that I’d baked yesterday and made a selection of hors d’oeures.
We got out the lamps and candles, laid the table, scrubbed up and I
put on my new dress. We were joined by Kirt and Gayle and Suin and Ben
from Liberty but sadly no Graham who was nursing toothache. It was all
very jolly with the added giggle of bringing out two yachting
magazines from England that Liberty and we were featured in about the
ARC. A couple of hours and several G&Ts later we all piled into Kirt’s
dinghy and set off for the Little Dipper restaurant over the bay,
quoted as the cutest restaurant in Grenada with good food. The
shallows were very shallow as we approached with the outboard touching
the bottom and the little dinghy dock was rather high for me to
clamber up in a party dress. There followed an adventurous climb up to
the road through the garden and banana trees. Half our table were
takers for the one starter on offer of calamari in garlic butter. The
main courses were chicken, shrimps, lobster and Simon’s surprise
choice of conch. I have no idea whether the dishes were as good as
their reputation but my steamed chicken and vegetables were certainly
good. As always though, it is never the food on the plates that truly
makes a good evening but the people at your table. It was as well that
there were no deserts as the birthday cake had been forgotten in the
fridge while we guzzled our gins. Back onboard birthday greeting were
sung, cake devoured then farewells bid. What a lovely evening.