02 December 2007. St Georges, Grenada.

Major panic this morning among the local authorities. During the night one of the big channel buoys disappeared and nobody knew where it went. These buoys are big. About 6 feet high, 3 feet in diameter, weighing over 1000 pounds and connected with a chain to a large piece of concrete on the sea floor. So it was not a matter of a passing small boat pinching the buoy. This particular buoy marked the shallow waters on the Southside of the pier. Exactly the side where I wanted to come in so I could dock portside alongside. As explained yesterday, I was under strict orders of the Bo ‘sun to do so. But the pilot was concerned that the buoy might have sunk somewhere near the dock and thus the harbor master ordered a docking on the North side, which is starboard side alongside. They had been looking for the buoy yesterday but could not find it and they were going to look again tomorrow. Obviously on Sunday’s you do not look for buoys. A spare buoy was being prepared to be installed if the other buoy could not be found back. A buoy of such a size can only disappear if it gets hit by a ship but nobody had observed anything and thus it will remain a mystery unless they find it somewhere on the bottom of the sea lateron.

Thus with one very disappointed Bo ‘sun glaring at me from the forward docking platform we docked starboard side alongside for what was going to be a very warm day. Due to the light winds of the past days, there was absolutely no wind in the town and also no clouds to be seen. The first rain cloud appeared above the island around 5 pm. when it was almost time to leave.

I have now been coming to Grenada off and on since 1986 and you can see what a positive impact cruise tourism has on the local economy. More and more houses are renovated and a lot of new construction is going on as well. There are many houses that have not been repaired yet, since the last heavy hurricane of a few years ago but there is definite progress being made. During a regular call a cruise ship brings in quite a bit of money. Port taxes which can mount up to $20, — a guest and on top of that pilot, linesmen and handling fees, normally in the area of $ 5000. On average each guest spends $ 100 a day in port, not counting the tours. So for the Veendam that would be $ 120.000 a day and then add another $ 30.000 for tours. Altogether the revenue for Grenada would be in the region of $ 175.000 a day. With ships calling each day, it soon mounts up to a lot of income. Grenada is not that busy with cruise ship calls, as it is located too far to the South for the seven day cruise ship runs. Therefore islands as St Thomas and Grand Cayman must be really raking it in.

I did not go ashore so I can not say if all the shops were open. Part of the island is quite strict in observing the Sunday but otherwise with all the eager Veendam shoppers streaming into town a good day could have been had by the local shopkeepers.

Most of our guests were back by lunch time and some were moaning about the temperature outside. They are the ones who like an overcast Caribbean. Then there is the other group who head for the beach and can not get enough of the sun. I hope that those people were careful with the sun, as I saw some of them coming back rather brightly colored.

We left right on time and after swinging around off the berth, set course on a South Westerly heading aiming for the East side of Isla de Margarita. Tomorrow we will be at anchor as another cruise ship will have the berth, as El Guamache is their change over port.

…………..And the spa girl who was late in St Thomas……. she got an very official warning and a bollicking from the Chief Officer. So she has to behave now; one more warning and it will be the end of her contract.