(Bring Your Own Dinghy)

Take one large steel work barge, one length of concrete pontoon and a small tug; add a bar under a marquee roof on the barge and a band under a bimini on the aft deck of the tug plus some sizeable speakers, some bench seating and a large number of sailors and you have a unique concert  in the bay. The three of us like everyone else arrived by boat at the floating concert venue moored in the middle of Clarke Court Bay, Woburn, Grenada on Wednesday afternoon. And like many people we came armed with vouchers for a free beer courtesy of Island World chandlery where we had been shopping for boat bits a few days previous.

By the time the band struck up their first notes there were around thirty or forty yacht tenders tied to the barge, pontoon or to each other. Water taxis delivered yet more of the audience and then the Rum Runner, a two storied steel catamaran, like a river fun boat turned up bringing another bar and a couple of hundred more people to swell the audience. A local sailing work boat with lateen rigged tan sails worked it’s way to windward then rounded up to come alongside the bar on the steel barge, it’s lady skipper danced her way through the concert in its foredeck.

The band appropriately named the Rocking Pontoons was excellent, the audience friendly and the sun shone. Paul and Kevin choose to sit on benches on the pontoon whilst I lounged leisurely in the dinghy chatting to the occupants of neighbouring boats. From four thirty until sunset the band played and we all had a great time. Then before darkness fell the three of us headed up the bay to Clarke Court Marina for a burger supper, dancing to another talented band (a former Icelandic popstar dazzling us guitar, a local physics teacher with an incredible voice plus an expat Brit drummer) for a few more hours. Finally around nine pm we sought out Temptress in the dim light of a new moon, getting more than a little damp motoring the dinghy up wind to where she lay at anchor above Hog Island. All in all one amazing afternoon of music and fun and you can watch a bit of the action here.