The clearly posted sign was loud and clear. Watch Your Step, it read.

****

When you head out for a walk, out to explore, do you really Watch Your Steps?

The sun fought a brave and valiant battle as she tried to blast her sunbeams through the overcast greyness of incoming morning cloud cover.



The first night on the hook is never a restful sleep. Even though you're no stranger to living on the water (or perhaps you are), a new anchorage, being UnDocked, a Shift in the Wind, speeding passerby's, the creaking of the rig... they all bring their own share of wakes, noises and boat moves that can alert you to a new state of A-Wake-Fulness.



The Heat and Humidity were once again at an all time high. After mussing about with habitual morning chores, that were getting us nowhere slowly and sweatily, I suggested:

"Let's go for a walk?" to which Dave vehemently stated that he had chores that needed doing.

And so we checked our Boat Chore List and that in of itself was enough to have us sitting down in a sweating heap of Melted Exhaustion.

"If we're going to sweat, let's at least make it count" he said, so we closed all our hatches, got our running shoes and dinghied ashore to see what all the noise and commotion up on the hill, and in our own backyard, was all about.



We followed the concrete slabs of a meandering path,



got to a fork in the road,



and proceeded uphill (was there ever a doubt that it would be uphill?) with splendid, but overcast views of our anchorage,



and then went to explore the what used to be a completely hidden Hotel/Resort area, the SunSail Charter base way back when.



The pool that last year was filled with scuzzy green slimy rainwater, has now been drained and cleaned and is being resurfaced



and things starting to take shape and form.

Friends of ours, way back when, had actually chartered a boat through SunSail and had stayed in this resort. Had probably swam in the refreshing waters in that pool. Had drank a few SunDowners on the patio here whilst watching the sunset over the bay.

The very same bay where Banyan is now anchored. The very same Bay we were exploring today.

Last year we used to explore this place, (a.k.a The Bat Cave), the dark forgotten rooms of the lobby, the decaying barstools laying on their sides, and looking skyward to the rafters for the bats that were hanging there, carefully sidestepping the mounds of bat poop on what were once beautifully marbled floors, and then being chased out of there by larger than life mosquitos carrying the threat of Chikungunya.

Many of our cruising friends have all stood here at this very same spot at different points in time, breathing the same air, looking all around us, each of us, watching our steps. Interesting that.



Time, Weather and Finances had all played a part in the destruction and degradation of this place. We spent quite some time chatting with the workers, who were busy cleaning, painting, scrubbing and building. There was no signs of bats and definitely no bat poop.

They indicated that they hope to have it all up and running in the New Year, maybe even in time for the January Regatta?

Since we came in the back door, we had no choice but to exit out the front door, and noticed that so much shrubbery has been cleared that we saw this for the very first time.



A soon to be parking lot, and what what? We had no idea that mill was even there!!

The what used to be a very narrow path (a.k.a. shortcut to Prickly Bay) is now also cleared and widened and back to being a full blown road out and look, even cleared to unobscure the old stone fence that had also been previously overgrown with Exploding Green Lushness and Crawling with Lizards.



This being our Third H-Season here in Grenada, it all feels very familiar to us. We've only been back two days and yet it feels like we've never been gone. Yet there's an element of Something Different as well.

We walked out to the main road, circled our way towards a long walk, and then given the intense heat of the sun that had won its battle with the clouds, decided to shorten it up just a little as we wiped the sweat off our brows. And turned right towards Prickly Bay instead.

"Let's see what's changed here" we said. We noted the Volleyball Net still wasn't finished, and the Sports Bar had been replaced with a new Meat Market, the decadent smells of Rotisserie Chicken pushing us to see what else was inside.

"Didn't we hear something about that on the net?" I wondered out loud to Dave.
"Hmm... yes, yes we did, Dear" He answered.

The morning net does indeed chatter on announcung the same news day in and day out, six days a week. The same voices advertising the same services as last week, last month, and gasp, dare we say, even last year ? And yet, if you tune out for a brief second or minute, if you're not paying attention you might just miss that one call out, or that one event, that was inserted between the same old announcements, that is totally new and might be interesting.

Funny how things remain the same, yet are also full of changes. Watch Your Step, you Might Miss Something.

Even though things may appear to be the same ole same ole, it's always great fun to get out there, go for a walk and watch your step, and discover the changes in life in your own backyard, n'est ce pas?

In our two days here, we've felt a great sense of familiarity, of being home, and what is feeling at home but the familiar? Being greeted by many of our "old" friends with hugs and So Great to See You's.



Of knowing What's What, and Who's Who, and Where is Where. And as is the Habitual Face of Change, we're seeing new What's and new Who's and new Where's. We're dancing to the Beat of some new Steps.

That's what Watch your Step is ALL about, truly, isn't it? Because if you're truly watching your steps, it means you're out there, stepping!!