If all goes well, tomorrow we plan depart Grenada bound for the US Virgin Islands. Grenada has changed quite a bit in our ten year absence. The American influence that existed then has become even stonger. This is a good thing for we folks from the States because the grocery stores are full of our familiar products. There is a definate US style to the country and for those of us in the cruising community we are a valued source of income for the locals and are therefore treated very well. Other countries in the Caribbean that get more cruise ship or resort income are not as welcoming to cruisers as the wonderful people of Grenada. From shopping buses multiple times a week to marinas and restaurants allowing their premises to be used for cruiser activities Grenada has been very accomdating to say the least. Here in Mt. Hartman Bay/Secret Harbor we have had shopping bus trips weekly on Tuesday and Friday. As needed one or two buses were provided for a modest per person charge. The shopping bus is generally a minivan and can carry up to 18 persons. They take you to all the stores that are desired by the cruisers and others on request. The bus takes you to the store, everyone that wants to go to that store piles out of the van and the van waits until everyone returns. That routine is repeated at each one of the up to five or six stops. Most of the trips have an extended stop at the IGA Supermarket which is in the Spice Land Mall. There the cruisers do their grocery shopping and meet in the food court afterward to have a drink or a smoothie while they wait to return to Secret Harbor Marina's dinghy dock for the trip out to their boat. This has beeen our shopping routine since August and we have gotten very comfortable with it. Another comfort that we have enjoyed is good fast WiFi for internet access from our boat. Cruiser's WiFi has been very reliable and when there have been a few minor problems Ricky at "de Big Fish" restaurant has been very effective in resolving any issue. As I have mentioned in previous posts the WiFi here has been fast enough for us to listen webcasts of radio stations back in the States. There have been too many cruiser activities here throughout the summer to chronicle here. But they have ranged from sightseeing trips to cooking classes to movie nights. For the movie nights the cruisers have furnished the DVDs and a local marina, like Secret Harbor, has furnished the TV, DVD player and available refreshments. Once again the very accomodating nature of the businesses here in Grenada. It will be interesting to see how other places that we visit in the near future compare to Grenada who has set the bar quite high. However, it is time for us to move on. If all goes well our next blog post will be when we are underway tomorrow. It should take us about three days to reach the US Virgin Islands. As of this morning the weather on day three (Saturday) is a bit iffy based on the possible development of a low center north of the Caribbean. If the low develops and looks like it will be a problem for us we will divert to one of the other islands in the island chain. Stay tuned to see what happens tomorrow.