Grenada 2017 - BINGO

December 2017

OMG - I cannot believe I forgot to tell you about BINGO.  To be specific, about THE Bingo game.

Prickly Bay Marina is famous for their Bingo game for several reasons.  It is a really big deal.  Cruisers and locals alike turn out to play bingo on a Friday night.  I think it is on a Friday night.  Anyway..... The prizes are impressive.  In the past, we have heard the prizes listed when they advertised the game on the morning VHF net.  Past prizes have been;  a motorcycle, a dinghy, dinners, gift certificates, goats, a cow, bunnies.  No, really!  Now you are probably thinking "What the heck would a cruiser do with a motorcycle or cow if they won it anyway?"  Good questions.  That is where the locals come in.  They show up to play but they also show up to buy the winning items off cruisers should someone like me win a goat.  I will leave it up to you to figure out what happens to the cow, goat, bunnies after that.

Prizes aren't just won easy, peasy, thank you very much.  Nope.  You win BINGO and go up for your prize but after confirming your win, you must then dance for it.  Yep, dance for it up on the big stage at the tiki bar, in front of everyone.  Darrin, the previous marina manager and BINGO MC used to really make people work for their prizes, egging them on and making all sort of comments as they danced.  We could often hear it from the anchorage and tales are told.  The new marina manager isn't quite as bad but still, you gotta work it!

The BINGO is action packed, well attended - as in crowded, loud and runs very late.  Again, we often heard it from the Prickly Bay anchorage when we anchored there previously.  But that sort of thing does not bother us.

Anyway, we had never attended before.  I decided we had to go at least once just to say we had been and see what it was all about.  We went after our full day at the beach.  Woo hoo - we were in the zone from the get go.  We were going to win a goat.  Or bunny.  Or motorcycle....something big.  Yes indeed.  It turned out that the BINGO game we attended was the last one of the year and thus big prizes.  A large, house size fridge and a full size freezer.  These were hot items so ALL the locals turned out.  It was packed, not a seat in the place, standing room only as well.

Tom bought us each two BINGO cards - $25 EC I think, about $10US.  Of course some played with many more cards.  We also got two raffle tickets.  Every so often the MC would stop mid game and call out a raffle number.  You only had 5 seconds (slow counting) after ID'ing yourself as the raffle winner (by yelling out) to then sprint to the stage to claim your prize.  We sat with Jason and Laura (sv Blue Blaze) marking our cards, checking our raffle tickets, chatting and drinking.  It was a lot to keep track of.  All the while, we talked of winning the big prizes and even some of the really kewl raffle prizes.

Then it happened.  OMG - They called one of our raffle numbers.  "It's ours!  That's us.  HERE - We have that number!  Tom - Go, go, go.  Run."  Tom ran with the winning raffle ticket as fast as he could to the stage.  "Woo Hoo.  We won.  Oh boy, oh boy......just think, some awesome prize."  I told Laura and Jason.  We couldn't wait to see what we won.  The MC said "And you have won a double pack of Summers Eve Feminine Douche -Island Breeze scent."  "Wait, what?  What did he say we won?  Feminine Douche?  No."  Jason grinned and said "Yep, double pack." as Tom made his way back to the table crestfallen.  But we all burst into laughter that lasted for at least 15 mins.

Then a rain shower popped up.  We all ran for cover with our BINGO cards.  It was short lived but it screwed up many BINGO cards.  Our markers weren't working well before and basically stopped working at all after the rain.  We lost interested and started chatting with others.  One local got after me "Girl, you got to get a new marker and catch up.  You might be winning."  I gave her our cards and we went home, prize in hand.  We heard the next day that it ran really, really late and apparently there was some controversy over who won the fridge as two BINGO's were called.

We continued to laugh about our big BINGO prize, sharing the story with other cruising friends who laughed as well.  We turned our prize into a gag gift for the Xmas party gift exchange on Hog Island.

Gag Gift - changed hands a couple of times