Dennis

Dennis is The Man. At least on Mayreau, Dennis is The Man.

Mayreau, one of my favorite islands is in the world, is in the Grenadines. There is one village with a couple of hundred inhabitants, one street, one school and one tiny church perched on top of the hill. A few cars, several beaches, half a dozen bars and views to die for.

Dennis is the local entrepreneur, thought leader and trendsetter. Dennis has to be first. First on the island to own a car. First guesthouse. First Internet cafe. We heard Dennis is currently planning to the first islander with his own swimming pool.

We sailed into Mayreau a couple of weeks ago. And after a day of beach stuff we set off for the evening cultural tour of the village. OK it was really a pub crawl. We started at the first bar on the street and worked our way up the hill. We drifted from bar to bar. Nobody minded if you carried drinks from one establishment to the next. Eventually we arrived at Dennis's place.

Of course, Dennis's place was grander than all the others. Hammock on the verandah. Loud West Indian music. Pictures on the wall in the bar of George, Prince of Denmark and Princess Diana. Definitely a classy nightspot by Mayreau standards.

Dennis had a presence about him. You could see he was a natural leader. We had heard that in his rush to embrace modern technology he was the first to get his house wired up to the recently installed central electrical power station. And that, as a result of an electrical fault, his house burned down. We commiserated with him about his loss.

"Oh yeah, man. It was a bad year, last year. My house burned down, my wife left me and my yacht sank".

It sounded more like a setup line than a personal tale of woe. So I asked him which was the worst of these losses to bear.

His eyes twinkled. He paused for effect. "Oh man, the yacht, of course. I'm sure going to miss her".