Saturday:

Caught the early USAir flight from PHL to SXM, arrived at the new SXM airport, what a huge difference. Got through immigration really fast.

Upon arrival to the Holland House at around 1:30 PM, the room was not ready, what better excuse to go have lunch at "Get Wet" and my first guavaberry ting. While there I ran into Anthony, someone who many of us have sailed with through the years and had a few drinks with him and caught up on the local gossip.

Went shopping, picked up my 3/$10 towels, some3/$20 shirts for a friend, and bought a few watches.

Upon check-in at the Holland house, I got upgraded from the street side room to an oceanfront room. Really nice. LAter while walking throught the lobby for dinner I heard my name called. Pam, who I sailed with last May was also sailing on this trip. She and her group invited me to "Le Escargot" for dinner, good dinner, would be a nice romantic place. If you go, make sure you ask if their is any of Sonya's homemade banana rum for after dinner..delish.

On my way back to the Holland house, ran into Wesley and Monroe, and was seen safely back to my hotel.


Sunday:

Another sunny day, 5 foo-foo's in town, so I go grab a beach chair before the masses take over. The "Iceman" was more than willing to start me with the drink of the day , banana daguiris. The sun was really strong that day and I had to leave the beach by 1:00 PM. Holland house has free computer, so I took the time to say hi to everyone from St. Martin, and wish they were all with me.
Good thing about the foo-foo's being in town, is everyhting is open on Sunday, so I shopped ( got some Ray-bans) and lunch. then took my luggage to Hodges Wharf to be dropped off (NOTE>>>Hodges wharf downtown..no longer Bobbi's marina, despite what the information package says. When in doubt, just look to where the launch goes around 2:00 PM) Freinds arrived, hjad a drink then got checked in by Jade, Ori, and Natalie.

Arrival night....spent much time talking to my friend Papa Lee, who is 86 and been jamming for over 30 years ( sailing with himwas my driving force in being there this week) I had ensign cabin #32 which is huge. I only had 1 roomate, so we had more space than in any standard cabin on the ship.

Party at night, meeting new people, band on board. Also Anthony came aboard, and Bonsey who was on the week before was there. Good to see him.

Went to bed around 11:30....so much fun to be in St. Martin.
Bummed though that Warren is on vacation.

Monday: Again...sunny wonderful day!!!!!!!!!!!!!
First storytime with Cesar, he is quite funny. Met the crew including the
"Pest Control Officer"

I recommended the 12M Regatta to many new people, but I really felt like just hanging on board catching up with Papa Lee and relaxing. Late morning Dario (former photoman) stopped over from his job as cruise director for the EasyCruise line. We talked for a bit, told me to say hi to everyone, and a little bit about his cruise line. Next year it look like they will go out of Puerto Rico to the BVI's, and since you can go on for only 3 days, looks like a new way to prolong the WJ trip.

After the last launch, time for safety drill with First Mate Dave, then sails are raised and Amazing Grace played for the first time. First destination was Simpson Baie for a swim off the ship. A little too choppy for most of us to go off ship, but quite a few braqve souls walked the plank, then braver ones followed Cesar off the bowsprint in front.

Paul Allen's boat was also in the bay, talk about a yacht with the most toys.

Tonight is PJ night and battle of the sexes...the men won, but they cheated. ( Cherry helpeed them too much)
On board was a group of 7 from Alaska...I told them I knew someone from Cantwell, and they kind of cracked up. Obviously there are not too many people in Cantwell, and when I tolf them it was Armeda, they ran down to pull Armeda's dauhgter-in-law Davida out of her cabin to meet me. We laughed about it being a samll world, and she thought it was neat to meet one of the GAMI's.

A little bit of partying, then sailed through the night to Nevis.

:Speaking of Nevis, a few notes about the "other" Nevis the kitty, already mentioned as the Pest Control Officer. Cute cat, just got spayed so she was still shaved on her tummy. She gets petted by so many people, that her tolerance level is pretty low, and she will let you know when she has had enough. You can tell who she is used to by how she interacts with them ( Jade is her mom) Nevis's favorite place to hang out is to lay right in the middle of the doorway by the bar , so you spend a lot of time stepping over her. She is also an Ice-Aholic. Give her a piece of ice to bat around and she is so happy. It's so funny in the morning when Gary or Cherry start filling the coolers with ice, she stands there totally facinated waiting for them to throw her a piece of ice. She also loves to stand in front of Jack Shepard when he performs and watches him.
FYI....Jade strongly does not want the cat to go down to anyones cabin, b or c deck or the dining room. Jade gets very upset when she can't find Nevis at night to take to bed.

Great! Keep going....

Tuesday: Nevis....anytime you can see the top of Nevis peak is a good day.

The waters are a little bit rough today so the ship can only drop us off in town. A group of us decided to just get right to business and take a Taxi to Sunshines. I get welcomed back, and get pored the first Killer Bee of the day. Rented a beach chair from the Beach Chair freak, so many rules as who can use the chair, how many chairs per area. Totally ridiculous.
No lobster at Sunshines, so Pam, Krystal and myself went down to GoldenRock and got lobster sandwiches (thanx for the tip Ralph) The water was wonderful, the sun hot and then a 3 o'clock appointment for the 50 minute deep tissue massage with Dave. So wonderful ( still have a few bruises though) he fixed a problem that has been bothering me for months.
Back to the ship for a swizzle time fashion show. Sadly the surf is still too rough at Double Duece (the launch got caught on the beach for 20 minutes) and the barbecue had to take place on the boat. It was all good though.
This ended up being the biggest aprty night of the week, everyone partied well after midnight.

Wednesday: Sunrise sail to St. Kitts with hot donuts and Mimosa's. Many woke up for it, many went back to bed for awhile( including me)
Got talked into doing the Sugar Train with some people. Why do I not listen to my friends warnings about this trip being lame....I thought it was way too overpriced for what we got. Other than seeing a few nice views of the Atlantic coast, you go on this slow train through abandoned sugar fields, and see lots of land fills and construction sites. In addition, since there were no Foo Foo's in town, the WJ people got divided among 3 trains and you could not walk between trains. Not worth the $89, especially compared to other tours, I think about $40-$50 would be a much more reasonable price for what you get. (At least on the Island tour you can get off at the fort and go the Batik place) That is just my opinion.
We made the bus let us off in town instead of the dock, went shopping at Island Hopper had some lunch and a few drinks. It was a good day to get out of the sun a little bit.

Tonight was Sea Hunt and PPP night. I think the 18 year guy who was picked as judge had a REALLY good time. A good time was had, but I have seen much wilder ones. The same for PPP, I was a judge and it was kind of hard to pick. 4 people came as parrotheads, and they really were kind of the best, just really hard when it came time for the danceoff.

Some more dancing and partying that night.

Thursday: St. Barths. During storytime heavy clouds move in, Cesar thinks it may rain. Me ...being the weather goddess that I am would not allow it.....it was sunny by 10:00 AM and the rain clobbered St. Martin is the distance.

I decided to take Dive Mates Ori's World famous Tour of St. Barths. limited to 10n people, you get in the Caribe rib boat, and go check out one bay, then another. You go by some great cliffs filled with beautiful white Tropic Birds. Ori has experience on quite a few conservation projects and knows a lot about nature. We them moored the Caribe out on the quiet side of Saline Beach, ( much to the chagrine of a few nude couples on the beach) and we swam and snorkeled offf the boat for a little over an hour. Also had a turtle poke his head up and gave us the once over before diving under. It was a great way to see the Island in a different way and one of the highlights of the entire trip for me.

After lunch on the ship, off to Shell Beach with Nancy and Monroe. Beach was great, but the sun still very strong as it was all week. I was the last to leave (Monroe had to leave, the topless woman were becoming to much for him) and I walked slowly back to town. Ran into a bunch of people at Le Select and heard them all bitch about the cost of St. Jean Beach and Nikki Beach ( I warned them) Then down to the market to but wine for wine and cheese night.
Not as many yachts in port for this time of year, amny have gone over to St. MArtin since this is the foirst day of the Heinekin Regatta. But reallu cool sailing yacht MuMu was in port, and Ultima 3 finally arrived around 4 PM.

After Wine and Cheese, crab races....my crab lost again, and we were about an inch from Jade stepping on crab #9.

After dinner, we went to Le Select fro party, no band, so Cesar leads the troops to another bar callled BAZ, which is along the other side of the harbor. Good Jazz band was playing that night. Some of the Jammers leave, opening up quite a few seats around our big table. A few people came over and asked if they could sit in those seats. About the third person in line was Nicole Kidman ( no lie) Lots of discussion was about one of the guys being Keith, but even though I later found out he was on the isaln, he was not with her there. Out there is a picture of me, sitting at the same table with Nicole. Jade was so mad at me because I got up for a few minutes, and she wanted to talk to me so she could get up close to her. By the time I went back to my seat, Cesar was rounding us up to leave, so I only had a chance to wish them a good evening, (Laura who was sitting next to me actually did talk to her for a few minutes) The woman is very pretty in person, but gosh darn is she thin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Of course we had to kid Cesar about it, and commneted that she asked if that attractive man over there was the Windjammer Captain.

A little bit more partying on ship.


Friday:

What can I say, yet another sunny day in Paradise. Today is Anguilla.
After finally getting to the beach jsut before noon, I walked down the beach to the original Ernies ( other people followed) where Jamal remembered me from the past. After getting a beach chair and a rum punch, time to get in the prettiest water in the Caribbean. Fairly calm day, you could see your toes in the water. If you go, make sure you leave the place they drop you off. It's very rocky there, so you can't swim well, and the snorkleing there is not good.
We later went snorkeling where Jamal suggested on this little reef just to the right of Ernies. Saw some parrotfish there that was the biggest I saw other than in Bonaire. In addition the reef is really shallow, you almost think you are going to scrape your stomach on it. But you get so much closer than you normally do while snorkeling. My fellow travelers thought it was far better than the trip they paid for earlier in the week.
Had lunch...hamburger/fries/rum punch/tip for $10...big difference from the day before.

Back on ship, last swizzle, crew/pax pictures, Captains dinner and some goodbyes.

She IS thin isn't she?!!

Saturday: Made it the whole week with no rain during the day, just a small shower around 4AM one morning.
The usual morning...seeing everyone off. I was on the last shuttle to the airport at 1Pm. Before I left, Tony gave me a monkey fist made jsut for me.

After I saw Papa Lee off (sniff) I took the launch ashore. Had another quavaberry ting at Get Wet, where I ran into Jade and Deb from the Legacy. Then went down and met some fellow pax and had lunch till it was time to meet the luggage at the dock. Said goodbye to Jade and hoped that she would still be on the Legacy next Thanksgiving ( it would be close since her contract bends around that time)

My flight delayed about an hour, but because of that I got to see the lunar eclipse out my righthand window on the way home. Way cool.

Had a great time seeing all the crew. They kept asking me when I was coming back, and I told them would probably not be for a year since I was doing the Clipper in July and the Legacy in November.

It was great to see Brandon, Ryan, Josh, Germaine who just came over from the Clipper, Cherry, Tony, Aubrey, Mark (one of my favorites) Goat, and all the others I know I didn't mention.

Jade was great. Last May, we had a little rough start with each other, but she was really great this past week. ( she had to be both AM and Purser, and she did both like it was her only duty)
Cesar was a lot of fun, quite the charmer. Could get a little long winded at storytime, but I figured he learned that from Neil
And what can you say about Dave Thom, very classy guy. I so wish the Poly was going to Costa Rica instead.

So now I am stuck at the Holiday Inn in Manahawkin NJ, back at work, and watching my tan flake away. Only 4 more months till the next adventure.

Great report !! I remember watching the lunar eclipse from my lounge chair at the Coyaba in 2003, just had gotten off of the Clipper and was deciding on whether or not to stay an extra week, well, the eclipse was my deciding factor and I made the decision to stay that 3rd week, and the rest is history!

Sounds like you had a fantastic trip Lynda!

Any pictures?

Cheers
Cuddles

Great report!

Time is flying for the 72 hour gang. I just hope the Clipper is still sailing!

Thanks, Lynda. Great report. Brings back sooo many memories. I wish I were there again!