Caribbean Journal

• Mar 18 - 19, 2005
• Mar 20, 2005
• Mar 21 - 23, 2005
• Mar 24, 2005
• Mar 25, 2005
• Mar 26, 2005

Today is the end of the cruise. The last two days have been very full. I've met lots of guys, made some new friends, and have had a wonderful time.

Sal on the Beach

We enjoyed the waves and the Beach on St. Barths.

Thursday afternoon in St. Barth's we went to Saline Beach in the afternoon. It's clothing optional and no shade, but once again, high-powered sunscreen came to the rescue. Saline Beach is in a fairly narrow cove, so it has some very nice waves. Sal and I did some body surfing (actually, a lot of guys were in the surf), something I haven't done in probably 15 years. When you get the wave right, it's panic, then terror, then exhilaration, all rolled into one. Most of the time, you get the wave wrong and absolutely nothing happens. Other times, the wave shoots you to the beach. Sometimes you get mangled up. Sal came flying out of one wave. I just about got snapped in half by another. I kept thinking, this is really a hazardous, kinda dumb thing for me to be doing, so I kept on doing it. If I ever get back to St. Barth's I want to go back to Saline Beach.

Above the harbor in Gustavia

Jean-Claude our taxi driver took us all over St. Barths. This is out of the taxi window. We passed a lot of famous peoples' houses, David Letterman's twice.

Thursday evening, Sal and I went into Gustavia for dinner. Gustavia has this Caribbean habit of rather arbitrary business hours. Shops close in the middle of the day, and early in the evening. Must be a great place to work. Of course with the prices the shops charge, they don't need to be open 24/7.

When Sal and I got back from the beach, we asked our cab drive, Jean-Claude (a Jack Nicholson look-alike) for a restaurant recommendation. he suggested Eddie's. We checked it out with Captain Casey who said that it was great food; Jean-Claude was a friend of his; Eddie was a friend of his; and that we would never find the restaurant. His directions went something like this: "Follow the street along the pier to the Select Bar. Turn left, then right and walk to the end of the street. At the motor bike rental, turn right and walk down three or four doors on your right. And you'll walk right passed it and miss it." Sure enough, we did!

Cemetery in St. Barths

Eddie's is literally an unlit hole in the wall. It has no sign out front. It's a locals' joint at about a third of the price of St. Barth's tourist establishments. We had a great meal (or I should say, I had two great meals). Sal hadn't been feeling well earlier in the day, so he didn't eat all of his. The food is French-Creole, featuring seafood (of course). We both had Mahi-Mahi. Sal's was broiled and served with rice, yams, and some other Caribbean sides that tasted good, but we couldn't quite decide what they were. I had Mahi-Mahi in a ginger saute served over rice noodles. Very simple, very tasty.

Our server recommended it, and she was very eager for us to like it. We also had a goat cheese salad. That goat cheese had been fried. It was crispy on the outside and melted on the inside. It was a stringier melt than a soft cheese, and had a great flavor. I'm not much of a goat cheese fan, but this is a great way to enjoy it. Of course, we had dessert, a coconut mango mousse, followed by a very, very strong "special" house rum liqueur. It all came to about $50 a piece, which was a bargain compared to what other cruisers spent on dinner.

Sunset at St. Barths

I can now wash off my sunscreen.

Yesterday, we left St. Barth's in the morning, and spent the morning and early afternoon on Tintamarre, which is just north of St. Martin. I did my only snorkeling here. It was nada, but I know I can snorkel okay. I went out with Steve and Sal. They didn't seem to be confident swimmers, so I didn't push it. While snorkeling I must have run into jellyfish or something similar. I got stings along my left leg and right side, which burned for several hours. The stings raised little welts. They were gone this morning.

We had a picnic lunch on the island. After lunch, I saw something I'd never seen before. The crew had dumped the vegetable remains of lunch in the bushes. If you just glanced at it, it looked like food garbage in the underbrush. If you kept watching you noticed the veggies marching off. The ground was teeming with dozens of hermit crabs. The food slowly moved about as the crab army made off with its spoils. The garbage was rapidly transformed into a hermit crab takeout. One large crab made off with a cake brownie that was bigger than it was. It slowly struggled off across the lettuce.

Last night we had champagne rather than rum and swizzle. We also had the captain's dinner, and we were all supposed to dress up in our Easter Bonnets. I took my Indian skirt, fashioned a turban, and wore it with the blonde wig. I also wore a Hawaiian shirt and my Windjammer shorts. It looked tacky, but that was the point. I had decided that a group of us were going to eat together, so I swooped down on a table, then proceeded to herd everyone to it. A good time was had by all.

For the afternoon tea dance, Julian played All Abba All the Time. It was awesome, even if none of them know any English. I bounced around the deck for a long time, then Sal and I went back to my cabin to "cool off." As evening drew near, we dressed for dinner and began the endless goodbyes that lasted well into today. Sal spent the evening with me. He and I have had a lot of fun on this vacation.

Today, we debarked the S/V Polynesia. We sailed into Phillipsburg yesterday afternoon, and the ship reprovisioned here this morning. One of the other cruisers said that you can travel on the provisioning ship (Amazing Grace). The Amazing Grace travels to each of the Windjammer ship's home ports. The Amazing Grace cruises are sometimes for several weeks. Sounds fascinating to me, although I expect I would begin to smell bad.

Sal, Alex, and I took a taxi to the Beach Plaza, only to find out that I didn't have a reservation. Tim, Richard, Sal and I went out to lunch. I stopped by the cybercafe and wrote Vicki a nastygram. It may be the hotel's fault. It may be the travel agency's fault, BUT I didn't have a room. The Beach Plaza sent me over to the (yes!) Flamboyant Hotel. I took Sal with me, and we have a very nice room, which he is currently rearranging. He and I came to the room and crashed. Actually we had sex, but it was done in slow motion. We just returned from a meal at a restaurant here on the grounds of the resort. I had lamb chops. I love lamb chops. We finished dinner off with some creme brulee, then took a romantic walk on the beach in the light of a full moon.

S/V Polynesia