Category Archives: Travel

Morning full of fun

For some reason, I could not sleep last night so I was up enjoying the cool early morning breeze at 330am when I spied a strange occurrence. Of course I did not have my glasses and I did not want to want to wake Wayne so I strained to see what was going on…I grabbed our super strong binoculars and still could not tell what was what, but it appeared a catamaran had saddled up to a major super yacht. I waited until dawn, grabbed our super long lens for the camera and watched as the yacht crew woke up and scrambled to get fenders out, then the cat people woke up and grabbed their incredibly small fenders (why bother honestly) and decided Matt needed to be a part of this folly. So, I woke him up just at dawn and he watched the “folly” of the separation and re-mooring. It was an interesting morning, full of excitement and activity.

After everyone woke up, several hours later, we made a plan for Kimberly and I to go ashore. Unfortunately, I forgot how incredibly boring the mainland is with no shopping and most places closed due to the fact that it is Sunday. So, we walked about 1.5 miles one way, swapping street sides for the side walks. We went to the bank and it was closed, even the 24 hour ATM, we walked to a new store, just opened a few days prior to our arrival and we picked up a 6 litter bottle of water and 2 6-packs of beer. The bummer thing was that we had to walk the 1.5 miles back to the boat with our new loot. We ended up stopping at a beach bar for a drink and Kimberly’s Pina Colada was HORRIBLE, but my banana cow was scrumptious! Back to the boat with the help of Rafi a local boat boy, to find the men/boys swinging from the make shift boom swing.

Matt decided to fix our lazy jacks that broke on our trip over and check out our steaming light which was about 25′ up our 70′ mast.

A few hours later, a local in a man in a home made boat was selling his jewelry and we had to buy something as he rowed this tiny boat from shore, had to continuously scoop water out from a leak, and hand carved this jewelry. I bought a necklace made of from the black pearl tree seed that is incredibly soft and matched a sweet bracelet I bought. I am sure they will both break after the first wearing, but they are pretty and super soft to touch.

Matt and Wayne made a fabulous pork chop dinner with corn, peas, garlic bread, and sausage. it was so yummy. After dinner, dishes, clean up and what not, we are all in the cock pit enjoying the beautiful diamonds in the sky – more stars than we’ve seen all trip!

Just a few more days of 2012, I am so grateful for my family, friends, new job with an amazing company, new friends and co-workers,, and amazing opportunities afforded to me on a daily basis.

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We made the connection

We found Wayne.

In San Juan. We made the connection and arrived St Lucia as planned and headed straight to the hotel and the over to Oceans bar for a quick drink after midnight. Pretty much had the place to ourselves. The marina is pretty empty.

Woke up pretty early when the sun started coming through the hotel windows and I set off to find the boat dragging one of the suitcases of boat stuff with me.

Found the shack in the yard and open her up and unloaded a bunch of stuff. Back to the hotel @ 8am for breakfast with the rest of the crew. And then back to the boat to put it all back together. Christine handled the inside and Wayne and I the outside. We were pretty well done by noon then putzed around doing some random projects and when it was time for beer we called it quits and headed to the conscience store and then to the hotel pool.

Hung out there for awhile then went over to the marina and chatted with the guys who fixed the inverter and got a little nervous that even if the part we are waiting on got in on friday it wouldn’t get out of customs till Monday. So we had another beer and walked around the west marine store to see if there was something that we couldn’t live without.

It was getting close to Jamie’s arrival so Christine went back to the hotel to meet her and Wayne and I went to Mikes bar to wait for them. Her flight was uneventful. Had a couple rounds watching the pirate boat load up with tourists for a sunset cruise.

Took the ferry (manual rope barge thingy) back to the marina for a bite to eat at a place that serves pretty good Rotti. We figured a nap was going to be necessary to make the Friday night jump up. So we went to catch up on some sleep. Set the alarm for a 2 hour nap. And wouldn’t cha know it. It’s 6am the next morning. Guess we missed the jump up. 🙂

We did get confirmation that the part was at the FedEx office but haven’t heard if it made it through customs to get installed today. Fingers are crossed.

Still rolling

Made it to Miami International Airport, checked in and are waiting on the plane to catch up with Wayne and our original flight out of San Juan. Cold beer in hand makes the excitement bearable. Hopefully we can grab a bite to eat in San Juan and start to relax a little more.

Can I call it 1/2 way there?

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