We left Sandy Island after having a burger and a drink or so. Th ride back to the main island was rather bumpy to say the least - the wind had whipped up the sea PROPERLY which was quite fun. The skipper of the boat was complaining a bit cos he reckoned - If you have a boat you must stay DRY. IF you're going to get wet - then you might as well swim!
Once ashore -we walked around a bit more seeing a lot more goats and and ATM machine which had seen better days. We took the next tender back to the boat to shower and have a few drinks in the bar. The ride back was again rather rough and getting back aboard the ship was "interesting"!
The afternoon went slowly and we found out that there was going to be a Scary-oke competition later in the evening with the worst singer getting a bottle of champagne as a prize. The plan of course was to stay awake and watch some of the "singing", however this was not meant to be. By 8/9pm we got tired of waiting and were getting dozey, so we crashed. At about 10/11ish we heard over the PA system that the Scary-oke was starting shortly... We just lay there in our bunks and went off to la-la-land...
Friday, 06 April 2007
Sandy Island!
Heading out to Sandy Island
A view of the restaurant and bar!
Another tough day in paradise...
The Island
Tuesday, 03 April 2007
Angullia - Sandy Island paradise
Anguilla seemed like just another island with a white sandy beach since the only tour/trip that easy cruise had on offer there was a transfer to Shoal Bay. We didn't sign up for it cos we reckoned that we could get there some othere way by means of local transport for less - like normal. So we had breakfast and took the tender ashore. This was an interesting one cos the wind had whipped up the sea. Getting ON to the tender from the walkway took a while since it was bouncing around so much. The tender was chocablock full, and was bouncing around like a tennis ball on the way to the beach.
Rich is tired of tying so Im taking over :)
Oncw we were on shore we walked up and down the beach for a bit and found a guy who whould take us out to a litte isalnd called Sandy Island for $10 return. We took him up on the offer and soon we were boucing ove the waves in a Bayliner getting sprayed by the sea. Apon reaching the isalnd we were amazed at how timy it was! probably about 200o Sq Mtrs or about 1/4 the size of a rugby field~ Complete with, coconut trees, coral reef, white sands and best of all A BAR!!!!
It took us about 2 mins to explore the island by walkinf around the whole cirumfrence! The end of our exploration found us back at the bar so we ordered a cold beer and went for a swim in the warm crystal clear waters.
I took this pic off the web so you know what i am talking about, We will post some more of our own pics when we ger back to CT
Got to run the Suttle to the airport is here.
cheers
St Barth!
We got up early, and got our on deck just after we left the port. The port was now lonely since all the cruise liners had left. We cold see some mega yachts in the distance parked in more sheltered bays. We were on our way to St Barth - wohooo! The wind was quite high which in turn generated quite a swell. Some of the smaller boats and yachts that were making the trek to St Barth were bouncing around madly in the waves.
As St Barth got closer and closer... the evidence was clear that there was money there, and I mean a LOT! we moored quite far offshore, and had breakfast and then took the tender to Gustavia. Going in - we went in in between the mega yachts. This was humbling cos some were similar to the ones we saw in St Marteen (since I reckon some of them live there), and otheres were BIGGER! Hundreds of millions of dollars in one small bay! We reckon a few billion dollars just parking off while the owners and guests lounge around on the boats or on shore.
We found out on shore that there was a regatta on from the 29th to the 31st of March which was probably why there were so many boats there. We walked along the quayside in the Marina, and we counted one of the racing yachts called Bliss had about 24crew on it - the boat was HUGE. And this one only one of the many that were parked, about to go out for the races. Now since there were so many boats there parked off shore, they obviously needed tenders to get ashore (just lke us). There was a mass of the tenders on the one side, looking a lot like a taxi rank, just parked on top of each other. And these ranged from little rubber ducks with 5's or 15''s on the back to fully state-of-the-art jet engines - which probably cost more than our idea of a NICE boat!
We walked round and saw more and more and more of these awesome boats, and went looking for the wifi internet. We stopped at the Baz Jazz bar, and logged on. We got 2 cokes for around 5euros. We thought of eating there as well, but it was a sushi bar, and 6 pieces of sashimi was about 29euros - so we humbly paid for our drinks and declined to go and look else where for food.
We cruised around to the other side of the marina and YES - there were more boats and yachts and cruisers, but as we were getting hungry - and low on cash - we went looking for a bank. BUt as luck would have it - in St Barth - banks are closed on Saturdays, so we lucked out on that. But in doing so - looking for the bank - we went passed some shops ranging from Dior to Bvlgari to Louis Vouton to Hip to everything and it all looked rather exclusive. Then we got to the jewellery stores. Now - we've heard that items there are cheaper than in Paris / New York, but this was like OMF! there was a watch at US$10500, which we thought was steep, then I happened to eye out a price tag of 31500EUROS! Thats more than I paid for my car! AND what was better was that that particular watch had diamonds, but others which didnt have tags and had more diamonds. The sales lady looked at us funny through the window and we moved on. But - since I had my dads credit card to be used for emergency's and the SAA Voyager lounge in JHB - I thought I'd offer to buy him a watch as a souvenir on his card. In no uncertain terms I was told exactly where I should go with that idea!
Oh well...
We went looking for beaches, and came across Shell beach, which - again - had some mega cruisers parked off shore with the jetskis zooming around. There were a few people on the beach, but didnt seem too popular. The food at the restaurant was rather steep too with the average meal being around 35-30 Euros. We elected to rather head back to the boat to eat since it was firstly cheap and secondly we could put it on our tab with some drinks.
We headed back to the tender. While waiting the YELLOW SUBMARINE - a real yellow submarine - was about to head out with some tourists to do a tour. That could have been cool, but we were hungry since it was about 3pm. We got back to the boat, and sat next to the jacuzzi and had pizza and a few rum punches while looking out over the bay.
We spoke with some of the US tourists on board. The one guys wife was actually from Natal and moved to the states with her folks when she was about 8yrs old.
After the sun had gone down - we were in for a suprise. Now we are used to seeing the fast and the furious rides with the blue lights under them. This is the coolest thing... If you have a mega yacht - you have to have fairy lights at night surrounding the boat. Just about every boat had them. And seeing all of this at night was awesome - and again a humbling experience - being surrounded by BILLIONS of dollars. I don't know if anyone who hasnt seen this can possibly imagine what it looked like and watching the boats move around finding "parking bays.
We crashed fairly earlyish after that - around 10:30 i think since there wasnt too much of a party on board...
As St Barth got closer and closer... the evidence was clear that there was money there, and I mean a LOT! we moored quite far offshore, and had breakfast and then took the tender to Gustavia. Going in - we went in in between the mega yachts. This was humbling cos some were similar to the ones we saw in St Marteen (since I reckon some of them live there), and otheres were BIGGER! Hundreds of millions of dollars in one small bay! We reckon a few billion dollars just parking off while the owners and guests lounge around on the boats or on shore.
We found out on shore that there was a regatta on from the 29th to the 31st of March which was probably why there were so many boats there. We walked along the quayside in the Marina, and we counted one of the racing yachts called Bliss had about 24crew on it - the boat was HUGE. And this one only one of the many that were parked, about to go out for the races. Now since there were so many boats there parked off shore, they obviously needed tenders to get ashore (just lke us). There was a mass of the tenders on the one side, looking a lot like a taxi rank, just parked on top of each other. And these ranged from little rubber ducks with 5's or 15''s on the back to fully state-of-the-art jet engines - which probably cost more than our idea of a NICE boat!
We walked round and saw more and more and more of these awesome boats, and went looking for the wifi internet. We stopped at the Baz Jazz bar, and logged on. We got 2 cokes for around 5euros. We thought of eating there as well, but it was a sushi bar, and 6 pieces of sashimi was about 29euros - so we humbly paid for our drinks and declined to go and look else where for food.
We cruised around to the other side of the marina and YES - there were more boats and yachts and cruisers, but as we were getting hungry - and low on cash - we went looking for a bank. BUt as luck would have it - in St Barth - banks are closed on Saturdays, so we lucked out on that. But in doing so - looking for the bank - we went passed some shops ranging from Dior to Bvlgari to Louis Vouton to Hip to everything and it all looked rather exclusive. Then we got to the jewellery stores. Now - we've heard that items there are cheaper than in Paris / New York, but this was like OMF! there was a watch at US$10500, which we thought was steep, then I happened to eye out a price tag of 31500EUROS! Thats more than I paid for my car! AND what was better was that that particular watch had diamonds, but others which didnt have tags and had more diamonds. The sales lady looked at us funny through the window and we moved on. But - since I had my dads credit card to be used for emergency's and the SAA Voyager lounge in JHB - I thought I'd offer to buy him a watch as a souvenir on his card. In no uncertain terms I was told exactly where I should go with that idea!
Oh well...
We went looking for beaches, and came across Shell beach, which - again - had some mega cruisers parked off shore with the jetskis zooming around. There were a few people on the beach, but didnt seem too popular. The food at the restaurant was rather steep too with the average meal being around 35-30 Euros. We elected to rather head back to the boat to eat since it was firstly cheap and secondly we could put it on our tab with some drinks.
We headed back to the tender. While waiting the YELLOW SUBMARINE - a real yellow submarine - was about to head out with some tourists to do a tour. That could have been cool, but we were hungry since it was about 3pm. We got back to the boat, and sat next to the jacuzzi and had pizza and a few rum punches while looking out over the bay.
We spoke with some of the US tourists on board. The one guys wife was actually from Natal and moved to the states with her folks when she was about 8yrs old.
After the sun had gone down - we were in for a suprise. Now we are used to seeing the fast and the furious rides with the blue lights under them. This is the coolest thing... If you have a mega yacht - you have to have fairy lights at night surrounding the boat. Just about every boat had them. And seeing all of this at night was awesome - and again a humbling experience - being surrounded by BILLIONS of dollars. I don't know if anyone who hasnt seen this can possibly imagine what it looked like and watching the boats move around finding "parking bays.
We crashed fairly earlyish after that - around 10:30 i think since there wasnt too much of a party on board...
Saturday, 31 March 2007
Pictures on St Maarten
The St Maarten Marina on the way to the Sunset Bar
No warning of strong rip tides etc on this beach! It all JETBLAST!!!!
The Sunset Bar
A private jet about to land, the smaller planes came in much higher than the big Boeings etc because they need less runway to stop.
An Air France Air Bus waiting for clearance to take off, this baby HURT!!!
Antigua
English Harbour / Nelsons Dockyard
Horatio Nelsons bedroom
The layout of the dock yard
Mega yachts in English Harbour
The Antigua Yacht Club in Falmouth
French spell checker
I have not spell checked any of these new posts because we are in St Barths and everything, including the web browser is in french! Please dont mail me and tell me I cant spell! deal with it, bad spelling is better than no posts!
Pictures of Brimstone Hill Fortress
This is a picture of the courtyard in the citadel, it reminded me of the court yard for Pirates of the Caribbean!
The ruins of the Officers and Artillery Lutenents accomdation
An ariel view of the Citadel, the rest of the fort and gun batteries were wide sperad all over the hill.
St Maarten
Today we were gong to do the Americas Cup sailing but before the party last night we changed our mind because it fell right in the middle of the day and there was a few other things we wanted to do while here, and now in retrospect there is no way we would have been able to help sail a 40ft racing monohull in the state we were in.
After showering and packing our stuff for the day we stepped outside to be greeted by 3 other cruse ships sharing the dock with us, our ship was tiny in comparison, one of the ships was a Royal Caribbean Eagle Class Cruiser, in 2003 it held the crown for the biggest cruise ship in the world. I saw a documentary on the design and construction of these behemoths, cinemas, pools, Restaurants, ice rink, dance clubs, casinos, shopping mall, climbing wall, mini golf, artificial surfing waves, theatre, spas, gyms, you name it the ship had it! Google it and you will see what I mean!
We missioned around town and caught a taxi to the Sunset Bar. The Sunset bar is world famous, not for the actual facilities, (which are rather nice, kind of like La Med) but for the fact that it is on a beach that is 2m away from the Princess Juliana International Airport main runway! The planes land and take off right in front of you, and let me tell you an Airbus A340 on line up for take off with full brakes and full throttle is f&%king loud! The jet blast is indescribable and it HURTS! 4 Turbofan jet engines each with 30000 pounds of thrust 40m away from you is an experience to behold! It is impossible to stand up, when the pilot powered up I saw a dude who was intentionally standing behind the plane get blown over like he was hit by a train, the cars don’t even drive past when a plane is powering up for take off, what an idiot, but it was really funny! We were off to the edge of the runway and we still got sandblasted!
Just as cool is having a Boeing land over your head so close you have a reflex to run away as it is on final approach and it gets closer and closer to you, the beach and the run way a few meters behind you! It feels like you could jump up and touch it!
What an awesome experience it was to be there! For some of the time we sat on the deck and had lunch of hamburgers and coke, (no alcohol yet!) while planes of various makes and sizes were coming and going.
There are some filthy rich people here we saw mega yachts in the marina and private jets at the airport that would make Mark Suttleworth feel like a street beggar! Foreplay, the biggest motor yacht we saw at the Cape Town boat show is the same as the smallest yacht we have seen here! I saw a Boeing 737 – 200 private jet, SAA use those for the CT-JHB domestic flights!
After the sun had set we took a walk up the main shopping street of Cole Bay and were humbled again, this time by the jewellery, the only thing we saw with a price tag was a R100 000 necklace, no problem!! And it wasn’t even one of the fancy ones in the window! No cubic zirconium here!
With our tails between our legs we caught a local bus back to the capital, Philipsburg, to explore the boardwalk and beachfront. St Maarten is tiny, 47 sq miles in total so it sounds like a long way but really it isn’t!
The boardwalk was mainly closed up because it was after dinner and all the other ships had left, but it was still cool, white sandy beach on one side and high-end shops, bars and restaurants on the other. We found a place that had WiFi so we sat down for a drink, Richard had recovered somewhat and decided he was brave enough to try a beer, so we ordered two draught Heinekens, which much to our surprise went down rather well! We could not get the Internet to work so we packed the laptop away and enjoyed our beer and the jazz band that were playing on the other side of the boardwalk. One beer was all it took for poor Rich and he was pissed again, I was also feeling rather touched as we walked back toward the ship. We had dinner in the Deck 4 restaurant called Fusion4, this is where we normally eat if we eat onboard, shortly afterwards we decided to retire for an early night instead of having another hangover in the morning!
We leave St Maarten tomorrow at 7am so we have set the alarm to wake up and watch us sail out, the trip to St Barths tomorrow will take about 45mins so we will hangout on deck while we are underway and while we drop anchor when we arrive. I’m sure we will be tendering in St Barths again as I could not see a Cruise Terminal on the map. Apparently St Barths Main Street is comparable to New York 5th Avenue shopping so no doubt it will be another humbling experience for us!
Cheers till next time!
After showering and packing our stuff for the day we stepped outside to be greeted by 3 other cruse ships sharing the dock with us, our ship was tiny in comparison, one of the ships was a Royal Caribbean Eagle Class Cruiser, in 2003 it held the crown for the biggest cruise ship in the world. I saw a documentary on the design and construction of these behemoths, cinemas, pools, Restaurants, ice rink, dance clubs, casinos, shopping mall, climbing wall, mini golf, artificial surfing waves, theatre, spas, gyms, you name it the ship had it! Google it and you will see what I mean!
We missioned around town and caught a taxi to the Sunset Bar. The Sunset bar is world famous, not for the actual facilities, (which are rather nice, kind of like La Med) but for the fact that it is on a beach that is 2m away from the Princess Juliana International Airport main runway! The planes land and take off right in front of you, and let me tell you an Airbus A340 on line up for take off with full brakes and full throttle is f&%king loud! The jet blast is indescribable and it HURTS! 4 Turbofan jet engines each with 30000 pounds of thrust 40m away from you is an experience to behold! It is impossible to stand up, when the pilot powered up I saw a dude who was intentionally standing behind the plane get blown over like he was hit by a train, the cars don’t even drive past when a plane is powering up for take off, what an idiot, but it was really funny! We were off to the edge of the runway and we still got sandblasted!
Just as cool is having a Boeing land over your head so close you have a reflex to run away as it is on final approach and it gets closer and closer to you, the beach and the run way a few meters behind you! It feels like you could jump up and touch it!
What an awesome experience it was to be there! For some of the time we sat on the deck and had lunch of hamburgers and coke, (no alcohol yet!) while planes of various makes and sizes were coming and going.
There are some filthy rich people here we saw mega yachts in the marina and private jets at the airport that would make Mark Suttleworth feel like a street beggar! Foreplay, the biggest motor yacht we saw at the Cape Town boat show is the same as the smallest yacht we have seen here! I saw a Boeing 737 – 200 private jet, SAA use those for the CT-JHB domestic flights!
After the sun had set we took a walk up the main shopping street of Cole Bay and were humbled again, this time by the jewellery, the only thing we saw with a price tag was a R100 000 necklace, no problem!! And it wasn’t even one of the fancy ones in the window! No cubic zirconium here!
With our tails between our legs we caught a local bus back to the capital, Philipsburg, to explore the boardwalk and beachfront. St Maarten is tiny, 47 sq miles in total so it sounds like a long way but really it isn’t!
The boardwalk was mainly closed up because it was after dinner and all the other ships had left, but it was still cool, white sandy beach on one side and high-end shops, bars and restaurants on the other. We found a place that had WiFi so we sat down for a drink, Richard had recovered somewhat and decided he was brave enough to try a beer, so we ordered two draught Heinekens, which much to our surprise went down rather well! We could not get the Internet to work so we packed the laptop away and enjoyed our beer and the jazz band that were playing on the other side of the boardwalk. One beer was all it took for poor Rich and he was pissed again, I was also feeling rather touched as we walked back toward the ship. We had dinner in the Deck 4 restaurant called Fusion4, this is where we normally eat if we eat onboard, shortly afterwards we decided to retire for an early night instead of having another hangover in the morning!
We leave St Maarten tomorrow at 7am so we have set the alarm to wake up and watch us sail out, the trip to St Barths tomorrow will take about 45mins so we will hangout on deck while we are underway and while we drop anchor when we arrive. I’m sure we will be tendering in St Barths again as I could not see a Cruise Terminal on the map. Apparently St Barths Main Street is comparable to New York 5th Avenue shopping so no doubt it will be another humbling experience for us!
Cheers till next time!
Bonfire
I think it is safe to say last night was the biggest night of the trip so far, it bought new meaning to the phrase “Pull It”.
We left the ship on the 8pm tender ride and walked back to the Double Deuce bar, all was quite there so we decided to walk down the beach to where the Bon fire would be, the beach was not like the other beaches that are lined with beach bars and apart for the occasional it was deserted all the way to the Sunshine Bar. We were told to pick a table by a waiter and ordered a Rum Punch, later we found out that they were serving us Killer Bees which were a tad bit stronger than the rum punches we were used to. I should have guessed this from the gag reflex and squint eyes Rich had on his first sip! After a while we still had no menus and the owner who was sitting behind us on a big sofa shouted to the waiter (in a typical Caribbean / Jamaican accent) “Moffie! Hey Moffie what you doing?” The other waiter was a gay black local dude with tight knee length jeans and a black cowboy hat. He replied, “I is busy mon” and Sunny (the owner) said “Rubbish mon, Dukkie (our waiter) is f&%king around again, get these guys a menu” You had to be there to laugh at it but it was hilarious. The bonfire we were supposed to be having was coming along rather slow. The man in charge was a stoned drunk Rasta of about 70 years, with torn jeans bright island floral shirt and a big beanie for holding his dreads up, the task was proving challenging to him! He had stacked a pile of four wooden packing crates against each other and was in the process of stuffing cardboard in some of the gaps after which he lit it, walked away and succeeded to burn all the cardboard in the structure with out setting fire to any of the wood, he now had a smoking mass of pallets and no more cardboard, he was very entertaining while we waited for our ribs to arrive. After a few minutes he appeared again, with a fat joint and a fresh beer, realising his fire had gone out and he had used all his cardboard in the first attempt, he walked (the slowest I’ve ever seen anyone walk) over to the edge of the rain forest and started collecting dry coconut husks and branches and attempted to relight the fire, he succeeded this time but only just. Next to the bonfire pit was a large stack of wooden pallets that he was too feed the fire with, he did this from time to time and stumbled around the beach in a rather confused looking state, actually stumbling is not right, he was walking VERY slowly and swaying from side to side with a joint in one hand and a beer in the other.
Our Ribs arrived with more Killer Bees, both went down the hatch with satisfaction.
About 30mins later the bus from the Cruise arrived with a load of fellow cruisers who had opted to eat on the ship and come to the bonfire with an organised excursion. We moved into the open air lounge and joined up with them on some big over size couches along with 2 fresh Killer Bees, we chatted about where we were all from and what we had done during the day etc The one girl was having a birthday so they bought over a Papaya complete with candles and we all sang for her while the “moffie” cut open the papaya with a panga. The rest of the time at the beach bar was taken up by dancing (not us) and standing around the bonfire drinking and taking to other people from the ship (us).
The taxis arrived for the trip back to the jetty to get the tender back to the ship, we bummed a ride and said we had lost our return ticket, the driver didn’t seem to mind as I presume he was paid a set rate by the ship for the trip. After we got back to the ship everyone we straight up to the deck 5 bar where the DJ was busy trying to get a party started with those who did not go to the bonfire party, it all went out the window from there and is mostly a blur. I have no idea what time I got to bed but it must have been around 3ish, Rich ninjaed before that and was flat on his back when I got back to the room completely and utterly broken. Much to my dismay I woke up at 7am with a monster hangover but luckily I fell asleep again. While I was asleep Rich, in all his wisdom, threw up in the sink and did a solid job of blocking it up, the oddity in this is that the toilet was 20cm to his right. I woke again at 2 in the afternoon feeling much better but still crappy, Rich was trying to clean the sink, but was not feeling to intelligent either! We have done many “firsts” on this trip and I’m sure we have done many things no one else has ever done, like taking apart the sink in their Cruise liner cabin because it was blocked with puke! He had cleaned it out with toilet paper but the water was not draining away. Don’t worry I have it on video, Rich sitting on the toilet taking the water trap apart and cleaning it out! I’m sure with the sate he was in it was as challenging as rocket science!
We left the ship on the 8pm tender ride and walked back to the Double Deuce bar, all was quite there so we decided to walk down the beach to where the Bon fire would be, the beach was not like the other beaches that are lined with beach bars and apart for the occasional it was deserted all the way to the Sunshine Bar. We were told to pick a table by a waiter and ordered a Rum Punch, later we found out that they were serving us Killer Bees which were a tad bit stronger than the rum punches we were used to. I should have guessed this from the gag reflex and squint eyes Rich had on his first sip! After a while we still had no menus and the owner who was sitting behind us on a big sofa shouted to the waiter (in a typical Caribbean / Jamaican accent) “Moffie! Hey Moffie what you doing?” The other waiter was a gay black local dude with tight knee length jeans and a black cowboy hat. He replied, “I is busy mon” and Sunny (the owner) said “Rubbish mon, Dukkie (our waiter) is f&%king around again, get these guys a menu” You had to be there to laugh at it but it was hilarious. The bonfire we were supposed to be having was coming along rather slow. The man in charge was a stoned drunk Rasta of about 70 years, with torn jeans bright island floral shirt and a big beanie for holding his dreads up, the task was proving challenging to him! He had stacked a pile of four wooden packing crates against each other and was in the process of stuffing cardboard in some of the gaps after which he lit it, walked away and succeeded to burn all the cardboard in the structure with out setting fire to any of the wood, he now had a smoking mass of pallets and no more cardboard, he was very entertaining while we waited for our ribs to arrive. After a few minutes he appeared again, with a fat joint and a fresh beer, realising his fire had gone out and he had used all his cardboard in the first attempt, he walked (the slowest I’ve ever seen anyone walk) over to the edge of the rain forest and started collecting dry coconut husks and branches and attempted to relight the fire, he succeeded this time but only just. Next to the bonfire pit was a large stack of wooden pallets that he was too feed the fire with, he did this from time to time and stumbled around the beach in a rather confused looking state, actually stumbling is not right, he was walking VERY slowly and swaying from side to side with a joint in one hand and a beer in the other.
Our Ribs arrived with more Killer Bees, both went down the hatch with satisfaction.
About 30mins later the bus from the Cruise arrived with a load of fellow cruisers who had opted to eat on the ship and come to the bonfire with an organised excursion. We moved into the open air lounge and joined up with them on some big over size couches along with 2 fresh Killer Bees, we chatted about where we were all from and what we had done during the day etc The one girl was having a birthday so they bought over a Papaya complete with candles and we all sang for her while the “moffie” cut open the papaya with a panga. The rest of the time at the beach bar was taken up by dancing (not us) and standing around the bonfire drinking and taking to other people from the ship (us).
The taxis arrived for the trip back to the jetty to get the tender back to the ship, we bummed a ride and said we had lost our return ticket, the driver didn’t seem to mind as I presume he was paid a set rate by the ship for the trip. After we got back to the ship everyone we straight up to the deck 5 bar where the DJ was busy trying to get a party started with those who did not go to the bonfire party, it all went out the window from there and is mostly a blur. I have no idea what time I got to bed but it must have been around 3ish, Rich ninjaed before that and was flat on his back when I got back to the room completely and utterly broken. Much to my dismay I woke up at 7am with a monster hangover but luckily I fell asleep again. While I was asleep Rich, in all his wisdom, threw up in the sink and did a solid job of blocking it up, the oddity in this is that the toilet was 20cm to his right. I woke again at 2 in the afternoon feeling much better but still crappy, Rich was trying to clean the sink, but was not feeling to intelligent either! We have done many “firsts” on this trip and I’m sure we have done many things no one else has ever done, like taking apart the sink in their Cruise liner cabin because it was blocked with puke! He had cleaned it out with toilet paper but the water was not draining away. Don’t worry I have it on video, Rich sitting on the toilet taking the water trap apart and cleaning it out! I’m sure with the sate he was in it was as challenging as rocket science!
Thursday, 29 March 2007
Nevis
So as you gathered from Rich we are in Nevis today and we were in Antigua Yesterday. We got off the boat today and caught the Tender across the the island, they do not have a deep water port here so the boat is a few hundred meters off shore. We arrived at the jetty and walked into town, not allot going on here,I guess they don't get many tourists. After about 10mins walking we found the beach and the Double Deuce Bar. Thankfully they have a Wireless Network! So here we are, 20m from the beach, rum, balmy breeze, private yachts, flat Caribbean sea, white sands and our cruise ship visible through the coconut trees.
When we boarded the Cruise ship in St Kitts 2 days ago it was so cold we had to put a Tee Shirt on! and I cant remember the last time i wore closed shoes, slops all the way!
Lunch was good, I hand the King Fish and Rich had a hamburger, we both had rum, what else! We have met a few other people, some Americans and some British folk we have been keeping and eye on the NZ Vs WI game online, and trying to explain to the yanks how it works, a lost cause.
A bit later there is Bonfire down the beach but we will go back to the ship first to drop off the laptop and cameras etc, I think we might pull it (again) tonight!
Well its getting late and the tender is arriving soon so we need to start taking a walk back to the jetty.
I'm sure we will update from St Maarten tomorrow. AND tomorrow we are going sailing on an Americas Cup sailing boat! NICE! US$75 for 3 hrs but it will be worth it! and then afterwards it's off the the legendary sunset bar to watch the 747's land and take off over the beach!
Cheers!
When we boarded the Cruise ship in St Kitts 2 days ago it was so cold we had to put a Tee Shirt on! and I cant remember the last time i wore closed shoes, slops all the way!
Lunch was good, I hand the King Fish and Rich had a hamburger, we both had rum, what else! We have met a few other people, some Americans and some British folk we have been keeping and eye on the NZ Vs WI game online, and trying to explain to the yanks how it works, a lost cause.
A bit later there is Bonfire down the beach but we will go back to the ship first to drop off the laptop and cameras etc, I think we might pull it (again) tonight!
Well its getting late and the tender is arriving soon so we need to start taking a walk back to the jetty.
I'm sure we will update from St Maarten tomorrow. AND tomorrow we are going sailing on an Americas Cup sailing boat! NICE! US$75 for 3 hrs but it will be worth it! and then afterwards it's off the the legendary sunset bar to watch the 747's land and take off over the beach!
Cheers!
Easycruise....
We checked out of gateway at abt 2pm and made our way to the ship. It was fairly simple to check in. We went up to our room, which is about 5x4m, which consists of bright orange bunks and bright orange bathroom and a white toilet. Cool - thing is - we have hot water - wohooooo! We chowed at the restaurant on board which wasnt badly priced, and moved to the bar for a few drinks afterwards till abt 11ish i think. There was a DJ that started playing at 10. He didnt get much of a crowd going. We should have seen it coming cos his shirt said "I'll lower my standards for you"- which he did cos it was crappy! We crashed, and at abt 3ish the ship left from St Kitts to go to Antigua - it was a bit bumpy, and I heard someone honking their guts out down the passage. This got me a little nervous, so I just lay still waiting for the gag reflex. Being a seasoned pillager and rum drinker - there was no sign of that!
In Antigua, we docked at the deep water port of St Johns, and had to take a taxi into town. There was a shopping mall that was duty free which was at the main port - which truly sucked! So James had the idea of going out to English Harbour cos the tourist book recommended it. So we did. BUT - we were wise - we took the bus which was 7.50 EC (abt 3 US) to get there in stead of 25U. The bus drove as fast as he could, and stopped at the various letting people off and taking people on. There were a few close misses, but we made it!
We climbed off the taxi where we thought was English Harbour, but it was actually the Falmouth Marina. This was cool - cos there were LOTS AND LOTS of super yachts! It was a truly humbling experience. Those that can remember Foreplay that was at the last boatshow in capetown. That had absolutely nothing on these! these were around 3 decks and just beautiful. We cruised around there a bit looking at the boats, and then headed to English Harbour to Nelsons Dockyard, which was a 5min walk. This was interesting - it was the harbour where Horatio Nelson which is why it was called Nelsons dockyard. This was first used in 1671, and British started using it from 1725 as Naval Dockyard, and built in strength till it was closed in 1889. It was pretty much Englands maion dockyard protecting them from Pirates and privateers etc.
There were also a lot of boats parked at English harbour. There was a super yacht that had a blue hull that must have been fully automatic - it was about 100-120ft. It was stunning. We watched one cruise from Rhode Island that was leaving. He struggled for about 30mins to pull his anchors up. The engines didnt sound too good when they were trying to pull them up.
We left there and headed to Pigeon beach to try and swim. This was about a 15min walk, and it was worth it - nice sandy beach and warm water. We parked off there for abt an hour then headed back to the mad mongoose for a beer only to discover that SA needed abt 2 runs off 18balls. This was shocking considering when we left it was - 63 off 29 overs. We won- thank god! and then had a few beers and rum punches till about 7ish, then caught the bus back to town.
We went to the BIG BANANA PIZZA place, for pizza of course, but the service was undoubtedly the worst ever. Our total wait was about 45mins to an hour. The guy gave James his pizza, which we saw sitting on another table for 10mins, and he complained. We eventualy got up and left, and looked for another restaurant, but the only reasonably priced place was subway. So - back to subway it was! We chowed quickly and went back to the boat to shower and prepare to PULL IT! Luckily I remembered that there was a sign that te easy cruise boat was moving to St Johns main port, so we checked there first, and indeed - it had! This saved 6dollars taxi ride.
After showering we headed out looking for a party and settled on THE COAST. There were quite a few people there, but I suppose we werent in the mood anymore. And had two drinks and called it quits.
The ship moved to Nevis after that, and dropped anchor off shore, so we had to take a tender to get ashore. We are sitting on Pinneys beach now at the Double Deuces having some drinks and lunch, and hopefully the bonfire party will be good later!
Speak later and will post some pics!
In Antigua, we docked at the deep water port of St Johns, and had to take a taxi into town. There was a shopping mall that was duty free which was at the main port - which truly sucked! So James had the idea of going out to English Harbour cos the tourist book recommended it. So we did. BUT - we were wise - we took the bus which was 7.50 EC (abt 3 US) to get there in stead of 25U. The bus drove as fast as he could, and stopped at the various letting people off and taking people on. There were a few close misses, but we made it!
We climbed off the taxi where we thought was English Harbour, but it was actually the Falmouth Marina. This was cool - cos there were LOTS AND LOTS of super yachts! It was a truly humbling experience. Those that can remember Foreplay that was at the last boatshow in capetown. That had absolutely nothing on these! these were around 3 decks and just beautiful. We cruised around there a bit looking at the boats, and then headed to English Harbour to Nelsons Dockyard, which was a 5min walk. This was interesting - it was the harbour where Horatio Nelson which is why it was called Nelsons dockyard. This was first used in 1671, and British started using it from 1725 as Naval Dockyard, and built in strength till it was closed in 1889. It was pretty much Englands maion dockyard protecting them from Pirates and privateers etc.
There were also a lot of boats parked at English harbour. There was a super yacht that had a blue hull that must have been fully automatic - it was about 100-120ft. It was stunning. We watched one cruise from Rhode Island that was leaving. He struggled for about 30mins to pull his anchors up. The engines didnt sound too good when they were trying to pull them up.
We left there and headed to Pigeon beach to try and swim. This was about a 15min walk, and it was worth it - nice sandy beach and warm water. We parked off there for abt an hour then headed back to the mad mongoose for a beer only to discover that SA needed abt 2 runs off 18balls. This was shocking considering when we left it was - 63 off 29 overs. We won- thank god! and then had a few beers and rum punches till about 7ish, then caught the bus back to town.
We went to the BIG BANANA PIZZA place, for pizza of course, but the service was undoubtedly the worst ever. Our total wait was about 45mins to an hour. The guy gave James his pizza, which we saw sitting on another table for 10mins, and he complained. We eventualy got up and left, and looked for another restaurant, but the only reasonably priced place was subway. So - back to subway it was! We chowed quickly and went back to the boat to shower and prepare to PULL IT! Luckily I remembered that there was a sign that te easy cruise boat was moving to St Johns main port, so we checked there first, and indeed - it had! This saved 6dollars taxi ride.
After showering we headed out looking for a party and settled on THE COAST. There were quite a few people there, but I suppose we werent in the mood anymore. And had two drinks and called it quits.
The ship moved to Nevis after that, and dropped anchor off shore, so we had to take a tender to get ashore. We are sitting on Pinneys beach now at the Double Deuces having some drinks and lunch, and hopefully the bonfire party will be good later!
Speak later and will post some pics!
Monday, 26 March 2007
Cruise
Tomorrow we are boarding our cruise this is the Itinerary so you know where we are and when:
St Kitts 27th Boarding
Antigua 28th
Nevis 29th
St Maarten 30th
St Barths 31st
Anguilla 1st
St Maarten 2nd Disembark and fly home
Brimstone Hill Fortress
Today we went to Brimstone Hill Fortress with some Aussies who are also staying here at the Gateway. We caught a taxi to town and did a bit of shopping while they checked their mail at an Internet café. For the trip to Brimstone we caught a local minibus taxi like we have back home, complete with the stupidly large speakers and demented driver! We raced along the coast road at breakneck speed dodging goats, dogs, cars and even tractors. When we were dropped off we realised that Brimstone hill was a rather large hill, and we were at the bottom! We started up the hill with the positive words from one of our Aussie companions that he had read in his travel guides that it was a 30 mins walk up the hill, thankfully we did not have to find out if this was true because 2 mins up the hill a passing car offered us a lift, an American lady on her way to have a look at the fort.
Brimstone Fortress was built in the late 1600’s and is a very impressive display of period military design and architecture, a truly imposing military complex. The hill was first used by the English in 1690 when they dragged cannons up the hill to fire down on the French who had just recently overrun the English compound of Fort Charles, their effort was successful and they realised the potential that Brimstone hill had for more permanent fortification. Brimstone Fortress was designed by the best British Amy engineers and built with slave labour from Africa. Spread over 30 acres and multiple levels the fortress is huge, surrounded by triangular bastions, bristling with canons, magazine stores, Ordinance store, Engineers quarters, parade ground, soldiers barracks, quarters for warrant officers, Artillery officers and Infantry officers, a drainage system that joined all the gutters to a reservoir in case if a siege and even a cemetery. To top it off at the highest point there is an armoured citadel of impressive dimensions, complete with a drawbridge for a last stand should the rest of the fortress fall! Needless to say Brimstone Fortress was never taken! This place makes the Castle of Good Hope look tiny!
After exploring for some time we started to walk back down the hill, we were luckily enough to spot a short cut about ¼ of the way down which lead to past the lime kiln (used for making the cement during construction) and back on to the road. We waited for a bit before a minibus taxi arrived to take us back to town at the maximum warp speed that seems to be the norm!
We will post some pice tomorrow.
Cheers!
Sunday Night
After posting the last story we went on the hunt for food and caught a taxi down to Frigate Bay beach and the Shiggidy Shack. There was not a lot going on, kind of like the rest of the town, but we found a table and ordered food, rich went for a burger and I ordered ribs. There was a chilled vibe while we waited, we have come to realize that for the locals there is absolutely no reason for haste, ever, so when food is ordered it is best to sit back and enjoy the rum. Which is exactly what we did, along with the live Caribbean music, light breeze, coconut trees, moonlight, and softy breaking waves, magic!
Both our meals were very good, and the rum was as we have come to expect. After the meal we took a walk down the beach past all the other bars/restaurants and stopped at Ziggys, there was not a lot going on there and there we too many locals so we walked back to the Shiggidy Shack and sat at the bar drinking rum and talking general crap and about the good times we have had so far.
The bar never really got busy, almost all the cricket fans and students from the universities have gone back to whichever country they came from. We left for home at about 23:00.Sunday, 25 March 2007
Sunday!
Today we decided to finish up with our St Kitts shopping. We still had no breakfast so we went across the road to our trusty internet deli and ordered breakfast. It was Awesome to have food that had some flavour and that was not “local”, we have been eating food here in our self catering that has been rather bland as we do not have any spices not even salt and pepper! At the Deli I had a Spanish omelette and Rich had a Breakfast Pizza with bacon and fried egg on it. We check our mail after eating and went back to the hotel to get ready for town.
We hitched a ride in the back of a truck and once we arrived we strolled around taking videos and pictures of various points of interest. Town was dead, I have never seen it so deserted, most of the good people were in church, presumably some were hangover and in bed some were actually in town, still pissed! This was at about 10am! Yes they were Australian.
We strolled around and only found one shop that was open, all the others we wanted to go to were closed so we decided to come back on Monday and caught a taxi back to the hotel.
Tomorrow we are going to Brimstone Hill Fortress and several people have recommended we go to the Sprat Net for some local seafood so we will do that for lunch and finish our shopping in the afternoon.
Tuesday we are getting on our cruise for the last leg of our trip and I will post the itinerary on a separate post so it is easy to look up when you want to know where we are.
I’m not sure what there will be on the ship in the way of Internet, hopefully there will be something and a wireless network would be first prize!
Cheers!
Game Day
(James here, Rich is tired of typing so I’m going to finish up)
Game Day!
Saturday we woke up a bit rough around the edges trying to shed the last bit of Irie Lime from our broken bodies, and too much dismay we had no breakfast in the house! We packed up or supporters tools and went to get a taxi, outside the gate we found some other residents of gateway and we all decided to share a taxi to town. Arriving in town we had hoped to get some breakfast but were not dropped near any of the normal shops so we went straight to the stadium. Arriving at the grass we found way to many Aussies for our liking and after scanning the crowds we found some other South Africans to sit with. You all watched the game so you know how it went, the men in yellow scored a very respectable total and we failed to match it. We had an excellent start to the game but in my opinion it was as a result of a stupid run out and an injured opening batsman, that we failed to win. Oh and Kallis thought he was playing a Test Match by comparison to the other guys.
Not to worry we will meet again and I’m sure we will prevail!
We drank water and Gatorade (Energade) all day, not on single alcoholic drink! We were sweltering in the heat, I don’t know how hot it was but we were in direct sun ALL DAY, the queue to the bar was ridiculous, and through out the day at various times they ran out of water, beer, rum, Gatorade, basically everything they were stocking they ran out of and had to wait before more stock arrived from other bars in the stadium. As you can imagine this upset people after waiting to get to the front of the queue only to find out the drink they wanted had just run out! If you are ever in the Caribbean don’t ever expect a local to wait his turn in the queue, they push till they get to the front or just shout from the back to the bar lady “Sweetheart! Hey! Sweetheart! Get me a Carib! (beer)” I wont even mention the food queue, all I will say is that we did not bother with it and went to buy food at another counter outside of the Party Stand. But aside from the lack of service it was a good day at the cricket but it would have been even better if we could have rubbed a win in the Aussie fans faces!
When the game ended we decided to go back to the hotel and shower before heading out to the bar and drowning our sorrows! We were covered in a slimy layer of sweat, sun cream and dust, so a shower was needed!
We decided to go the Holland House (just for a change!) it was disappointingly deserted but we bumped into Brian (another South African we knew) so we got a taxi down to Frigate Bay beach to see if any of the beach bars were busier. We started at the Shiggidy Shack with a rum and coke, it was still mostly full of dinners so we walked down the beach and settled at Ziggys Bar, honestly we really wanted to have power for a decent night out but the rums were going down with barbs!
It slowly started to get busier but we were not feeling it and most of the beach bars had too many loud drunk Aussies in them, pity, because loud drunk South Africans would have been better! We decided to call it a night at about 23:00.
Irie Lime
We got to town a little late on Thursday morning, and there was a queue at the Scotiabank, so we moved to First Caribbean Bank and got our cash – just in time to board the boat with about 47 other people – which was called the “IRIE LIME” a 70ft sailing catamaran with a yellow hull and white topside. The crew introduced themselves, and said that we were heading out shortly and they had lotsa rum, lotsa food and lotsa music for a huge party! Just as we left the docks, they handed out some drinks. We started with beer since we were going snorkelling in a little while. The people on the boat were mostly in St Kitts for the cricket, with a few Americans who were staying at the Marriot just taking a break.
The snorkelling was awesome. We all jumped into the warm crystal clear water in a small cove about 45minutes from the harbour. The water was around 20ft deep. There were a lot of fish. I saw a crayfish between some of the rocks as well as an octopus-type-of thing that moved across the rocks and changed colours while a watched it for a bit.
The cove where we went snorkeling...
After the dip in the ocean, we had some lunch. For a change - it was rice, fish and chicken! And it was really good. James went for seconds, so the rest of us followed since there was lots of it.
On the way to Nevis with rum punch!
We then moved on to the rum, and it flowed freely as we made our way to the beach next to the Four Seasons resort on Nevis. We passed a few private Mega Yachts, parked just off Nevis. Rather nice looking toys!
Super cruiser parked off of Nevis.
After the dip in the ocean, we had some lunch. For a change - it was rice, fish and chicken! And it was really good. James went for seconds, so the rest of us followed since there was lots of it.On the way to Nevis with rum punch!
We then moved on to the rum, and it flowed freely as we made our way to the beach next to the Four Seasons resort on Nevis. We passed a few private Mega Yachts, parked just off Nevis. Rather nice looking toys!
Super cruiser parked off of Nevis.
The boat pulled up onto the beach and a ladder was lowered from between the bow trampolines so we could walk down onto the beach, the bar moved with us to the beach – this was a good, or perhaps a bad thing! Cos it was HOT, and the rum just kept flowing. Some of the people from the boat played some cricket. James and myself walked down the beach to check out the resort. They had an awesome rimflow pool right on the beach. So we moved around the side of the hotel and made it seem like we were guests, so we put our stuff down next to a lounger and dived in. This probably didn’t fool anyone since we were pretty much on our way already. We swam for a bit, and at the wall that had the rimflow bit, there was a drain or mini pool type of thing just below it. So I made the suggestion – lets lie on the wall and roll into the gutter. This wasn’t such a bright idea, since I whacked the underneath of my foot, and James took a small gash above his ankle. Again – this probably didn’t help our chirade of trying to look like we were staying at the resort. We then moved away, got more rum punch from the Ire Lime crew member manning the cooler boxes and joined the rest of the people from the boat in the water “fielding” for the ongoing game of beach cricket.
Irie Lime parked on the beach at Nevis
Further down the beach we spied a floating trampoline, so we took a walk and swam out to that and had a few dives into the water – that rocked! But it was short lived since the boat was leaving in the next two minutes. We swam for the beach, and then did a baywatch run as to not be left behind! Of course with a detour to have a final bomb drop in the larny rim flow pool.
Back on the boat – more rum, and more music etc. James sat with the captain at the helm. I climbed up there a little after that. The view was good, and the captain was cool. We cant remember his name, probably cos they kept serving us more rum!
James with the captain!
Getting back to the dock, they poured us off the boat, and we needed more food! This was around 4:30/5pm, and we went to Subway to get food, and were planning on going to the Dutch pub again for a huge party after a power nap. We sort of didn’t make it, since we got back to Gateway at about 6, and passed out completely finished! We certainly got our moneys worth on the IRIE LIME!
Scotland vs Netherlands
We woke up on Thursday morning, to a bit of rain, and sort of took it slow, cos we saw on the TV that the game would be delayed. We left once the weather cleared, and started walking. We got a lift to the game with a local, who were also keen to see SA defeat Australia on Saturday. That was pretty cool – since we didn’t see any taxi’s and we figured we were running late. We got to the game, and parked off in the stand next to some aussies dudes. Again – they were in the little shorts rubbing sun cream on each other…. Makes one wonder. But – the game was a bit disappointing because Scotland posted a low score, and then Netherlands came in and beat them fairly quickly. Despite the early finish – we finished all of our drinks vouchers, and moved to the Holland House pub to celebrate with the rest of the Dutch fans. We stuck around for a little while, then got some grub from Subway again. Seems the best value. We headed home after that since we were pretty finished, and had to be up early for the boat ride at 9:30 the next day (And had to change some money to pay for it before hand).
Aussies and the shorts....
At the dutch pub celebrating
After the game on Fort Road
Wednesday, 21 March 2007
Pictures
Spot the Safers!
Rich found some locals at the Cricket bar (or they found him!)
Rich found some locals at the Cricket bar (or they found him!)
Hidning out of the rain in the DJ booth
Pillagers new kitchen decorations!
Fortunate Sun
Meet "Fortunate Sun" 177ft of privately owned luxury. She was renamed from "Perfect Prescription" from her drug running days and is now crewed by the Aussies we met at the cricket. We have no idea who her new owners are as the Aussies would not tell us, but she has a interesting history of being previously owned by a drug lord!
Basseterre
Today we spent the day walking around town and doing a bit of shopping, Basseterre is a quaint Caribbean town with lots of old world charm, we did not take any pictures or videos yet but we still have six days so we will defiantly post something to share with you so you know what we are talking about. Posting is a bit trickier with having to walk over the road to beg the Deli for airtime and also having a cricket game every second day.
We caught a taxi into town to The Circus, built and designed to be something similar to the London Piccadilly Circus, but obviously this one is much smaller! Surrounded by small hotels, shops and restaurants we exchanged money and spent some time browsing various touristy shops. We popped into Holland House, the Dutch pub that we have made our favourite watering hole, and bought some orange tee shirts for the Holland Vs Scotland game tomorrow. We have made friends with some of the local Dutch folk and we promised that we would lend our support on Thursday!
After the Dutch pub we took a walk to the Pelican Mall too have a look for some curios and Pirate goodies, not much going on there or at the market, which is kind of like Greenmarket square with stall after stall of the same crap, just replace the carved giraffes and soapstone with Rasta colours and anything with Bob Marleys face on it, yes the Rasta man is big here as well!
Port Zante mall was much better and had more variety, we bought various things from mugs to shot glasses to tee shirts and I even found a big Pirate flag for the pole at Clanwilliam! Nice!
After the Port Mall we took a walk down the breakwater and found the ferry terminal to Nevis, we were planning on going to Nevis today but we changed our plans last night because we are going there when we are on board the Cruise Ship. We have also booked ourselves onto a day sailing trip with a 70ft cat on Friday and that also visits Nevis when we stop at a deserted beach for snorkelling and a beach braai! I hope you are all enjoying life at the grindstone? ha ha! ;)
There was nothing of interest at the ferry terminal so we started looking for a place to eat and eventually settled at the Circus Grill. I enquired about the line fish and was given the choice of Snapper or Mhai Mhai, it was at this time our waitress informed us that Mhai Mhai is another local name for Dolphin. I also realised that I had the Mhai Mhai in Jamaica. Oh dear.
I hope she was confused and is not sure what a dolphin is, Richard (of course) dissolved into fits of silent laughter while it slowly sank into my brain that I may have eaten dolphin. I ordered the Lamb.
After a late lunch we caught a taxi back to our Inn and have been here since making phone calls and organising the rest of our tourist time here in St Kitts.
Tomorrow we are at the cricket in our newly acquired orange tees so if you are watching we will be at our normal possie on the grass next to the big TV.
Cheers!
We caught a taxi into town to The Circus, built and designed to be something similar to the London Piccadilly Circus, but obviously this one is much smaller! Surrounded by small hotels, shops and restaurants we exchanged money and spent some time browsing various touristy shops. We popped into Holland House, the Dutch pub that we have made our favourite watering hole, and bought some orange tee shirts for the Holland Vs Scotland game tomorrow. We have made friends with some of the local Dutch folk and we promised that we would lend our support on Thursday!
After the Dutch pub we took a walk to the Pelican Mall too have a look for some curios and Pirate goodies, not much going on there or at the market, which is kind of like Greenmarket square with stall after stall of the same crap, just replace the carved giraffes and soapstone with Rasta colours and anything with Bob Marleys face on it, yes the Rasta man is big here as well!
Port Zante mall was much better and had more variety, we bought various things from mugs to shot glasses to tee shirts and I even found a big Pirate flag for the pole at Clanwilliam! Nice!
After the Port Mall we took a walk down the breakwater and found the ferry terminal to Nevis, we were planning on going to Nevis today but we changed our plans last night because we are going there when we are on board the Cruise Ship. We have also booked ourselves onto a day sailing trip with a 70ft cat on Friday and that also visits Nevis when we stop at a deserted beach for snorkelling and a beach braai! I hope you are all enjoying life at the grindstone? ha ha! ;)
There was nothing of interest at the ferry terminal so we started looking for a place to eat and eventually settled at the Circus Grill. I enquired about the line fish and was given the choice of Snapper or Mhai Mhai, it was at this time our waitress informed us that Mhai Mhai is another local name for Dolphin. I also realised that I had the Mhai Mhai in Jamaica. Oh dear.
I hope she was confused and is not sure what a dolphin is, Richard (of course) dissolved into fits of silent laughter while it slowly sank into my brain that I may have eaten dolphin. I ordered the Lamb.
After a late lunch we caught a taxi back to our Inn and have been here since making phone calls and organising the rest of our tourist time here in St Kitts.
Tomorrow we are at the cricket in our newly acquired orange tees so if you are watching we will be at our normal possie on the grass next to the big TV.
Cheers!
Tuesday, 20 March 2007
Some more pics.... from St Kitts
At the shiggady shack with Gibbs after he hit the 6 sixes!
James with Ntini after the SA vs Netherlands game
James in the street after the SA vs Netherlands game
Some of the aussies congregating around the bin during the Netherlands game?
The Dutch pub....
Rich with Ntini
Puerto Rico from the plane
Puerto Rico from the plane
Walking and walking....
After leaving the restaurant – we went back to the apartment at Gateway. It was still warm, and I wasn’t feling hundreds yet, but we caught a taxi to town to see what was happening.
We walked around looking at shops and around Port Zante to see where we are going to board the ship. There was some cool pirate stuff in some of the souvenir stores that we’ll probably go back to check out again before we leave. There were also a few luxury cruisers in the harbour which looked mighty playful, but cos of security we couldn’t get much closer. There was also a Carnival Cruise liner parked in the harbour. One of the shop owners said that it was leaving shortly – and we saw it set sail! He also said that there are about 14-18 cruise liners a month that stop in St Kitts – which is apparently quite low?
We decided to rather chow tacos with mince and stuff back at the apartment and spent the evening watching tv, preparing for the SA vs Scotland game today.
Waking up this morning we sort of just woke up around 8ish and slowly got our things together for the game. We caught the taxi with the other people staying here at Gateway which worked our quite nicely. Some of the Scottish were wearing kilts and the full battle gear – that must have been warm! Also – they had SERIOUSLY PINK FEET!!!!! Someone must really tell them about sunscreen!
At the game we parked off in the usual spot – this time next to some aussies. Lets just say – aussies are a strange breed. Some of them at the game were wearing really short shorts, and they were rubbing sunscreen on each other! We sort of kept quite and minded our own business. But – in spite of this – half of them were also SUPER pink!
Anyways… for some reason Scotland batted first, and posted a score of about 187/7 (cant remember the exact details) in the 50 overs. We came it pretty quickly, and inspite of the rain in the 19th over – we came back to beat them in just 23overs! But – in the last 4 or 5 overs of the match – the bar ran out of rum, so we moved on to vodka and 7UP. Let me just say – they pout the vodka a lot heavier than the rum!
We also spoke to some guys who were out from St Martin watching the game. They are the crew on a ship called the Fortunate Sun – which is about 180ft! They said it’s a private boat, and this was the first day they had off since Jan 22, and the only people using the oat have been the family of the owner. He wouldn’t let us know who the guy was, but at 180ft – he must be worth a fortune. We reckon it may be one of the CCR guys cos of the name? He said we can check it out on Yachtspotters.com
After the game we stuck around to finish our drinks… The SA team came back out on to the field, and played some soccer, and kicked the ball AT each other. We were too far away to get any decent pictures – but it was funny!
We merrily left the stadium and went to the dutch pub again, and had a drink, but it wasn’t too festive, so we went looking for more. We ended up at Subway to get a 12” sandwich each and then caught a taxi home. Didn’t seem like much point in staying in town since we’re going to Nevis tomorrow for a 20/20 match and hopefully to play a good game of beach cricket!
We’re back in the apartment now, about to head to the restaurant now to post some stuff…and hopefully more photos.
Monday, 19 March 2007
Internet
Well after depriving you guys of decent Internet surfing for the last few days we have discovered that the restaurant across the road has a free wireless network and the lady that works here is very friendly and is letting us use it! So... WE'RE BACK!
e-mails to follow shortly :)
e-mails to follow shortly :)
The day after!
Rich here….
We just woke up after a HEAVY ONE. And the aircon in the room doesn’t seem to be working too well! But , lets see… um the Netherlands got beaten quite convincing by the Aussies – much to our disappointment!
We took a bit of a walk yesterday down to the beach at Frigate bay to see what the place looked like. It was pretty cool standing on the hill abt 200m down the road and being able to see both sides of the island. We walked for a bit, then got a lift from an American whose wife was studying at the nurses school. He was on the way to the Marriot to do some gambling, and dropped us off at the road down to Oasis – where we signed the wall. Getting to the beach – the sand was pretty dark, like volcanic type. OMY- Texas walker is on the USA channel now – unreal. Anyways We walked down the beach, and I must say – It looked a whole lot nicer on Friday night. Mr X’s watersports is supposed to be THE place to do jetskiing etc, but most of the equipment parked on the beach looked completely toasted. Walking down to the Marriot, the Banana Bus stopped and the guy gave us his card, and recommended that we organise a trip round the island with him. He showed us his rum, and pumped his sound system to show us his bus. Seemed like a cool tour to go on.
We kept walking passed the Marriot, trying to find a way back. There was a golf course on the left, with a driving range and it seemed like a better idea to go round the back of the golfers, so we did. Maxwell showed up a little while later telling us that we weren’t supposed to be there, and he gave us a lift in his golf cart abt 70% of the way back. Shyte – we had walked a long way! In the cart he was telling us that there were riots etc back in Pakistan cos they were playing so badly, and that the coach wasn’t allowed back into the country. This was after Ireland beat them the day before.
After getting back to the hotel, we were watching the game, and heard that the Pakistan coach had been killed in his room – apparently he was shot? I guess some people take the game a little too seriously! Anyways, we chilled for most of the day and watched tv and made burgers. Around 6ish we headed back to the dutch pub for some drinks. We bumped into the aussies from Friday night, and bought tickets for the Neth vs Scots game on Thursday. We had a beer, then stepped up after that. And did we step up! The rum and coke was in a small cups and was about 70% rum 20% ice and the rest coke. After the first one, I think I was feeeenished, but we kept going. Some of the dutch team rocked up a little later, and I got my pic taken with the guy who Gibbs hit for 6 sixes. He seemed like a pretty cool chap.
James was talking to one of the guys as well, and asked him where he was from. The dude was like “Im one of the dutch players”, he did some quick back peddling to say “Oh yeah, why didn’t you say so”. We’re not too sure what time we left, but at the end if the night, we had about 3 dollars, and 40 Jamaican between us, and of course 2 drinks cos we figured we were going to walk home. Luckily we got a taxi who accepted the money we had.
I woke up this morning, finding my camera on the one couch and my wallet on the table, I thought I drank them both out. James made bacon and eggs this morning, which has probably saved us!
We’re planning on heading in to town today to hopefully post this on the net.
Speak later….
Irie!
We just woke up after a HEAVY ONE. And the aircon in the room doesn’t seem to be working too well! But , lets see… um the Netherlands got beaten quite convincing by the Aussies – much to our disappointment!
We took a bit of a walk yesterday down to the beach at Frigate bay to see what the place looked like. It was pretty cool standing on the hill abt 200m down the road and being able to see both sides of the island. We walked for a bit, then got a lift from an American whose wife was studying at the nurses school. He was on the way to the Marriot to do some gambling, and dropped us off at the road down to Oasis – where we signed the wall. Getting to the beach – the sand was pretty dark, like volcanic type. OMY- Texas walker is on the USA channel now – unreal. Anyways We walked down the beach, and I must say – It looked a whole lot nicer on Friday night. Mr X’s watersports is supposed to be THE place to do jetskiing etc, but most of the equipment parked on the beach looked completely toasted. Walking down to the Marriot, the Banana Bus stopped and the guy gave us his card, and recommended that we organise a trip round the island with him. He showed us his rum, and pumped his sound system to show us his bus. Seemed like a cool tour to go on.
We kept walking passed the Marriot, trying to find a way back. There was a golf course on the left, with a driving range and it seemed like a better idea to go round the back of the golfers, so we did. Maxwell showed up a little while later telling us that we weren’t supposed to be there, and he gave us a lift in his golf cart abt 70% of the way back. Shyte – we had walked a long way! In the cart he was telling us that there were riots etc back in Pakistan cos they were playing so badly, and that the coach wasn’t allowed back into the country. This was after Ireland beat them the day before.
After getting back to the hotel, we were watching the game, and heard that the Pakistan coach had been killed in his room – apparently he was shot? I guess some people take the game a little too seriously! Anyways, we chilled for most of the day and watched tv and made burgers. Around 6ish we headed back to the dutch pub for some drinks. We bumped into the aussies from Friday night, and bought tickets for the Neth vs Scots game on Thursday. We had a beer, then stepped up after that. And did we step up! The rum and coke was in a small cups and was about 70% rum 20% ice and the rest coke. After the first one, I think I was feeeenished, but we kept going. Some of the dutch team rocked up a little later, and I got my pic taken with the guy who Gibbs hit for 6 sixes. He seemed like a pretty cool chap.
James was talking to one of the guys as well, and asked him where he was from. The dude was like “Im one of the dutch players”, he did some quick back peddling to say “Oh yeah, why didn’t you say so”. We’re not too sure what time we left, but at the end if the night, we had about 3 dollars, and 40 Jamaican between us, and of course 2 drinks cos we figured we were going to walk home. Luckily we got a taxi who accepted the money we had.
I woke up this morning, finding my camera on the one couch and my wallet on the table, I thought I drank them both out. James made bacon and eggs this morning, which has probably saved us!
We’re planning on heading in to town today to hopefully post this on the net.
Speak later….
Irie!
St Kitts
We have arrived in St kitts and most disappointingly we have no wireless at the hotel, so our posting will slowdown but we will try our best!
We last posted from the Kingston airport via a rather expensive Credit Card activated wireless network, that was on Thursday so we will try and remember what we have been up to since then!
We checked out of the Liguanea Club at about 8am and drove our hire car to the airport, when we arrived the guys were not there to collect the hire car we backtracked to the Royal Jamaican Yacht Club to admire the boats, very impressive! Mostly big fishing cruisers. When we got back to the airport we had to wait another 10mins for the people who were collecting the car, when they finally arrived we handed over the car without any hassles and went to check in.
The departure lounge was OK, not as good as the one on Montego Bay but we passed some time looking at the shops. We found out that there was a wireless network but it needed a credit card to access it, Richard did the honours, while we sat at the bar and drank out the last of our Jamaican Dollars! And that was the last time you heard from us.
Jamaican Fire Truck
The flight to Antigua was about 3hrs passing over quite a few of the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean which made for interesting views. We had about 2hrs in the transfer lounge at Antigua, the shops took up about 5mins of that and the rest was sitting and waiting. The plane that would take us to St Kitts was about the size of a Golden Arrow bus, with propellers strapped on the side! The flight took about 20mins and Im glad the age of propeller driven aeroplane is over as I had quite a headache by the time we arrived, might also have had something to do with the time spent at the Kingston Airport bar trying to drink out J$!
We caught a taxi Gateway Inn with a rather excitable taxi driver, who really liked our Tour Shirts! Most of the people we have met want to join our “Official drinking Team”!
Our hotel is nice, more like a motel, all on one level and is similar to a row of semidetached houses and about twice the size of my flat.
We got a relatively early night after a quick beer and hamburger at the restaurant over the road. The next day was the first SA game and what a game it turned out to be!
The day started well and we caught a taxi to the stadium with the other fans staying here, 2 Aussies, 2 South African on one Scot so that worked out a bit cheaper. The saving in money was short lived once we got to the gate and Rich realised he had left the tickets on the table back at the hotel!! Another US$12 back to fetch them! We rushed back to find that the start of the game was delayed because of the rain the night before, and it eventually got underway at 12:00, 3 hrs late! Im sure you all watched the game so I wont go into details but wow what a game! 3 records broken by SA Gibbs hit 6 6’s in one over Boucher scored the fastest 50 ever off 21 balls and I cant remember the other one!
We have tickets to the “Party Stand” which includes lunch and 8 drinks of choice, no arm-twisting necessary for the rum! They were serving El Dorado 12year old, voted “the best rum in the world” by a panel of clever people, and I agree, it went down like cool drink! After the first couple of rum ‘n cokes we got to know the barman who preferred the Safircans to the Aussies and started getting heavy handed with the rum! We then came up with an ingenious plan of using one drink ticket to get a whole cup of rum and paying cash for a bottle of coke, as you can imagine things went down hill from there!
After the game we walked down to the town square in search of a party, there was a concert in the park but it was flooded with local and no tourists so the search continued! Eventually we found a Dutch pub to gate crash! Everything and everyone was orange, we were in green, thankfully the Dutch are friendly folk and we were soon all good mates! We had good fun with them until it started to empty out, no idea what time this was but I spose it must have been about 7pm, the night was still young!
We caught a taxi to Frigate Bay beach and settled into a beach bar with some American students a few minutes later Charl Langeveld arrived so we had a chat and a few beers with him, he remembered us from the game (we kept offering him rum!) and he was pleased we made the trip all the way from SA to come and support the team!
We decided to find another bar and walked down the beach to the “Siggidy Shack” and found the rest of the SA team! We had a great time with them, what a great bunch of guys! They all had loads of time for us and, like Charl, were really pleased that we came to support them.
You guys who were on the Rugby tour to JHB last year will remember that we were on the same plane as Graeme Smith and that I told him we would be in the Caribbean and that he must keep an eye out for us, AND HE REMEMBERED US FROM BACK THEN!! But he must have thought I was kidding because he was really surprised to see us there! We were stoked that he remembered!
The Officail Drinking Team with Graeme and Ashwell
We hung out with the boys for a bit and decided to go back to the other bar, unfortunately it was around this time that we got separated! I looked for Rich for what felt like forever but it was probably more like 10mins! I then found a taxi to take me home lucky I had the keys! On the way we drove past Richard who had decided to walk back so we stopped to pick him up.
We woke up way too early on Saturday with a hangover of note and no food in the house, so we braved a walk to the supermarket to get some supplies, mainly bacon and eggs! The walk seem to take way too long, it really looked much shorted out the window of the taxi the day before! Thankfully the locals took pity and we were offered a lift in both directions. The bacon and eggs went down well as would be expected and the rest of the day was spend doing nothing but recovering!
Today, Sunday, the Aussies are playing the Dutch and we promised the Dutch we met at the pub that we would be at the game today wearing orange, unfortunately we are not going to make it but I’m sure we will see them at the Dutch pub after that game!
The Aussies are not fairing so good and are 145-3 and unfortunately the Dutch also dropped 2 catches! GO NEDERLANDS!!!
Our Next game is on Tuesday so if we are not able to post before them make sure you keep an eye out for us!!!
Thursday, 15 March 2007
Last two clips before we leave for St Kitts....
View from a lookout in Fort Charles
Yummy Goat on the side of the road heading down from Strawberry hill
Jamon, We're at the airport now, and are boarding in about 15mins...
See you in St Kitts!!!!
Irie!
Yummy Goat on the side of the road heading down from Strawberry hill
Jamon, We're at the airport now, and are boarding in about 15mins...
See you in St Kitts!!!!
Irie!
Pictures of Port Royal and Fort Charles
Beautiful 3rd world Kingston beach
Fort Charles, all the land between me and the fort used to be underwater before the 1692 quake.
Giddy House, named by the local because it makes you giddy! The house used to store all the shells for the cannons that were installed in 1888 and was tipped at an angle in the 1907 quake
The view from inside to outside
The entrance to Victoria Battery. This also sank in the 1907 quake, the cannon it housed weight 22 tonnes and had a range of 3 miles
A side gate into Fort Charles
a plaque on the wall, you guessed it, above a bolt in the ground!
A map of Port Royal
A plaque dedicated to Horatio Nelson, it reads: " you who tread in his footsteps remember his glory" no such plaque for the Pirate Morgan!
The view from the Admirals tower where he could watch all sea traffic coming and going from the port. All the land outside the fort used to be underwater.
St Peters Church
a humbling experience
Buffalo, right hand, calling it!
What a fantastic experience!
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