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!

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!

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!

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!

Cruise

Tomorrow we are boarding our cruise this is the Itinerary so you know where we are and when:

St Kitts 27^th Boarding

Antigua 28^th

Nevis 29^th

St Maarten 30^th

St Barths 31^st

Anguilla 1^st

St Maarten 2^nd 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!