Flying Cloud Trip Report

January 1997

By Bruce Gaede

We were a slightly larger group this year as our son Steve, age 24, accompanied us on the Flying Cloud. It was his first WJ trip, and our third, all on Flying Cloud.

Sunday, 1/26

Left Chicago early Sunday morning. Temperature about 5

degrees below zero, but little wind and no precipitation.

Flight to San Juan uneventful, and we had a couple of

Hours layover there to change clothes and have lunch. Lee and Steve went outside the terminal just to experience the warm air and sunshine. The San Juan airport is terribly over-air-conditioned. Probably to accommodate all of those cruise line passengers in their slacks and blazers. Took the hop to Tortola arriving in the late afternoon. Lee and I cleared immigration but they asked Steve to wait until everyone else had gone through, then took him into an office. It turns out that the BVI has a law against admitting anyone wearing dreadlocks. The immigration officer was very nice about it and called her superiors to explain that Steve was traveling with his parents, was booked on WJ, and had a return air ticket, so they gave her approval to admit him. She explained in the future he should write ahead for permission to enter the BVI and there should be no problem. By this time almost everyone was through customs, but I got stuck behind a guy with a backpack who was subjected to a search of just about everything down to opening toothpaste tubes. So I maintained the family tradition of being the last one through. Outside there was a taxi packed with all the other WJ folks, so there was no net delay.

We went to the dock to catch the 6:00 launch, and it appeared that there were only a few pax, but as soon as the launch came in they swarmed onto the dock like reef fish coming after Danny's leftover bread. We wound up having to wait for the launch to return for a second load. On board we were greeted by Capt. Adrian and went in to the saloon to meet Tassoula (sp?) the Activities Mate, and Valerie, the Purser. One advantage to knowing what's happening is that you step right up when invited, so we got checked in quickly before even got the first swizzle down. This was our first experience with a lower deck cabin and we found we really liked the extra space.

It was an awfully quiet evening on board. By the time the steel band got past the limbo contest there were only about 10 pax left on board. Everyone had gone ashore to watch the Super Bowl. Turns out the smart pax watched at the taxi stand at the end of the dock with the drivers rather than trying to push their way into Pusser's.

One nice surprise was that we found Kid behind the bar, just like old times. We had heard he was off the Cloud doing something else, but he told us he had been back for several weeks. Slept on deck until about 2 am when a rain squall forced us below. This was to be the pattern almost every night, and we never got a full night on deck.

morning. At this point the Capt. was not promising anything for the week as the wind would be too strong to reach Virgin Gorda and the swells too high for Norman Island.

After story time we went ashore and had lunch on the beach. We did some snorkeling off the beach and loafed around most of the day. This was our first test of our "beach cloths" which we made out of lightweight nylon so we wouldn't have to carry beach towels. They worked great on the beach, and turned out be nice waterproof covers for sleeping through rain squalls on deck, and were colorful costume accessories for the fancy dress party later in the week. The rain held off that night for the crab races, and I won $14 on $6 bet. We got several hours sleep before the rain started.

Wednesday, 1/29

Another early start, but it turned out that the wind had moderated and gone back into the east overnight, so we made one long tack over toward Beef Island, then made Spanish Town about an hour after breakfast. The wind was more favorable but still rather stronger than usual. We went ashore about 11:00 and Lee and I took a taxi over to Savannah Bay. The beach was deserted and we snorkeled out around the reef. The south side was not too bad, but still too much sand in the water to take any pictures. Around the west and north side the swells were kicking up so much sand we could barely see the reef. We dried off and loafed around, and discovered an even greater hazard than the manzanilla trees. Some variety of grass hadvery sharp, burr-like seeds all over the place. We got themon our beach cloths and our shoes, and must have spent a half hour picking them off. The taxi met us at 2:00 and we went over to the Mad Dog's with every intention of having lunch and touring The Baths. Met Tassoula on the porch at Mad Dog's while we were having lunch and chatted with her, then Kid showed up after shopping in Spanish Town for more liquor. It seems that one group of pax from Montana had run him out of several kinds already, and he had to pay retail to restock for the second day in a row. Then Kid bought a round of drinks, we swapped WJ gossip, then I bought a round, then more WJ gossip, and finally decided we didn't really want to see The Baths again, it was getting late, so we took a taxi into town and got the 4:00 launch back to the ship. Went a couple of thousand miles to Virgin Gorda and never got any further than Mad Dog's. Shipwrecked again.

We were anxious to get back because the Capt.'s brother-in-law was scheduled to officiate at a wedding at 5:00. The Rev. Heineken Pilsner showed up on schedule and started the proceedings. When he asked if anyone could show any reason why the couple should not be joined in "perpetual alimony" a blond in a purple sequin cocktail dress tried to drag the "groom" away but failed. Funniest thing, but she had a mustache almost exactly like Kid's. At the end of the ceremony one of the pax, Carol from England, asked the good Rev. what the S. U. Y. T. on his hat stood for. The Rev. told her, and she complied in fine style. Lots of pax went ashore for dinner on Virgin Gorda so only one seating aboard. Spent the evening chatting with the Capt. at the bar, only 5 or 6 pax on deck. We went aft and turned in to sleep on deck with our beach cloths (after picking out the last of the burrs from the beach). They worked for the first rain squall, but the next squall had high winds and we couldn't keep the cloths down on the blankets, so we went below.

Thursday, 1/30

Motored out of Spanish Town and sailed down the channel. TheCapt. decided that the swells were still too high to go out into the Atlantic, so we sailed down the east side of Tortola. The wind was now moderate so I asked for a chance to steer. I had spent about an hour watching the crew steer the last couple of days, so I had a better idea what I was doing this year, and I had some good coaching from Taran. I spent about a half hour at the wheel and had the pleasure of hearing Taran tell the mate that "He knows what he's doing." Shortly thereafter a couple of paxcame aft and sat down on the starboard lockers. Mitra was supervising me from the after rail on the port side behind the honeymoon hatch. After about 10 minutes one of them suddenly said, "My God, he's steering the ship!" Turned over the wheel to the mate and went to breakfast when Lee came up on deck. After breakfast I went out into the widow's net for the rest of the morning. We sailed through The Narrows and over to White Bay on Jost van Dyke. Went ashore for lunch ("Cheeseburgers in Paradise"), and Steve and some of his friends did some snorkeling around the point between White Bay and Great Harbor which they said was good. We wanted to catch Foxy so three of us walked over the hill and spent the rest of the afternoon listening to Foxy and drinking beer. Foxy started right in on me, making up a song about Chicago and about "White man who ties up his hair so his brains won't leak out" and "Most men go on vacation with one woman, why you go with two?"

We kept waiting for the Cloud to come around the point but it started to get late and she still hadn't come in. Went over to Rudy's dock to find the launch in, but they said they were going to wait until the ship was anchored to go out. Not many pax in town, and very few caught Foxy's singing.

Got aboard and cleaned up in time for dinner, only one seating again because so many pax were at Rudy's, and most of those who ate aboard went over to Foxy's. We had a long talk with Deni, a passenger from Philadelphia we had been with at Foxy's that afternoon. Lots more rain during the evening, and it was just too wet to even try sleeping on deck.

Friday, 1/31

Some rain in the early morning but a nice sunrise coming through The Narrows. I had another short turn at steering, then invited another passenger to try it. Remembering my ownfirst experience with no help at all, I coached her along until she got the hang of it.

Since this was our last sail I spent the rest of the morning enjoying the motion of the ship as we headed for Norman Island. Sailing was somewhat disappointing as we only set three staysails and sometimes the inner jib. The forecourse and foretopsail were off the ship, and we did not set the foretopgallant, the outer jib or flying jib, or the mizzen any time during the week. Some other features were conspicuous by their absence, and we learned in talking with the Capt. that liability was eliminating more and more activities. Capt. Adrian does not allow diving off the ship, no longer uses the cannon (some passenger apparently sued WJ complaining about damaged hearing), and he does not take the ship out into any kind of swells at all. He feels that liability and regulations will be making even more changes in the WJ experience in the future.

Arrived at Norman Island about 11:00 and anchored. The swells had gone down and the water was very clear, although we had a few rain squalls. The weather cleared when we went in snorkeling, however, and we explored the reef and took pictures. Came back for lunch, then back into the water. By this time we had the hawser on the rock and had the Cloud very close to shore. We explored the coral and fish under almost ideal conditions with bright sunshine and almost calm water. So all of our apprehensions about missing a lot of our favorite places due to weather fortunately did not come about. Late afternoon we had an easy sail over to Roadtown where the fancy dress party was scheduled in conjunction with the Captain's Dinner. We anchored in the harbor at first, but about a half hour later went alongside the dock in preparation for meeting Amazing Grace the next morning. After the second dinner seating Patrick prepared the fruit flambe on deck and we had the costume judging with the usual silliness, although there was not as much participation as usual. With all this going on, some of the pax actually wanted to go ashore, so the launch ran until midnight. We had just finished the fancy dress party when the monsoon set in with really heavy rain and winds. We went below to pack and turned in as it was already pretty late.

Saturday, 2/1

Got up to a dismal, cloudy, rainy morning. After breakfast we went up on deck to find that everything was pretty wet, and the wind had torn the awning over the bar so one corner had come adrift. The launch left with the ferry passengers, and then we had to scramble off about 8:30 because the Capt. had to move the Cloud away from the dock so Amazing Grace could come alongside and offload supplies both to the Cloud's deck and to the dock. The Grace showed up about 8:00 but disappeared for a while in fog and a rain squall.

We shared a taxi with another passenger to Beef Island and had a pretty uneventful trip home.

Bruce and Lee in Evanston