The first thing he said when he boarded the ship was "Where's the bar?" We
also met the guy with the long ponytail that we saw on the harbor, and his
girlfriend. Another guy came on board, also asked where's the bar. Greg
looked at his luggage tag--it said Don Johnson, so Greg asked him "Hey
Don, where's your blazer?" And that guy was a total partyer--always laughing
with a great sense of humor. So we were already having a blast.
After an excellent buffet dinner on deck, a reggae band started playing
for us. The kids were hopping around all over the place--amazing what
youthful energy can do for you! Greg and I also went out and danced with Pryce,
one of the engineers, along with some other couples. At the end of the band's
set, Greg, who's a drummer, was laughing that they weren't playing the
timbales and cowbell drums too much. So he just went up there and started
playing, without even asking. It was hilarious! He wouldn't normally do
that, but I guess a few Carib beers under his belt changed his mind.

At midnight we sailed out from the harbor to our next destination. The
crew raised the sails to the song "Amazing Grace". It was beautiful
looking at the millions of stars in the sky, with the lights of Grenada
fading away in the background.

Monday, May 12, Carriacou
----------------------------
I woke up feeling queasy, as the ship was rocking pretty hard all night.
But I felt OK after some Dramamine. I've never been seasick on my
previous cruises, but those were big cruise lines and not a Windjammer. Many of
the passengers were seasick that morning and missed breakfast.
We had breakfast and arrived at Carriacou, a beautiful island with long
white sand deserted beaches, palm trees, and hardly any tourism. The
Captain gave his first story time that morning, and we discovered that we
had about 60 people on board--almost full capacity. Once we knew where to
go, we headed to town early for some shopping, but there wasn't too much
to select. The town was nice but rural with goats and cows running about.
The lunch special was fresh red snapper with local spices, and Greg liked
it so much he went back for more five times! Our ship sailed to a deserted
beach on the island in the early afternoon--a regular cruise ship could
never do this. Greg and I did some snorkeling, but it wasn't the same as
diving. Nonetheless, we enjoyed it and took advantage of the opportunity
to off-gas from the nitrogen that day.

After taking the last launch on board, we showered and had our 5:00 rum
swizzles and snacks. At 6:30 we had an excellent dinner with soup,
veggies, and strawberry shortcake. Caribbean music played as we sailed
into the sunset to the next island.

Tuesday, May 13, Bequia
--------------------------
Woke up to the smell of fresh coffee and pancakes with nutmeg syrup.
After
the captain's story time, we signed up for another Scuba dive. There was
only one other person aboard who was previously certified. A handful of
passengers decided to take the resort course that day, which would be good
for two weeks. We were already PADI certified, so we just showed our
cards and went. The dive boat picked us up from our ship, and they put together
all of the equipment for us. A far cry from lugging around all of those
tanks and weight belts back home! The divemaster didn't say much, so
everyone just jumped in the water and we did a mild drift dive. The coral
was just gorgeous, and we saw these huge schools of fish. I went slightly
ahead of the group and saw 3 big 3 foot fish. After we got down to about
500psi in our tanks, we went up. The max depth that we went on this dive
was 50 feet.

After lunch on board, we took the launch out to the island of Bequia, a
small whaling port with lots of yachts from the East Coast. We did some
shopping and hiked up to the fort at the top of the hill, and took some
pictures of the cannons with our ship in the background.

We jumped on the launch back to the ship, and had another excellent dinner
in the galley. Tammy, our purser, informed us that we would have until
midnight on Bequia. Thus, we took the launch back to the "Gingerbread"
dock after dinner. What a difference at night! It was like being in a
real-life Pirates of the Caribbean, with the sounds of crickets and all of
the lights of the bungalows along the sea. The Gingerbread dock had
multi-colored lights, and we ran into a group of couples from our ship and
headed to a former plantation house called "Plantation". Plantation had a
bar that was hopping, as they had a reggae band there. This band only
played every other Tuesday, so we were lucky. The band was great and we
danced most of the time. Many members of the crew, along with Tammy the
purser, were also dancing. Greg and I were just having a blast. We said
that the trip would be successful if it ended today, but we luckily had
three more days.

Wednesday, May 14, Tobago Keys
-----------------------------------

That morning we set sail for the Tobago Keys, and the water was so green!
I had never seen water like that before, even on our honeymoon on a
Carnival ship to the northern part of the Caribbean. Many people were
seasick and missed the biscuits for breakfast. After the captain's talk,
we signed up for another dive in the crystal clear water of the Tobago
Keys. However, the dive boat came early, so we could only get down a
couple of bites to eat for lunch.

The dive tour operator, who was based on Union Island, was very friendly
and she said that we would do a drift dive to 50 feet. This was the best
dive so far! Huge walls of reefs, and the current was really fast. It
was wild--we were moving without kicking. I went a little ahead of the group,
and I looked up and realized that I was heading into 3 sharks (they
weren't too big-about 4-5 feet long each)!! I tried to swim back to the group, but
the current was too strong. So I remembered my training, which I learned
to stay as low to the ground as possible so the sharks would swim over me.
Luckily that worked, but I think I used a lot of air during those 30
seconds. The sharks swam up to the left and the divemaster tried to point
them out to the group. However, it's hard to communicate underwater, and
Greg missed the sharks because he was exploring the bottom. We then saw
even more huge fish and walls. Scuba Diving magazine says that the Tobago
Keys is one of the best places to dive in the world, because the vis is
great and the reefs are intact. We tried to do a safety stop at the end
of the dive, but it was too hard without an anchor line and almost empty
tanks.

Once we returned to the ship, we took the launch out to a gorgeous beach
with turquoise water on an uninhabited key. We just relaxed on the sand
and goofed around in the water for a bit and returned to the ship. That
afternoon we set sail for Palm Island. John Caldwell leased this island
and planted palm trees all over it. Before that time, the island was a
swamp and named "Prune Island". Caldwell also opened a successful resort
on the island, and it's now worth a fortune. The island was the most
beautiful that I've seen. We met John Caldwell and had him sign his book
for us. We had a BBQ dinner on the beach of the resort and there was some
dancing, but it was Michael Jackson music, so people weren't really in to
it. So we walked along the beach that night and headed back to our ship.

Thursday, May 15, Palm Island
---------------------------------

We woke up to the sound of the breakfast bell and had some great French
Toast. The bread and rolls that we had were the best that I've ever
eaten. After the Captain's Storytime we signed up for our final dive--our first
wreck dive. It was an old English gunboat that sunk on a reef in 1918.
It was only in 35 feet of water and had coral growing all over it. You could
see the outline of the ship, even though a large portion of it was gone.
I got a good workout swimming against the currents on the sides of the ship.
We saw a huge lobster with an off-white camouflage, a big puffer fish, and
a barracuda. It was really cool, and Greg and I were even able to make a
safety stop on the anchor line. After another exhilarating dive, we
headed back to the ship for another great buffet lunch on the beach of
Palm Island.

We then decided to explore the island, as it was so small that you could
walk around it. We saw some crabs on the other side of the island and
bumped into another couple, Don and Patsy. After some swimming and water
jogging, we headed back to the ship on the last launch. Later that
afternoon, we set sail for Mayreau while playing "Amazing Grace". It's
just so beautiful sailing on this ship.

Our purser Tammy told us that we would have crab races that evening. We
bet on one crab in each heat and all three crabs won their heats! And the
final crab who won had the best odds, so we won $28. Not bad for our
first crab race!

Tammy then told us that we would have a costume party after dinner. Greg
dressed up as a pirate and I did a skull tattoo on his arm with my
eyeliner. One of the church kids covered himself with Life Preservers
connected with tape--he called himself "Preserver Boy" and he was just
hilarious. He acted like a superhero saying "I am Preserver Boy. No
really, I AM Preserver Boy". We called him that the rest of the trip.
Some of the men dressed as women, and the costumes were just hysterical.
Most of the church group dressed as the characters from Gilligan's Island,
and they won first prize.

We stayed up and had some drinks with Don Johnson & Patsy, and Charlie &
Sue. I had an excellent drink called Night Train which was like a
Chocolate Ice Cream Drink with Kaluha. The bartender put some music on, so
we danced with the crew until late that night. The crew wouldn't let me
sit down--they kept pulling me onto the dance floor. We tried to sleep
out on deck, but the music was just too loud, so we went back to our cabin.

Friday, May 16, Mayreau
--------------------------

We arrived in Mayreau, which is a small island with only 200 people.
However, the island was quite lush and green. We headed to the beach for
some snorkeling and water jogging. Again, it was wonderful to be at a
deserted beach. One guy piled up so many coconut-fried shrimp on his
plate that we called him "Shrimp Boy" during the rest of the trip. We headed
back to the ship for a special Captain's dinner that night w/Caesar salad,
Mahi Mahi, and banana's flambe. It was neat seeing all of the officers in
their uniforms, after seeing them in shorts & t-shirts all week. We
started getting silly and drinking with Don Johnson, Charlie, and some
other couples--laughing about all of the shenanigans that went on during
the week, and about some of the nude cruises that we heard about. Luckily
we weren't on the ship that week! "Preserver Boy" came over and we were
talking with him for a long time--he was really cool and had lots of
questions about California.

We got really silly and took pictures of the four men and the bartender
squeezed into the bar, and then the women were next. All of the kids got
Don Johnson laughing and we were having a blast. I never laughed so hard
in my life. We didn't go to bed until 1:30, and we had to get up at 4:30
to catch our flight! It was hard to realize that we had to return to
reality after this incredible trip.

Overall, we rate this trip as the best. We had a great Captain, excellent
crew, awesome food, great diving, beautiful non-touristy islands, and
really laid-back partying passengers. All of the above made the trip
wonderful. We really enjoyed talking with the crew, especially the
Captain and First Mate Glen, who gave us a class on navigation, sailing,
tying knots, etc. The Captain was very approachable and helpful. He
really knew how to sail that ship. Would we sail the Yankee Clipper
again?
You bet!

Colleen Baicher

E mail: baicher@apple.com

Back To Yankee Clipper Trip Report Page

Back To Main Trip Report Page

Back To Home Page