Windjammer Singles Cruise

S/V Flying Cloud

April, 1997

By Kay Barnes

I am a veteran or a "seadog" as it is called in Windjammer lingo after

you have gone on your first Windjammer cruise, but this was my first

"singles" cruise. I wasn't sure if I would like it or not.

(Editors note: Kay is not officially a Seadog. To be a Seadog you have to take five

full fare Windjammer Cruises, this was her third)

My trip began unfortunately on the Sunday morning that we changed our

clocks back one hour and my flight was due to leave Dallas at 6:00 AM or

5:00 AM according to my body clock. Before this I had been on two

regular (couples/singles) cruises with a close girl friend of mine. But

this time I was traveling alone because she (lucky her) had a boyfriend

and didn't want to go. My plane got off on time to Miami where I stayed

on the same plane to St. Thomas. Unfortunately my carry on luggage and I

both had to get off the plane in Miami so they could spray it in case

some of us from Dallas had brought some big bad Texas bugs with us, what

a bother it was, to get off and go right back on. Anyway, I landed in

St. Thomas and went straight to get a taxi to the Windward Passage hotel

where a Windjammer rep was waiting to sell me my ferry ticket and taxi

voucher. I got a brief look at the St. Thomas congestion and traffic and

as I had heard of the terrible crime problems was glad I was not

staying. I got to the hotel and found Pam the Windjammer rep. There were

already three people with her, two girls Patty and Gena from Philadelphia

whom I liked right away and would come to spend much of my time with them

on the cruise, also a guy named Paul form California was there. We all

bought our ferry pass $42 which included payment for the taxi from the

St. Thomas airport to the hotel and from the ferry dock back to the

airport on St. Thomas and the ferry ride, a great buy I thought.

After all this was taken care of the 4 of us headed across the street to

catch the 2:45 ferry to take us to Tortola, BVI to get on Flying Cloud.

I just loved the ferry ride over, Patty, Gena and I all sat on top and

chatted the whole way over. We were fast friends by the time we got to

St. Thomas. I think taking the ferry over is better than flying over to

Tortola because it gives you time to watch the islands go by and admire

the gorgeous blue/green/turquoise water and the green hilly islands. We

got to the West End in Tortola about 4:15 PM and got a taxi with some

other people who it turns out were going on the FC too. We got to the

ferry dock after very nice scenic drive in time to catch the 5:00 PM

launch (first launch you can get on) over to the ship. I met up with

an old friend with whom I had sailed with before Dennis, and some other

Internet friends with whom I had chatted with for over a year on Seadog

Sunday night Windjammer chat group, Lee and Sticks and also my roommate

with whom I had chatted with for a few months on the Internet. Lee has a

Windjammer web page that is VERY good    

and he has the sailing lists of who is sailing on it with their web address so you

can correspond with your fellow passengers before you actually meet them.

I felt like I already knew a number of people on the cruise even though I had not

met them before in person.

We got to the ship and received our first 5:00 PM rum swizzle of the trip,

got our cabin assignments and took care of the technical stuff. Valerie and

I went down to our cabin to get unpacked only to realize we couldn't, NO

room in cabin #32. I had requested #23 as I had heard it was a great

cabin. Ours for some reason had no storage space under the bunk beds as

the cabins usually do. So we made do. We then went up on top deck to

look the ship over, I had not been on this one before. I really liked

the FC and the widows net would be easy to get in on this ship an

important thing to me. I used my dabloon for the first time to get a

drink. On Windjammer ships you get dabloons for $10 with a circle of black

dots on them as when you want a drink you just have so many holes per

drink depending on the kind you want punched out. The drinks on

Windjammer ships are very reasonable. I started meeting some people and

chatting, getting to know others and talking with friends I already knew.

Throughout the evening people kept arriving on the ship so there was

constantly new people to meet and I just love meeting new people on a

Windjammer ship. The standard question is always have you sailed before

if so then you reminisced about past trips and friends etc. The

"seapups" wanted to know what to expect and I told them the trip of a

lifetime :-) Diner was buffet on the top deck and the sunset was quite

lovely. About 9 PM fireworks started shooting off on shore. They were

beautiful and we all thought they were for our benefit until one of the

crew told us that it was the celebration of the end of a sailing regatta

week in the BVIs. It sure was fun to watch fireworks from the deck of a

sailing ship. We also got to meet our captain for the week, Captain Max

who is a relief captain for Windjammer and in my opinion the best captain

they have. He is very nice and interesting to talk to and very

attractive with great legs :-)

As to what is different on a singles cruise as to a regular cruise, well

that became apparent soon after dinner. There are two types of singles

who go on a singles cruise in my eyes anyway. Those who expect and/or

looking for romance and/or bed partner for the week and those like

myself, Patty, Gena and some other really fun singles I hung around with

that week who just wanted to have fun with other singles not expecting or

wanting romance. I can tell you that the chances of finding someone on a

ship that only hold 75 passengers (half women half men) that lives in the

same state much less city who is even your type is VERY slim. Ship board

romances with distance involved don't last for the most part. There of

course was some pairing off . Late in the evening one poor guy

whom I could tell was not sober came over and tried his lines out on me.

Boy was he sorry. I did say sure I would be more than willing to bed

with him but I did have certain conditions. He looked at me rather and

asked what I was talking about actually he said huh! I started naming

my conditions on each of my fingers, a diamond ring marquis shaped about

3.5 carrots, one million dollars in an escrow account in my name, a house

on the beach I looked up from counting on my fingers and he had walked

away. I just grinned real big and looked over at Valerie who just

grinned and gave me the thumbs up. I decided to go to bed at that point

I was tired and it had been a long day. But a fun one, I had met some fun

people that evening.

Monday day 2

I slept really great all night, those bunks just rock me to sleep. After

breakfast I went up on deck and found Patty and Gena and sat down to chat

with them. Every morning on a Windjammer ship the captain has a story

hour where he tells you about the island you are at for the day and Max

always told some funny stories. The activities director on the FC is

Tusala who is lots of fun and a great cut up. She speaks after the

captain about any shore excursions options and answers general

questions. The purser on FC this trip was Zelda who had been the purser

on the Fantome when I sailed on her last summer. This morning we were

told that we would set sail in the afternoon to sail over to Peter island

and swim off the ship. So Patty, Gena, and I decided to go shopping in

Roadtown for postcards so we could go ahead and get them written up and

sent. We then went over to the famous Pussers Tavern for their famous

drink the "painkiller" and then we went back to the ship. We raised the

sails that afternoon after lunch. Raising the sails my very favorite

thing as Windjammer always plays "amazing grace" from the speakers as

the crew and those passengers who want to and MOST do pull the lines to

raise the sails. The experience always makes chill bumps go up and down

my spine and I get very sentimental. We sailed over to Peter Island and

as it was late afternoon when we got their I opted not to swim and get my

long hair wet instead I got a mat and got out on the widows net my

FAVORITE place to just relax and take it all in. For those who do not

know what a widows net is it is a net of ropes attached to both sides of

the bow (front) of the ship. There is nothing between you and the

water below but this net of strong ropes. It really is very safe and

lots of fun to crawl out there. Rum swizzle time was at 5:00 PM and I

changed and went up for that and met some new people I had not met the

night before with whom I would spend much of the week also, Colleen and

Karen from Chicago and Jim a really fun and sweet guy (who had the

honeymoon suite!) from Ohio. Jim was lots of fun to be around he had a

great sense of humor as did Patty and Colleen. Lee also is quite a

character, he was in our little group all week too. Our gang was in the

back of the ship talking and went to the first seating for dinner. On a

Windjammer there are two seatings for dinner and two choices for entrees

which you tell Tusala each morning which you want after she gives you your

choices. NO assigned seating thank god like you have on the cruise ships.

Dinner was fun, after I spent the evening talking with my old friends by

now and talking to new ones too. After dinner each evening if you are

staying on the ship there is an activity planned. On Monday night it

was naughty nautical trivia game, where everyone was divided up in

groups and competed against each other. After that was over everyone just

relaxed and talked. I went to bed around midnight but I heard that most

nights the bar didn't close till 3 or 4 AM. I am not a big drinker and

tend to be a morning person anyway so I never stayed up that late. Some

people sleep in mats up on the top deck everynight, which I have yet to

try but on this ship the bar is also on the top deck and with people up

and drinking and music playing till very late. I never did try it as I

need quiet to sleep.

Tuesday day 3

I forgot to mention before that in the British Virgin Islands you can only

sail in the day time because the islands are so close together. We

usually raised sails around 6 or 6:30 all week and dropped anchor around

9or 9:30 most days. So on the FC you don't do a whole lot of actual

sailing and most of it is when you are in bed or eating breakfast. At

story time Max told us we were to be at Cooper Island for the day and

would have lunch on the beach. Cooper island has wonderful beaches.

When we went ashore: Patty, Gena, Colleen, Karen, Lee, Jim and I all

found a great spot under some palm trees. We got some mats and made

ourselves at home. We swam some, chatted some and slept some all day.

There were some very funny incidents that happened that day on the beach

but you had to have been there to find it funny so I won't relate the

story now. That evening after dinner we had crab races. Tusala drew a

circle on the top deck and dressed up in a crazy cute outfit. What a

crab race is like a horse race but with crabs they had numbers painted on

their backs and funny names. We could bet on these crabs and urge the

ones we had bet on to move their legs faster to get over the finish

line so we could win money. It really is a fun event. I saw this guy

with a camera on a tri-pod taking pictures and I had not met him so I went

over to say hello in my Texas drawl which I heard about all week :-) He

was really nice and funny too. His name was John from Denver. The rest

of my group met him and like him too. His roommate Tom form Florida

came over and talked and he was nice too so they both became part of our

group for the rest of the week. I tell you I sure was having a BLAST and

the week was not half over yet.

Wednesday - Virgin Gorda

During story time on Wednesday morning Captain Max gave us the low down

on Virgin Gorda. He said the "baths" were great but to avoid crowds

go in the late afternoon and we should go see Savannah Bay which is

beautiful. He said this was a great island to eat dinner ashore as there

were many good restaurants and we could easily rent jeeps if we wanted

too. Of course dinner would be served for those staying on board for

dinner. Our gang " Lee, Jim, Tom, John, Gena, Patty, Colleen, Karen and

myself all decided to have dinner ashore and go dancing afterward and to

rent a jeep for the day. We all went ashore and stopped at a grocery

store for the essentials: chips, cookies, cokes and toilet paper i.e.

Johns purchase :-) and then headed out after spending awhile getting the

paper work done to rent jeeps. Off we went on the wrong side of the road

as locals immediately pointed out :-) We drove around getting lost for a

short time then got our bearings. We finally found Savannah Bay at the

end of a dirt road. It was worth the effort to find it. It was very

secluded there were just a few people there besides ourselves and no

shops, bars or even toilets it was very natural and very beautiful. The

only thing I wished it had had was a few shade palms (remember I like

those shade palms) We all spread out our towels and made ourselves at

home and swam, snorkeled, ate and took some very interesting pictures

with Lee's camera while he was in the water <VBG> I wish I could have

seen his face when he got them developed all I can say is it wasn't my

idea. After awhile we decided to go explore the island some more and

head for the "baths" We stopped for some great photo ops several times

and John our photo expert wanted to stop every few feet it seemed and he

took forever to take a picture. Once we just drove off and left him (we

did not go far and went back) he was not bothered at all, I am not sure he

even noticed we were gone :-) We finally made it to the top of the Baths

where the famous "Mad Dogs" bar is where they are famous for their Pina

colatas . We made ourselves at home in some very comfortable chairs and

had lunch and those great Pina colatas and chatted for quite a while and

of course since we were drinking we had to make trips to their famous rest

rooms that were decorated so interestingly <VBG> After a while we got up

the energy to go down the path to the baths. It is hard to describe the

baths, it looks like once millions of years ago some giant had these

boulders the size of houses and cars in his hand and just scattered them

along the beach. It was fascinating to climb around, over and among them

and it made for some unique pictures. I think Jim and I were the only

ones to come out of it not banged up with skinned knees or bruises etc.

Lee and Colleen climbed up on one huge rock and could not get down so John

" SUPERHERO John as he called himself the rest of the week helped get

them down. Of course Lee tells a different story :-)) After staying

awhile down around the boulders we headed back up to Mad Dogs to rest

and have more Pina colatas :-) So we spent the rest of the afternoon

hanging out there. We went back to the ship at 5:00 PM to get ready for

our evening out. We all took our rental car and followed a taxi to the

Flying Iguana for dinner. It had excellent seafood and other dishes and

had a great view if it had been light out. After a really fun dinner

with great conversation we all headed over to the "Bath and Turtle" to go

dancing. We had heard they had a good band playing there. So we all

hung out there talking and dancing. The captain and some other of the crew

showed up too. We got the last launch back to the ship. So ended

another GREAT day in paradise :-)

Thursday

We are at Jost Van Dyke today. Captain Max as he does every morning

told a very funny story about how the island got it's name. We

went ashore to a very nice beach again for a wet landing. I headed up to

the one lone shade tree I could see on the beach and stayed there all

morning in the shade and occasionally swimming and talking with some of

the others from the ship who were near me. Dennis was with me briefly

but he went off for a walk over the hill to see what was over there. He

knew better than to ask me to go with him. Me exercise HA! only under

duress. We were told that another great bar was down the beach the "soggy

dollar" but I was to lazy to go down that way. One of the guys went down

to get drinks and I had him get me one. The ship brought lunch ashore

for a picnic on the beach which was nice. After lunch I went back to my

shade palm and was forced to take a long nap :-) Most of us went back to

the ship late in the afternoon to get ready for another dinner ashore at

a really neat restaurant "Rudys" which supposedly had GREAT lobster with

all the fixings home style for $20. Most of those on the ship opted for

diner at Rudys but some did stay on board for dinner. My usual group (you

know there names by now) all went to Rudys and got a great table outside

by the bar and settled in for the evening. At Rudys you can write all

over the walls and posts which before the evening was over most of us

did. There is even a message there from me under my nick name

"Cruisecat" We had a great time drinking and talking, laughing. etc. The

captain and Tusala and Wendy from the ship showed up. Finally dinner

was ready and it really was a great dinner and WELL worth the $20.

During the evening while Lee wasn't watching Patty and Jim wrote a VERY

interesting message on the wall about him and took a picture of it.

Dennis is going to post it on his web page when he gets a copy and gets

it scanned. I can't wait to see it :-) After diner we all merrily made

our way to the most famous bar in the BVI's "Foxys Tamarind Bar" Foxys

son's band was supposed to play but he had had a fight with his dad so he

would not play. So we had music from CDs to dance to and it is always

fun to dance in the sand. My group was really having a good time talking

and cutting up so we never made it to the dance floor. At one point in

the evening a really good song came on and the next thing I knew

Tusala and Wendy were up on tables dancing and I have picture to prove it

and then I looked over and Patty and John from our group were up on

tables dancing. I wish I could have talked Dennis into getting up there

but I knew he wouldn't so I didn't try. If there had been a vacant table

to dance on at this point I sure would have got up there, after all I

have done that before. Foxy had a trampoline set up and some from the

ship went over and jumped on it. Foxys is a great place and I do want

to go back there and to Rudys too (just to see if the message about Lee

is still there :-) We again caught the last launch back to the ship.

Gosh another great day and evening but I knew the next day was the last :-(

Friday - last day of the cruise

Today we were to spend at Norman Island. This is not a beach island but

has numerous caves with great coral and lots of schools of fish. This is

the island that Robert Louis Stevenson based his book "Treasure Island"

on. Captain Max told us at Storytime that the caves are great for

snorkeling and the that entertainment for our last night would be a

costume party with the theme PPP Your costume had to start with a P

i.e. pirate, pimp, prostitute, popeye etc. He said we would have all day

to think of a costume but to use our imaginations. One funny thing about

story time that I haven't mentioned so far is that Colleen and Karen had

not got up in time to make it to story time all week. Some people in our

gang NOT including myself had most night closed down the bar not going to

bed till around 3 or 4 in the morning so I had heard all week. This last

morning we were determined that Colleen and Karen would make it to at least

one story time so there was a guy on board who was a trumpet player for a

symphony orchestra and he had brought along his trumpet. So we stopped

captain Max and ask this guy if he would go get his trumpet and play

reveille outside their cabin. He did and everyone was watching then Jim

says that they were sleeping in his cabin because there was more room so

we had this guy go to Jim's cabin and play reveille while Captain Max and

the rest of us peered down into Jim's cabin. Then we went back to the

area where we had story time and a few minutes later out came Colleen and

Karen looking very sleepy everyone clapped and cheered :-)

On with the story. There had been parasailing opportunities all week and

I finally got my nerve up on the last day to try it. There were about 9

of us going including one 75 year old lady Marge who was a really fun

cool lady and Lillie who was afraid of heights and myself. The

parasailing company picked us up in their boat and off we went to get

out in clear water and wind. I was not about to be the first to try it so

another guy went first. You take off and are brought back to the back of

the boat on a platform. These two people were very good and patient with

us. I would highly recommend them. I was the third person to try it.

I got into my harness and got out on the platform where they attached me

to the parachute and got my instructions about how to let them know if I

wanted to go higher, lower or if I wanted to be bought down and have my

feet dipped into the water and taken back up. I do have to say it was

the COOLEST thing I have every done. I just loved it up there on top of

the world it was just me and GOD up there. It is very quiet you don't

feel the rushing of the wind and the views of most of the virgin islands

is just FANTASTIC. I even hung upside down to get the view from that

angle and I laid back in the harness. I of course motion that I wanted

to go as high as that parachute would take me. All I could think of was

how beautiful it was and that now I sort of knew what a bird felt like.

Gee I wish I could fly. I also got my feet dipped in the water which a

blast too. They bring you down slowly to the water and just as your feet

get wet they immediately gun the engine and take off and up you go in a

hurry WOW!!! then they slowly reel in the line attached to the parachute

and all to soon it was over. I can't wait to go back and go parasailing

again. That afternoon after lunch on the ship I went snorkeling and

exploring the caves which was fun and I took some bread out to feed the

fish so I could get lots around me to take pictures. That evening after

swizzle happy hour I went down to get ready for the costume party.

The costume party is always the highlight of Windjammer cruises. Since

I had been on two previous cruises I knew this was coming so I brought

my costume with me. I was a pirate and a very attractive one at that

:-) the only problem I had with my costume was that my plastic pirate

sword and gun were confiscated at the Dallas airport when I left to come

down. Last year I got all the way down to the Caribbean and back home

with my pirate weapons and no one said a word but not this year. My

friend who took me to the airport took my weapons home with her to keep

for me. So I was a weaponless pirate :-( bummer!

It is always quite a show as people come up in costume and you get to see

how creative they were. Everyone acts like the paparazzi taking many

pictures as each new costumed passenger arrives. Of course the bar was

pretty busy too and even the crew dressed in costume. Captain Max came

as a very attractive pirate, Tusala was a prostitute. My friends Patty

and Gena came as priestess dressed in white sheets, John came as a

Photographer so what else is new, Colleen and Karen came as a pair of

prophylactics they had blown up some condoms and attached them to their

clothes, Dennis was a pirate, My roommate Valerie came as a puppet and

another guy Steve was a puppeteer. Sticks was a pain in the ass with a

bandage on his behind, Lillie was a pink penguin, Marge was pimp, one guy

came as pee wee Herman (and he looked like peewee Herman) Two costumes

were very memorable Gorgeous George came as a prostitute in a very brief

costume of lingerie and I can safely say he had the build to carry off

wearing next to nothing YUM! I got lots of pictures of George. Every

one danced around to music and a panel of those who didn't do costumes

judged the costume contest and Ron who was a cute prostitute and George

and Lillie the pink penguin won. Everyone danced to music and had buffet

dinner. A really fun night was had by all. It was really sad to say

goodnight and good bye to friends. The end of the cruise is always sad

because I never want it to end. But only the cruise part was ending. I

was staying two days afterward on the island as were some others.

Saturday

I reluctantly packed last night so I could sleep in this morning. Some

people had very early flights so had already left by the time I made it

to breakfast. But some of my group were staying over for a day or two,

some on Tortola, some on St. Thomas. Patty and Gena were staying on St.

Thomas but were not taking the ferry over until the afternoon, Dennis had

an early afternoon flight so he was still on board. Myself, Steve and

Sticks were all staying at Ole Works Inn on Cane Garden Bay for two

nights and Lillie was staying at Rhymers for two nights (she had stayed

here one night before the cruise as well and had affectionately nicknamed

this hotel "the bug infested slum" So here is a warning to any thinking

of staying here DON'T unless you don't care about such things. Sue whom

I hadn't even met until this morning :-( was not leaving until the

afternoon. So Lillie Sue and I decided to go shopping finally :-)))

There had not been any shopping opportunities all week. We didn't have

to have our luggage off the ship until noon anyway. So there three of us

got a tax into town and a shopping we went. I recommend the Caribbean

spice shop for some great gifts and I went to the Caribbean fabric store

since I sew and got some had painted material to sew some outfits. We

then went to Pussers one last time :-( for a last pain killer and

lunch. We met up with Patty and Gena and Steve and Sticks there. Lillie

and I got a taxi to go back to the ship to get our luggage and headed

back to Pussers where we were to meet Steve and Sticks and go to our hotel.

The drive to Cane Garden Bay was beautiful as was the drive anywhere on

Tortola. It is very mountainous with hairpin turns and sheer drop offs

and beautiful vistas before you every time you went over a hill or

around a curve in the road. We got to Cane Garden Bay and checked in. I

love my room and do recommend Ole Works Inn. My room was huge and had a

nice bathroom. A few minutes later there was a knock at my door and it

was Lillie and when she saw how nice my room was she nearly cried and

insisted I come over with her to see hers. I must say my mouth fell open

as I saw it. It looked awful and had no security on the door to protect

you. Lillie told me she paid I think it was $65 a night and I told her I

was paying $70 a night which included breakfast at the famous Quitos

restaurant right across the road from my hotel. We decided to change

into our swimsuits and meet on the beach in a few minutes.

I was a little disappointed in Cane Garden Bay. It was really crowded

with buildings hotels, restaurants where we were staying and didn't look

as great as some of the beaches I had seen all week. But that is not to

say it was a bad beach either. Steve and Sticks came up to us and asked

what our plans were for the evening. We had decide we were going to

Skyworld for dinner. I had researched the island before coming and knew

that the view from this restaurant on the very top of the island was 365

degrees and it supposedly had great food. So we had our taxi driver Ron

of White Rock Taxi Service who by the way is very good and reliable to

take us for dinner. Sticks and Steve joined us. The view was worth the

trip and the food was really good too. After dinner Lillie and I went

over to Quitos Restaurant across from my hotel to the famous Quito

himself play. The restaurant is set out over the water of Cane Garden

Bay and has lots of atmosphere. So we stayed there for an hour so and

had drinks and listened to Quito sing before going to bed

PS Dennis stayed at Rhymers before the cruise and found it ok for his needs.

Sunday

Lillie and I decided that we wanted to go to anther bay for the day and

tour the island. So we got our trusty taxi driver Ron to take us over to

Brewers Bay and leave us for a couple of hours then he was to pick us up

and take us on a tour of the island.

Brewers Bay is really nice with beautiful water and great snorkeling and

long curving beach. There is also a camping place right there near the

water. Lillie and I found a really nice spot under the shade of a nice

big palm with a hammock conveniently hung between two trees right behind

us. Neither one of us could resist laying in the hammock for awhile and

napping to the sound of the water gently lapping on the shore. This

beach was nice in that there were also not many people. Lilli and I

snorkeled and napped all morning then we headed up the beach to the one

beach bar and had a beer while we waited on Ron to come pick us up. When

Ron got there he had another couple in the cab who were headed over to

long Bay. They were a really nice couple and we chatted all the way over

there. We did stop several times for photo ops ( it made me think of

John) I got a really fantastic panoramic shot of Apple Bay, Carrot Bay

and Long Bay from a high hill over looking all three WOW! now that is a

beautiful picture. Ron dropped them off the couple at their condo and we

toured all along all three bays and I finally got to see the famous

Bamba's Shack" We had to stop and take pictures of this sight. I had

never seen anything like it. It is literally a shack thrown up on the

beach at Apple bay with everything under the sun nailed on the walls (if

you can call them walls) and inside the same kind of stuff plus bras and

panties. That place is amazing. I found it hard to believe this is "the

place" to be especially on full moons. We of course took pictures! We

passed another really nice restaurant right on the beach and Lilli and I

decided that was where we wanted to have dinner our last night. We got

back to the hotel in late afternoon and went to the beach till time to

dress for dinner. Lilli and I had decided we didn't want Sticks and

Steve with us this evening ( you wont meet guys with guys friends all

ready with you) so we really dressed up and off we went to "Sebastians

on the beach" On the way over it showered for the first time since I had

been there but it had quite by the time we got to the restaurant and I

got to see a beautiful rainbow :-)) We had a table right by the railing

over the water and it was very beautiful to watch the water and sunset

while we ate a great dinner. Sebastians had a band so we stayed and

listened to them for awhile until we thought it time to walk down the

beach to "Bambas" <VBG> the party was going full blast. here were a

ton of people there dancing in the sand right on the beach. We stayed

for awhile danced a couple of dances and a few drinks. But all to

soon it was time to go back to the hotel as we all had early morning

flights.

Monday

I had one last breakfast at Quitos' overlooking the water and then checked

out of my hotel and got the Ron our taxi driver to take me in my case to

the ferry dock at West End. I caught the ferry and had a nice leisurely

trip over to St. Thomas and then to the airport. and then an uneventful

trip back home.

summary

I loved the singles cruise. I am told by friends that have been on

singles cruises on the Polynesia that this one was quiet which was just fine

for me. I will do another singles cruise. I think the key to my

enjoying this cruise was that I went with the intention of just having

fun and meeting other singles. I was NOT checking anyone out. But I

still like the regular (couples/singles) cruises just as much and will

do those too.

I do LOVE the BVI's and wish I could think of a way to move

there. The people I met were really nice and friendly they speak English

and take American money :-) that always helps. The islands are very

pretty too.

THE END :-)

Kay Barnes

McDermott Library, UTD