S/V Flying Cloud, April 1997

By Lee Burke

This is part two of my March/April trip report on Windjammer Barefoot Cruise ships The S/V Polynesia sailing out of the island of St. Maarten and S/V Flying Cloud sailing the British Virgin Islands.

If you have not read my first weeks trip report and want too than

Saturday, April 5, 1997

Flew into the Beef Island airport from St. Maarten. Going through customs was slow. Like all Caribbean Island customs inspectors they were as sour faced as always. After they had me open my duffel bag and checked everything and I mean everything they let me enter their island.

I took a taxi to Cane Garden Bay ($30) to the Ole Works Inn. It was a forty five minute drive.

The hotel was nice but the room I had was not all that great, but good enough for one night. Jim Kannen who I have sailed with many times before stayed at the same hotel and paid the extra money for a better room which had a balcony and great view of the bay. My room on the other hand had no balcony, smelled of some strange odor, the sheets were stained and the view I had was of brown dried hilly area. Next time if I go to that hotel I will spend the extra money for a better room. Also that night every hour on the hour a rooster right outside my window pretended it was sunrise!

I met Dennis Bachus who I have e mailed back and forth with over the last six or seven months on the beach around 2:00, he had a beer waiting for me. We said our hello’s and figured out we were somewhat normal. After laying out in the sun awhile we had a late lunch. A lady named Lily came up and said hi. I had my Polynesia tee shirt on, she saw it and told us she was going on the Flying Cloud that week. She was really hyped. Lily was a character. A rather energetic lady. After lunch I saw Jim Kannen. It was good to see him since he was also considered somewhat normal. <smirk>

That night me, Dennis and Jim went to Quiento’s for dinner. The food was good. After we ate other people I had sailed with at one time or another joined us, they were Gabby, Steve and Sticks. Lily also arrived. They were all hyped up for the cruise. All except for Lily had just arrived on the island and were hungry, so they had dinner too. The band started playing and it was a really good.

Me, Dennis and Jim left around 11:00pm while the others stayed at Quiento’s to drink some more and listen to the band. It was an early night since Dennis and Jim had been flying all day and had gotten up around 4:00am, plus I was beat from the week of windjamming the prior week on the Polynesia.

Sunday:

Got up and had breakfast with Jim at Quinto's. it was good.

After breakfast Jim had to move his stuff from his room. Since I had arranged a late checkout he put his stuff in my room and we went to the beach. Dennis, me, Jim, Sticks and Steve spent the day on Cane Garden Beach. Like the prior week and now this week it was sunny with the water being calm and crystal clear. That pretty much can be said for every place we went that week.

We met Marge who was the Activities Director trainee on the Polynesia on my first cruise (Jim's too) back in April 94. She quit the job that week we were on the Polynesia. She was with her mom and they were doing a back to back cruise on the Flying Cloud and were going to be on the ship that week. After talking with them for awhile we had lunch, went back to the beach and around 2:30 got ready to catch a taxi on the beach. There were a bunch of us in the taxi. About eight of us. The ride to Roadtown was interesting. The view from the hills was great, the road was steep, something like a roller coaster. I thought it was great but someone (Lily I think) was freaking and had to hide her head.

<grin> It took about twenty minutes and we were on the dock with our luggage. After waiting around the dock for the launch to pick the luggage up (about forty five minutes) we went to Pussers to check out other passengers that were going to be on the ship.

There were about ten other windjammers there. We said hi and had a few drinks. Around fifteen minutes before five we walked by to the dock. About half the passengers were there. Us guys were checking out the females and the females were checking out the guys.

I got on the first launch. Capt Max was waiting to welcome us aboard. Once we got aboard the ship we were steered toward the dinning room where we received our free rum swizzles and were checked in. There were two Activities Directors that week on the Flying Cloud. Tusala and Wendy. Tusala was the regular Activities Director while Wendy was to fill in for her next week when she took a months vacation. To me Tusala looked rather straight laced with her uniform on plus she was wearing glasses. Needless to say during the week I was to see that she was not straight laced but a bit on the crazy side and a lot of fun. She showed herself to be an excellent Activities Director who seemed to enjoy the week a lot. Of course going on vacation had a lot to do with it too. <grin> The ships Purser was called Zelda. Once we checked in we were shown our cabins. Jeez was I in for a shock. My cabin was the smallest one I have ever been on during any of my former windjammer cruises. After one look at my cabin I decided it might be a good idea to go on deck.

I met Jim Kannen who was staying in the Honeymoon suite. The Honeymoon suite is the best cabin on the ship. I got a guided tour. The cabin had a big double bed, a stereo, TV/VCR, a couch, a normal sized bathroom (with shower handles, while the rest of the cabins had a push button type) windows surrounding the aft of the ship and compared to my cabin (and all the others) it was huge in size. I tried (and failed) to talk him into switching cabins with me. Jim was nice enough that week to let me show people around the cabin. On the Flying Cloud it is a tradition for show the cabin to your fellow passengers. That week Jim kept that tradition alive. Matter fact a few ladies (Colleen, Karen and Patty) used his shower quite a bit!!

Back on deck I walked around saying hello to folks. I was looking for people to hang out with for the week. My luck was not that great, there were a lot of nice folks but I was not able to find the right mix yet. I remember having the same problem the prior week on the Polynesia. After a buffet style dinner on deck fireworks started blasting away over Roadtown. It was pretty neat watching the fireworks from the ship. The firework display was not for us but for the Yatchie's who had some kind of race the past week. After the fireworks stopped a band came aboard. They were fairly decent, nothing special. Some folks danced while I continued to walk around saying hello. Finally around 9:30pm things started to work out, that was when I met Colleen and Karen. They were sitting on the bench by the bar all alone. I introduced myself and from there a friendship developed that continued during the rest of the week. They were a bit leery of the crowd since it was older than they expected. They were thirty and did not figure to be one of the youngest people aboard the ship. They told me that they were sitting alone for about an hour and no one had come up and talked to them. I figured that luck was with me because the guys had to be deaf, dumb, blind and stupid to miss these two ladies. My Irish luck held out. They had already had a few drinks that night and we continued drinking and talking, joking etc. etc. Later a guy named Tom came up and talked with us. From then on I got use to a lot of folks coming up to talk to Colleen and Karen. Tom was pretty cool. Believe it or not, me, Colleen and Tom ended up talking politics and social stuff. We talked so much we were fairly sober by the end. Scary!! It was a real good night which pretty much started the week with the four of us closing the bar down most every night. Actually Colleen closed the bar down every night, while I closed it down with her four nights!! Tom and Karen did their fair share too! <smirk>

Monday: Tortola and Peter Island (Anchored Offshore)

The morning was spent anchored off Tortola. Folks went on tours, shopped around town (Roadtown) or like me just stayed aboard ship. Around noon everyone came back aboard and we set sail for Peter Island. Like always raising the sails was pretty neat. I favor night sailing but this week was only to be day sailing. Almost no one sails in the BVI's at night. You can if you have the right equipment which the Flying Cloud does but she will only sail in cases of emergency since night sailing in such a small area with some many sailing ships is not the safest thing to do.

Once we raised the sails to the Amazing Grace off we went toward Peters Island. The sail was fun with people laying back and talking to each other. Visiting the bar was a favorite pastime that day and many days to come!! Actually while I am on the bar/drinking area I must say that only one person out of 74 passengers ever got drunk enough to be down right stupid. He made an ass out of himself at dinner one night and the captain had a talk with him the next day. Never saw him that drunk again during the week. Some of us did a lot of drinking but we never got totally smashed. I had to point that out so people do not get the idea that windjammer ships are "Ships Of Drunks".

On with the sail toward Peters Island. We anchored off of Peters Island, threw floating mats off the ship and jumped in the water. The swim was great, the water like the rest of the week was calm, warm (but not too warm) and crystal clear, plus at this spot it was real deep. Captain Max had jumped off the ship too. He had Scuba gear on. Me I had just my bathing suit. John on the other hand had his snorkel mask on. Frankly Colleen figured he was just checking out the female butts <smirk> I totally agree!!

After an hour of floating and swimming we swam/floated back to the ship and had snacks and free rum swizzles.

After dinner their was some kind of activity but I did not pay any attention to it so I can not tell you about it. What I can tell you is that I like many others were busy talking to our new friends. Of course my friends were hanging at the bar, which will be nothing new for the week. Jim Kannen (who I will now refer to as just Jim) mingled within the group a lot that night. Jim always makes sure he gets to know half the ship the first day or two. We all pretty much hung out together that night talking, laughing, joking, drinking and just having fun. Me, Karen, Tom and Colleen pretty much closed up the bar that night around 3:30am. It was a fun night.

Tuesday: Coopers Island

This was a lazy type day. We had anchored off Coopers Island which Coopers Island has a resort there that is not very friendly to Windjammer but they can not keep the ship's passengers off the beach (which they would like) because of the laws in the British Virgin Islands, which says the beaches belong to anyone more or less. The launch took us to the beach. It was nice, there were a lot of trees that was great for shade. A whole bunch of us say on the beach together. I kind of felt like it I was in Times Square and since I was up so late the prior night and had woken up early it was a good day to lay out under the shade, so after about an hour I planted myself back under my area of the sand right by some great shade and had a morning nap. I noticed that Karen, Tom and Colleen had finally gotten up and were now on the beach. Jim was doing his normal stuff which was entertaining the others on the beach. I heard a lot of laughing and looked up to see a guy flipping Sticks into the water, Sticks was on a paddle boat and had no idea how to work it. You had to be there but trust me it was a funny scene. I went back to my nap. Later near noon the ship brought lunch to the beach. I think it was chicken and other odds and ends, either way it was good.. Later on in the afternoon I met up with Colleen and Karen. We went to the bar at the resort and had some beers. Tom and some others joined us. We were watching these little kids throw sand at each other, one (the bigger kid) would start to dig a hole while his little brother would go over and start covering it up. The bigger kid would than throw sand on his little brothers face. Both would start crying and complaining to their mom but go back and do the same thing over and over. Later another little kid joined them, now it was too little kids against the bigger kid (who was not all that big). It was funny watching them. Around 5:00pm we took the launch back to the ship for rum swizzles and snacks.

After dinner we had the famous Windjammer Slave Crab Races. Once again the poor crabs were forced to race for us. Of course I lost. One of these days I just might win at least one time. The rest of the night was talking, drinking, laughing, drinking and having a good time. That night I got to know Patty and John. I had noticed them before but did not really talk all that much to them. For the rest of the week I would see a lot of them. Dennis was on the ship romancing some lady so he did not hang with us. Sometime around there Kay started to hang out with us at times. I had chatted on Prodigy with Dennis, Kay and Sticks quite a bit over the past few months. Everyone went to bed around 1:00am. That is expect for me, Colleen and Tom. We closed the bar again that night. Our favorite bartender that week was Cato who was excellent, a great guy, it helps to have a good bartender. The other bartender Kid was pretty quite that week.

Wednesday: Virgin Gorda

Great Island with a lot of stuff to do while on the island. A group of us rented some jeeps. I drove one and Jim drove another. Virgin Gorda is an excellent island for renting a car. The price came to $53 a jeep, plus $13 for a driver's license. A bit steep but well worth it. Off we drove to Savannah Beach. The beach was something. No hotels, no venders, no nothing, just a great big empty beach that was beautiful and quite long. The sand was great and the water crystal clear, add to that is was a bright sunny day. Eight of us hung around the beach for about an hour and a half then we jumped in the jeeps and we up this road to a mountain peak, some kind of national park. The views were great. I got some great panoramic pictures of Savannah Beach and the views on the way toward the mountain peak. From there we drove to the Baths. First we had lunch at Mad Dogs Bar and Restaurant. They make one of the best Tuna sandwiches I ever had and their Pina Colada's are excellent!! After we ate we went down the trail to the Baths. The Baths are very famous with gigantic rocks and boulders, that were shaped by volcanic pressures millions of years ago. You crawl through the rock formations to find yourself ankle deep in cool water. Last time I was at the Baths (2 years ago) I climbed one of the big boulders and dove off of it into the water. It was pretty cool. I figured that I would do the same thing this time on the same boulder. Colleen joined me on my mission. Problem was that once we climbed this huge boulder which was not an easy climb I discovered that it was not the same boulder! If we dove off of it we would hit nothing but rocks. And to top it off after we climbed the boulder Colleen told me she was afraid of heights!! Climbing down would be harder than climbing up. Colleen was not very happy about that and flat out told me that she was not going to climb down the same way we climbed up. Next thing I know John and Tom are at the bottom of the Boulder. John decides that he is a Super Hero!!

Colleen had me climb down first just in case it was not safe. That was awfully nice of her. <grin> I refused to take John's helping hand and jump into the knee deep water. John started talking to Colleen like some kind of rescuer and she listened to him. Seems that she gave up on me. I assured her that I would help her down, but no, now she decided that John was a bit safer. After all he was not the one that brought her up there! Taking John's directions she got down the boulder safe and sound. John now referred to himself as "Super Hero". I on the other hand refused to recognize his claim and called him the "Contested Super Hero"!! For the next few days I had to hear him claim himself "Super Hero" many times. After Colleen was safe and sound Karen joined us. I went around the boulders by the water. Colleen followed me but quickly turned back and walked with her new self appointed super hero. Seems that she did not trust me anymore <smirk>. I beat them back by about a minute!!

Once we were done with the Baths we walked back up the trail to Mad Dogs and had a few drinks. We also decided to go for a swim at the place next door which had this nice swimming pool. We walked over and sneaked a quick swim than went back to Mad Dogs for some more drinks.

Finally we got back in the two Jeeps and headed back to the docks to catch the launch back to the ship. We parked the jeeps and left the keys under the visor. The island is too small to steal a car unless it drives on water. Of course some of us walk on water at times!!

Once back aboard the ship we had all got ready for dinner in town. I forgot the name of the place we ate at. The food was just decent with a good view. Nothing special about the place. Once finished with dinner we got into the Jeeps and went to the Bath and Turtle restaurant/bar by the docks to join the rest of the Flying Cloud passengers who were dancing and drinking. We got about three or four tables together with other folks who joined us. I felt a little overcrowded so I went to the bar and ordered a drink. I saw Bizzy who I had met through Dennis and said hello for about an hour. It was funny. I was just talking to Bizzy to pass the time (actually she was nice to talk too) and this other guy from the ship kept trying to find ways to cut in. I asked Bizzy if she wanted me to leave so she could talk to the guy but she said no, so I stayed. The guy had no idea what to do since he was waiting for me to leave and I was not leaving <smirk> Bizzy was interesting and actually nice. After an hour I figured I would give the guy who was still lurking around a break and left to say hi to the gang. <grin> I got up and saw Jim, we had a drink and started walking toward the tables where the gang was, but it was packed solid. We decided to go back to the ship which was around 11:00pm. We got on the launch and did the usual, started drinking. About 45 minutes later Karen, Colleen, John and Tom came back aboard. We all had another late evening at the bar. We closed it around 3:30pm that night.

Let me take a minute to tell you about the "Contested Super Hero" named John. He was something. If anyone ever needed anything John would have it. He took pictures and had a mono-pod and tri-pod with him. He carried a tummy type pack that he pulled out just about anything and everything anyone needed that week. John was a man who came prepared!!

Thursday: Jost Van Dyke

A pure beach day. Fairly simple, get to the launch and it takes you to a nice beach, lay out and get some sun, ship brings food ashore, we all eat and then have a few drinks and get more sun, with a dip or two or three in the water. Nice day with me, Colleen, Karen, Tom and Jim hanging together. The "Super Hero" was diving if I remember right. Most likely trying to save some fish or something <grin>

That night just about everyone on the ship went to Rudys for dinner. It was an excellent place to go!! The ship arranged a deal with the owner (the do this every week) for a buffet style dinner. The price was $20 for a Lobster which was excellent, $10 for fish or chicken. Included in all of this is all the fixings, like salads, potatoes and such. The price is great and the food was equally great for the money, no question about that. There were a whole bunch of us taking over one table. Jim, me, Colleen, Karen, Patty, Kay, John and Tom. Tom bought the beers for everyone at the table during the whole dinner. He must have bought four beers apiece for each of us. Nice guy <grin>. A little kid who must have been the owners son took our food orders. The kid was pretty cool. He had on those sneakers that had the "Florescence Lights" on them. As I said he was a neat kid. Rudys has a tradition that everyone who ever eats there writes something on the walls or where ever you can find a place to write. We all wrote something. Everyone later told me they wrote something about me which they refuse to tell me about. Guess I will have to go back next year and look for what they wrote. Some how I feel it must have something to do with Sheep or something like that! <grrrr> Tusala was helping out at the bar and serving drinks. She was having fun. Captain Max was there too. He had just bought a sailing boat. I forget what size but he had these folks aboard the ship one evening as guests. It worked out and he got his boat, so he was happy. One more thing about Captain Max, he actually hung out a lot with the passengers and seemed to enjoy himself. He is an excellent captain who was well liked by all the passengers that week. I have sailed with him before and know that he is always that way. He is a people person and will talk to anyone and loves to give and take jokes. Going to the daily Story Time in the morning and listening to him tell stories, give us information on the island we were on that day and interact with the passengers was fun. He is a great guy.

Back to Rudys. After dinner Karen and Colleen had some shots at the bar with these two guys Mark and Hansy. Colleen is typical Irish (just like me) who can belt them down a few with the best of them. Karen was almost as good as Colleen in that area <smirk>

After they were done with the shots the gang of us walked over to Foxys to listen to the band play and have drinks. Well, maybe not the band, seems that Foxys (the owner) son and him were on the outs for a few weeks and since his son was the singer of the band he refused to play. He was there but would not play, so no band. Of course that did not keep him from trying to pick up the women from the ship. Typical male!! Ooops, heck I would do that too <smirk> So I will call him a smart guy!!

Tusala was having a grand old time along with Zelda and Wendy. They were dancing on the tables, drinking with us, telling jokes and laughing their butts off. The music was the recorded style. After a night of more drinking we all went back to the ship. Me and Jim got on one launch and the rest of the group came back on the next launch. Once again I hung out at the bar but did not close it this night. Karen and Colleen once again were troopers and continued the journey to ensure some of the groug closed the bar. Me I was beat and went to sleep. Of course going to bed a 2:00am is still not considered early. That nights events did not stop when I left, Seems about 4:00am Karen and Colleen decided to pay Jim a visit in the Honeymoon Cabin. They walked aft (to the back) of the ship and had to step over, on, around and basically wake people up who were sleeping on the deck. They were sleeping by Jim's cabin because the bar area which is on the top deck was noisy, so a lot people who wanted to sleep on deck slept in that area. They finally made their way to his cabin, walked down the stairs giggling and making silly little noises. He woke up surprised that he had visitors and pretty ones at that! Needless to say he went back to sleep. <smirk> Karen and Colleen figured the people who were sleeping on deck would throw them overboard if they tried walking on them again, so Karen took the couch and Colleen took the gully (that is what we called it) that was between the couch and windows, they slept the night there in Jim's cabin.

Friday: Norman (also known as Treasure Island) Island

A very funny morning. Seems that Karen and Colleen never made Story Time and a lot of folks decided (John, now the contested super hero got the idea) this guy who played a bugle would wake them up for Story Time by playing reveille. The bugle guy and others went to their cabin and played reveille. Jim had told me that the girls were in his cabin sleeping and did not want to tell the others because he felt they wanted to sleep. The bugle guy played to an empty cabin and all were surprised that no one was there. I on the other hand thought the whole thing to be funny as hell and promptly told everyone where they were sleeping. By this time Captain Max decided to get involved, so all the passengers and Max went to Jim's cabin. Capt. Max opened the door and the bugle guy played reveille loud and clear. Needless to say it woke Colleen and Karen up!! We all (including Max) had a big laugh out of it. Karen and Colleen also got a kick out of it. They were finally up for Story Time for the one and only time that week!! Story Time was as usual funny with Captain Max telling his jokes and kidding around. As I said the morning started out great.

Norman Island was for snorkeling. We had no beaches, we just snorkeled off the ship into and around some caves. Me, Colleen, Tom and Karen saw a lot of fish and took some great pictures. Karen was hung over pretty bad from the heavy drinking the night before <grin>. Finally after a few hours we swam back to the ship and had lunch. Well, we did not really swim back, we had some mats that floated, so lets just say we paddled back to the ship for lunch. Lunch was good. We set sail for Roadtown, Tortola that afternoon. This was only the second time that the ship sailed while most of the passengers were awake. We all helped raise the sails.

The sailing that afternoon was fun. Many times me, John, Jim, Karen and Colleen took a trip to the bar for beers which were brought back aft. Whoever went up bought a round for the rest of us. Captain Max was kidding around with us. I have a great picture of Max with his arms around Patty. A picture of me at the wheel steering the ship while holding on the a porno tape that Jim brought up from his cabin. I brought out my box of Cookies that I brought from the USA and we all munched on them. Jokes were told, ribbing was done, we all just plain had a good time. My cabin mate (Robert) was a scuba diver. John (the super hero) and a bunch of other scuba people did the HMS Rhome that day. A guy had problems and Robert helped save him, John the super hero was no where to be found which made me happy. Now John was known as "The Former Contested Super Hero" which I made sure to point out again and again!! <smirk>

Later I talked to this guy named Mike (a new Mike) who was going to spend a couple of weeks camping on the island of St. Johns which is a very beautiful island in the American Virgin Island chain. The price a night was $35 which is dirt cheap. I thought that would be much better going there for a week than spending a week or a few days on Tortola. I made sure to remember about that place for the future.

Onward the ship sailed. I remember Jim Kannen rolling over from laughing so hard. The drink and the company was just right that afternoon. The group that were now friends (about eight of us) had the best of times that late afternoon, one I will remember a long time. It was a great sail.

Around 6pm we arrived in Roadtown, Tortola where the ship set anchor. That night instead of a captains dinner we were to have a PPP night which if you read my report on the Polynesia the prior week you would know meant pimps, pirates and prostitutes or anything that started with the letter P. I walked into my sardine sized cabin only to see my cabinmate Robert being dressed up by a gal to look like a gal!! I quickly put on my pirate outfit and got the heck out of there. The scary part was that he was starting to look pretty good!! <smirk>

The PPP party had started. A lot of the passengers dressed up in an amazing variety of costumes. Guy dressed as ladies of the night, gals dressed up as pimps, a bunch of pirates, a puppeteer and his puppet who was a female, some of the ladies had on some outrageous outfits. It was a pretty active PPP night. All in all it was rather fun.

We had a buffet style dinner which was very good. Of course we hung by the bar and had some more drinks. This was our last night together and we enjoyed it. I remember Colleen and Karen laughing and kidding folks while drinking down a beer or two. Tom and me jumping in with our two cents now and then. Jim Kannen had now joined in too, he did not feel well earlier (was it the drinking -sly smirk-) but was now up to join the goodbye party.

Patty and Gena, Dennis, John, Kay and a whole bunch of other folks were joining in at the bar. It is was and rather happy night yet a sad night too since this was the night most of us said goodbye to each other. I was glad that I had met Colleen and Karen, also glad to sail with Jim again. Tom and John were great guys to sail with and the rest of the folks like Patty, Dennis, Kay and the many others I made friends with that week were neat too.

Saturday: Goodbye Day..

I said my goodbye's to the folks who were up and left for the airport for the trip home. I am very glad that I did not take a flight to St. Thomas since the airport is much closer and the view getting there was great. The flight was uneventful.

Summary (week two): That week on the Flying Cloud was a not the most wild week I have had sailing but it was one of the best because of the friends I made. I always seem to make friends but the main group of Colleen, Karen, Jim Kannen (who has been a long time windjammer friend), John (the super hero) and Tom along with Patty, Dennis, Sticks, Kay, Steve..Jeez I could go on and on. A bunch of us had an excellent week (me for example) and some of us had a very good week. The crowd was older than normal but still an excellent crowd. The Activities Director Tusala was very good, the Chief Steward Patrick had a really neat dry sense of humor, Cato was an excellent bartender and Captain Max was once again the best of the best.

Two week Summary: Both weeks were a bit scary when I first got on board the two ships I sailed (Polynesia and Flying Cloud) because they started out slow the first day but within 12 to 24 hours everything got rolling and I had fun to two great groups for those two weeks. It was sunny every day except for one cloudy day on St. Barts but who can complain about that when you figure I was down in the Caribbean for 16 days. The water was warm and clear, the winds were not bad at all. I love the French/Dutch/English West Indies for the islands and the people on them and the second week the British Virgin Islands was an excellent beaching type week. I will again be sailing in October for the 50^th Anniversary cruise out of Grenada and expect to be on the Polynesia next April for two weeks when she sails the British Virgin Islands on a back to back singles cruise.

Lee Burke