Polynesia Singles Cruise

Part One

April 1996

Polynesia Singles Cruise April 1996 Let me start out by saying this was the best vacation I ever had. Plain and simple. It was the best. The Beginning… I arrived in St. Maarten three days early to relax and get some sun. I stayed the first three days on the Dutch side of the island. The French side is called St. Martin where I stayed the last four days after the cruise. It is a wonderful island. Anyone who goes on the Polynesia should stay a few extra days on the island. You will enjoy it. But do not stay in Philipsburg, the main town on the Dutch side. It is just one of those big cruise towns and you do not get to know and love the island by staying there. I stayed on the Maho Hotel which is the main tourist drag in St. Maarten. It was nice and close to all the action. Casino’s, beaches, restaurants. All within walking distance, so no car needed. A year and a half ago I got in an auto accident on the island and it cost me $3500.00, so I decided to lay low on driving. Actually I did order a rental but they never showed up so I said to heck with it. The last four days I did have a rental and finally got use to driving on the island again. I pretty much goofed off the three days. Relaxing, gambling, swimming, sunning, eating great food and things like that. Jim Kannen (the lurker here on prodigy) arrived on Saturday and we had a few drinks together at a place called Cheri’s. At least I think we did. Sunday I arrived at Captain Hodges Warf a couple hours early to meet the passengers for the week. A bunch of us ended up going to a bar for a few drinks. I got antsy and left to see what other new passengers were hanging at the pier. Just as I arrived a great big parade came down the street. It was Carnival week on the island. I really thought it was nice of them to have a parade for me. Near time to board I had met a whole bunch of folks. I was shocked that a guy I cruised with on the Yankee Clipper named Rick who has his own forest fire team. (fighting them fires out west now) was there shaking my hand. I had no idea he would be on there. We were friends on the Yankee Clipper. I asked him what the heck was he doing here! He said that he really liked the Yankee Clipper and kept remembering how I kept telling him he should try the Polynesia for a real singles cruise. He had taken me up my offer. I might add that by the end of the cruise he was in total agreement that the Polynesia singles cruise was the best ever. After mingling and talking to different folks five o’clock finally came around and we boarded the Polynesia. It felt good to be on her again. After we signed in and got our cabins I walked around the ship checking everyone out. I always enjoyed meeting the different people on the different ships, but I was home now on the Polynesia and hoped for a really happy, good, nice, fun loving passengers. Even better then the norm. I am happy to say I got my wish. This was one good mix for the week. Very social, I had heard the mates say that more then once during the week. Actually the week before they had a dozen stewardesses on board who "Mooned" passing ships. Those "couples" cruises seem to have there own wild side. So all you married windjammers out there let me tell you I heard some pretty wild stories about you guys and gals that whole week from the crew, And you call our poor little single cruises wild! Back to the story. I am not that good a story teller, but hey, tough. It is better then nothing. My assigned cabin mate had decided to claim the bottom bunk! He had all of his stuff on it. I was going to throw the guy off the ship for just taking it without asking. After mumbling a few cuss words to myself he came in and immediately told me he was afraid of heights. He also mentioned he was a fireman from Rochester, NY. Lets see, a fireman that is afraid of heights. Geez…. He also mentioned that we knew each other from the singles cruise on the Poly in April 1994 and his name was Sticks. Of course being me, I had no idea who he was. I apologized and then pretended that I did remember him a little bit. Hey a guy has to be nice. I also told him that I had no problem with him taking the bottom bunk since I would be sleeping on deck most of the cruise anyway. Sticks ended up showing up a lot of the places I did during that week. It had something to do with three sisters which I will get to later. Oh, I had a deck cabin. Jim Kannen had a below deck cabin which he booked just for himself. No roommate to interfere with his plans. He does that a lot. Gee, I wonder why. Back up on deck I went to talk to Jim K. and Rick, plus other guys and women. Strange but I tended to look for women to talk to the most. . I was talking to a whole bunch of people and was very impressed with most of the passengers. It was a very good group that week. Capt. Max was the captain and that really made me happy until I later found out he decided (without discussing it with me first) to change which ports where would hit first. It seemed that we would be sailing Monday all day and night directly to Nevis. We had always done Columbia Bay in St. Barts on Monday afternoon and St. Barts on Tuesday. I was not happy about it at all. But I was not the captain. Looking back at it all Captain Max made the best possible decision. The man is amazing. He is my favorite Captain. The buffet dinner was set up for everyone to eat, then the band came aboard. I was suprised on how good the band was. Normally the band was just decent but this time around they were great. I did some dancing and a lot of visiting and talking to different passengers. Me and Rick talked a lot about my cabin mate on the Yankee Clipper who was named John but I always called him "English" Of course he was from England. Rick had gone over and visited him. They are going to Vietnam together for rafting or something. Rick said that John tried to book but was too late. He was going to try and met up with us on one of the islands. It never did happen which is too bad because he was a really great guy. This was turning out to be a really good cruise already. It was a great night. It was the usual, eating, dancing, making friends, checking things out and getting that wonderful Windjammer feeling in your bones again. As I said before I was home again. And the night went on and on. Monday. In the morning they had sailing ships from the America Cup that you could crew, for about $40. I had met three sisters the day before and they mentioned they were going to sign up for it. I thought it was a great idea. Then again if you saw the three sisters you would think it a wise idea too. I was on the Stars and Stripes. The same boat that Conners won the cup back from the Aussies in 1987. There were two Canada boats also. The three boats raced. It was really hard work. The feel of the wind, human, sails and nature was great. We were out for about 45 minutes. The race was around A half an hour long. I was the "Grinder" which means I was the worker, grinding away. As I said before the feeling was wonderful. We started out in third then pulled into second place as one of the Canada boats goofed and disqualified themselves. We started Catching up to the other boat. We went from five boats lengths behind to a half a boat when the other disqualified Canada boat took a short cut and cut into our wind. We ended up a full length behind. We were cheated out of our victory! Of course we said that but the folks on the winning boat called us sore losers. Now all of this was in jest since all the crew on all three boats had a great deal of fun. When the race was over they brought us to their little store where we bought tee shirts, hats and stuff like that. Oh, we got some rum drinks from them too. After the race and the store visit we went back aboard the Poly and set sail. The raising of the sails with the song Amazing Grace was as nice as always. And like always it got better and better as the week went on. Off to Nevis we went, sailing all day and night. This is where I bring up the three sisters. Andrea, Rochelle and Danielle. They were flat out beautiful, each one in their own way. I ended up spending the full week in their company and also two and a half extra days in St. Martin when the cruise was over. They had ready smiles, warm hearts and were very friendly. Friendly to all. I could go on and on telling you about them individually but then this little trip report would never end. Let us just say a lot of the passengers and crew thought they were very special. Tuesday. We anchored in Nevis. As luck would have it we decided to go to Pinney beach and hang out at a place called Sunshine’s. It was a beach bar right next to the famous Four Seasons Resort. Actually another girl joined our group for most of the week, her name was Gayle. A few guys decided to join us too. We had the famous "Bee Stingers" that Sunshine (the owner) was famous for and ordered Lobster. Of course it took them a couple of hours to catch and cook the lobsters. While we were waiting for that I drank a few "Bee Stingers", went into the water, did a "Flip" and hit my head on a rock! Out came the blood. I put sand on the cut to stop it and clean it (duh) but it did not work all that well, but well enough for me at least. But no, my cabin-mate ended up being some emergency medical technician of some type for the fire department. As the sisters were hovering around me worrying their hearts out and me loving it, Sticks (my cabin-mate) put on a set of rubber gloves he kept with him (always prepared he said) and some ointment and fixed me up. He did such a good job everyone stopped worrying about me. I was not at all happy about that! At the same time I was in shock that he carried rubber gloves and ointment even on vacation at a beach. The rubber gloves was because of this Aids situation, all the medical technicians wear them now. Lunch was ready and about eight of us sat down and had the best lobster you could imagine. Too much for me to finish. Everyone was very impressed with the Lobster. It was great. After lunch we decided to jet ski. Of course it meant we had to go to the other side of the Four Seasons Resort. We had heard from Captain Max how he got kicked out of there a few weeks back, also Rick came along the beach and mentioned he just got kicked out. So we (from now on for the rest of the trip report you will hear me say WE a lot and most of the time it means me and the three sisters) We walked right into the fancy resort and acted like we owned the place. As we walked along we each said a few choice words about how we liked the rooms and the bar, about should we have dinner there or somewhere else on the island, did we remember to bring the room keys etc. All out loud. We jumped in the pool and swam, said hello to the guests. Acted like we were staying there. Needless to say we did not get kicked out. It felt pretty wild walking and swimming with three beautiful women at my side. I saw envy in many a male eye. When we were done playing at the Four Seasons we went Jet Skiing. Rochelle and Andrea got on one jet ski while me and Danielle went on another. It was fun but I did it again. Call me walking wounded. Danielle’s head went backwards while my head went forward. My nose hit her head and blood was now flowing out of my nose. Danielle was really worried and wanted to go back in but I did not want her to end the jet skiing just for me. So as blood flowed out my nose into the ocean I kept telling her I was fine. Finally five minutes later the blood stopped and we continued. But Danielle was not all that thrilled anymore so she had me let her off. I wanted to catch up with Rochelle and Andrea so I kept going. Well at least for five minutes then the Jet Ski broke down and I was towed back ashore. It was running late and all us guys and gals got back in our taxi to the ship. Note. Be careful of the Nevis Taxi drivers, they are real Pirates. Get the price set first. That sunny day in Nevis started a very dear and wonderful friendship between me, Andrea, Rochelle and Danielle. It will be a day I will always remember. For that wonderful day Nevis was a piece of Heaven. I forgot what we did that Tuesday night. I was still amazed with my great day. Windjammer did have me sign something legal so I would not sue them for my accident. I did look a mess I might add. Jim K can say what went on that night. Wednesday. St. Kitts. We decided to do our own tour in St. Kitts. We rented a cab for the day at a very reasonable price of $50. We cleared that all up prior to renting the taxi. Lesson learned at Nevis. Today Helen from Salt Lake City joined us (the sisters and me), plus a guy named Phil and I think my cabin-mate and Gail. Helen was a very feisty attractive girl who we thought was about 23 and ended up being 35. Amazing. Gail was not bad either. Do not get me wrong looks is not everything but I really need to point certain things out. Guys are guys to me and women are women and I am only a mere mortal male human being. More on Helen later. Anyway we decided to see the fort on Brimstone Hill which was impressive. I have been there before and wanted my friends to see the beautiful views from the fort. It was not overwhelming but nice. We then went to the cloth factory that sells those wax thing a ma jigs. I forgot the name. I have one laying around that I do not use. That took all of the morning and part of the afternoon. We then went to Turtle Beach which had a bar and laid out in the sun and had some food and drinks. It was really windy that day on the beach so it was good we did not just go straight there and beach it all day. A lot of seaweed was on the beach. Never did go in the water. We headed back to the ship for dinner and to listen to the 16 man (and one woman) steel band. I must note that I swear our taxi driver fell head over heels in love with Rochelle. He waited after he left us off at the pier just in case we wanted to go into town and he also came on the ship to seek her out. Rochelle had a way about her when it came to people. Her smile would melt the North Pole. Just imagine what the other two sisters could do to people. But then that is another story for later. The band as usual was good. I ended up not dancing but just sitting next to Andrea and Rochelle the whole time just relaxing and enjoying my contentment. Danielle came on over and joined us later. That is about it for Wednesday. It was a good day but still the best was to come. Actually there was no bad day during the whole cruise. We set sail that night toward St. Barts and were told we would reach the island around 11am on Thursday and if we were real lucky maybe 10am. This did not make me happy at all since St. Barts is my very favorite island and I wanted to show my friends around the island. I wanted them to love the island as much as I always have. I was thinking of taking over the ship from Captain Max but there were just not enough Pirates with me and the crew was way to big to mess with. So I just mumbled to myself and let the captain keep the ship. Slept on deck that night, then it rained, then it stopped, then went back to sleep on deck and it rained again so we went to the dinning room and slept till the morning kitchen crew woke us up at 4:30am, then back up on deck to sleep and was woken up again early in the morning by the deck crew. So off we went our separate ways. As strange and uncomfortable all that moving seemed, it was well worth it to me. Heck I was on cloud nine. Thursday Morning. Surprise the wind lords were on my side that night, the wind was brisk and the ship sailed far faster then Capt. Max thought. We arrived in St. Barts around 7 or 8 am. Why ahead of time it seems. Today was my day with the sisters. The launch took us ashore. I brought my Ice cooler with me and we rented a mini mokie (oversized golf cart) and did St. Barts. First we went to the supermarket by the airport and bought wine, cheese, ice and bread. Packed up the cooler and went to Saline Beach. A very beautiful French style beach. We hide way down one side of the beach and swam, ate, laughed and I kept muttering to them I was only human. Danielle was in cheese heaven, she just loves cheese. Andrea switched the mustard Danielle picked out at the store and Rochelle had gotten the ice guy to quickly get us ice. As I said the sisters have something special about them that makes people want to do things to make them happy. Anyway back to happy times. The beach was great, I always liked that beach but now I flat out love Saline Beach. After a few hours we left Saline to ride around the island. We just drove around the island. Rochelle and Andrea drove the Mokie for awhile and loved it but the roads are steep and there are a lot of turns so they put there lives in my hands for most of the driving. We drove up a real neat private driveway and walked around the beautiful house way up a hill that overlooked the Caribbean sea. The view and house were breathtaking. The sisters loved it. We continued our drive to other views and houses and they continued to fall all over themselves looking at the beautiful houses and views. In the middle of all of this we dropped by town and had a late lunch. LeSelect was closed for hamburgers so we walked to this other very French place to eat lunch. Now this little young French boy sat next to us and fell in love with the sisters who fell for him. They treated him like a little prince. It was amazing what they could do to people without even trying. The lunch was very good and the price was great. The little French boy left and gave them kisses on their cheeks. We American males can learn a few things from the French. I must admit that even with the sisters there I did notice how one French woman looked and dressed. The American Women can learn a few things from the French women also. . After the beach, lunch and traveling the island we finally dropped off the Mokie around 5:30pm and went aboard ship for the Wine and Cheese night. Again Danielle was in cheese heaven. Matter of fact she saved our cheese leftovers for the next day. She had the crew keep it cold for us. That night a band played for us at the LeSelect. I ended up dancing a lot that night. It was a great night of dancing and partying. Danielle disappeared and came back to the ship a little early. We took the last launch aboard and I thought Danielle did never made it back on the ship. She did but it was scary there for a little while. We sailed that night to the playing of Amazing Grace and the raising of the sails. It was beautiful sailing under the millions and millions of stars. I again Slept on deck. Wonderful night. I forgot what night me, Andrea, Danielle, some guy and Helen (the girl from Salt Lake City) and another guy all slept together on deck. At least for awhile. Helen was trashed and told some pretty raunchy funny jokes, cussed out my cabin mate and insulted this other guy. I was laughing at how great she did all of this. She was funny, I remember that night in St. Barts I egged her on to cuss me out just so I could enjoy her feistiness. I loved her abuse and she knew that I set her up for it, so it was in fun. She was a blast.

On to Part Two