New Flight Crew for Wednesday!

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We managed to stay out of the water today. Christmas Eve brought 5 monster cruise ships to the island this morning. I have never been on one of these monsters but each one holds 3000 to 4000 folks. As they motored past our door I could even pick up their “wi- fi” signal. They had two filling the dock. Two more doubled docked on the first two and one setting 50 yards away. And I only thought Dutch Island had to double dock boats.

5 Cruise Ships!! - You have got to be kidding me!!!

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I started to get that “oh crap” feeling wondering where these 20,000 people were going to go in a village about the size of Sandfly, Ga. Population 800.

So we finally got moving around 10 AM . We had a new flight crew today. Cinda as captain and Lauren as copilot/ navigator with two Amigo’s Dad and Christa in the back with cooler. Needless to say we were ready to pounce on their any mistake. It did not take long when Lauren vectored us down a road that lead to a dead end next to the land fill. Christa locked and loaded a 60 second salvo. Lauren recovered nicely and we found Oyster Bay on the east side in 15 minutes.

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Met up with Brother and family at a beach bar. Too pricey for us so we were off to find some horses for Christa. We got into the old family spirit and took a dirt/ mud beach rode to Orient Beach. Totally lost but we stumbled on the stable only to find the owner off for a week of vacation. So much for that.

We doubled back to the beach to find the local para-sailing hang out. They must have had 15 out in a sound with a ½ beach. Very nice. Pictures do not do it justice. We put the camera on a rock and fired off a family portrait under a tree.

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We headed over the west side of the island only ten miles away to the nig market at the capital, Marigot. Brother Scott called on the cell phone reporting massive traffic grid lock so we bailed out went into the center of the island looking for the highest mountain vista to take a few pictures.

We have zip lining on the agenda later this week and we found it on this road so we pulled in. While I checked out the logistics of the next trip the girls found this killer French outside restaurant on the site. I was skeptical but we said what the heck. It was outstanding. The girls were all smiles. So much for the over priced Euro – I let Cinda pay for this one.

We made it to Marigot around noon. The new crew was working well now and Cinda whipped into a parking lot on a side street two blocks from the market. Marigot is about the size of Pooler but the world had come today to visit. Those cruise ships I was worried about seemed to find a convoy of tour buses to do a deep assault across the island.

The market itself reminded me a lot of First Saturday in Savannah on River Street. About 50-75 tents and booths set up with local “stuff”. We had a good time and kept ourselves in budget. We back tracked to our car and made it out of town at 3. The crew had a wide streak and decided to make a short cut over the mountain back to our southern hotel. Half way up the locals was scolding us. We finally gave in and turned around with about ten mountain goats grazing next to us.

The girls hit the beach on the return while I had to finally had to go into timeout with a afternoon catnap.

Not sure what we are up to tonight. Cinda is out on the town now at eight. The girls are talking about a “foam party” Not sure I am going to buy into that..

Out for now – sorry so sedate. Not much adventure to find on a 12 mile island covered with tourist.