First time in the Caribbean and having a blast so far. I’ve been drinking more (which still ain’t much) than I have in YEARS and I’m proud of my (not so) young body….. I ain’t 25 anymore….

Hope you’re all doing good. 👍🏼

Enjoy!!!

Dont forget theeeeeeeeeeeeee

Sunscreen

Big boat or Charter?

Enjoy👍

My Viking roots demand sunscreen but my stubbornness usually means that I burn my ass offf. 😂.

Raeford…I enjoy everything I do but I appreciate your thoughts my friend!

Just waiting for momma and the kids to deliver my first cup of coffee and then I’ll be right as rain.

I’ve been a lot of places in the world but not the Caribbean so it’s been enjoyable thus far. The family is having a great time and that always means I’m having a great time. Late nights and “early” mornings are causing me to take a midday nap on the bow….

👍🏼

I’ll try to get pictures if I think about it.

St. Maarten is neat little island? Somewhat different than the other in the region, culturally. You will have a blast!

Big boat. Momma and little sister are having enough trouble with seasickness as it is. 😂

I made friends with a guide in Islamorada and I’ll come back to spend a week fishing with him. I was offered a job running a charter boat in the keys next winter but I anticipate being involved in building our home up north so maybe the following winter…..I (we) absolutely LOVED the Keys and will definitely be returning in the near future! Great people, great food and more Trump lovers than I’m used to.

We don’t want a summer home anywhere since we want the freedom to go wherever the trade winds take us but we’re definitely going to be spending some time in the Keys each winter. 👍🏼

Enjoy your vacation.

My uncle used to own a beach front house there. He rented it to Robert De Niro for some time. De Niro stuck him with a huge phone bill when he left. He refused to pay it when my uncle sent it to him.

View from our balcony…

Looks like paradise.

TRH….That figures about De Niro….he’s a POS.

We decided to have breakfast before we tackle the island so I’ll chug more coffee and a gallon or two of OJ and then I’ll be dangerous and ready for the day.

Eat some conch

Fried conch bites

de nitro is a piece of trash!

So you walking around with a little umbrella in your drink and a speedo on your ass?

Already did my friend! It was good but not life changing. 😂

Cool...

Aces,

You were smart to get down there before hurricane season. How are the water temps this time of year?

I’ll report back on water temps later since we have only used the pools so far. Today is St. Martin and tomorrow is St. Thomas and St. John where we’re going snorkeling at Trunk Bay.

Like swimming in a giant salty water aquarium. I tried keeping up with sea turtles. Nope.

I’m part fish so the sea turtles will have to try and keep up with me. 😀

No Speedo, evidently. Note the concerning knob at the bottom of the photo.

Lol…I don’t own a speedo….I don’t need to show off that much. 😀

I drink beer or whiskey straight so no umbrellas in my drinks either…

PS…apparently my photography skills are definitely not Kamo Gari worthy but at least you get the idea….😂

Enjoy your vacation.

That's on my list of places to go.

When in Drake's Lake, Be like Drake.

It looks beautiful.

When you cruise over to St Maarten, look for the house(s) with a boney horse tied to a 10ft rope and 8,000 bags of garbage all around it. It’s right on the main drag before you get to the Scumville t-shirt bazaar.

lol

Aces you gonna go visit the Orient beach? We did while we were there, eye opening for sure.

If that’s the beach right at the end of the runway, don’t go. Crowded, dirty, and stinks of jet fuel. Oh, and you run the risk of getting blown into the ocean by jet blast. It’s been a long time since I’ve been there so I may have my beaches mixed up. Just don’t go to the one by the airport.

Take a trip to St John, it’s a Natl Park. Can also swim with sea turtles out there across from Epstein Island

Looks like a fun trip.

As to big vs smaller boats, big boats are harder on me in bad weather.

Little boats you know you’re getting tossed about. Big boats not so much. The disconnect seems to mess with me more. Luckily I don’t get too bad on either. 🤷‍♂️

The dutch police drive 10 year old hyundais and have a few guns locked up in the police station. If they need one, they go get it and a few rounds. The french gendarmerie drive brand new toyota land cruisers and have hk usps on their side and an mp5 either slung or in the car.

I drove drunk the wrong way once and the dutch cop backed down the road to tell me to turn around so he wouldn't break the traffic law. No such thing as a dui charge or drug charges. The public bathrooms cost money so everyone pees behind a bush. Everyone swims naked. Imagine my culture shock when I came to the mainland in bible beating and dry county Alabama.

Guana Bay outside Phillipsburg is my home. I haven't been back to live in decades. I haven't been back to visit in 15 or so years. I hate it up here - it's so cold.

IMHO, St John is the best of all of them.

Aces, hope you all have a great time. Catch some fish!

Make it count man!

Love the Caribbean. St. John staying a Gallows Point has been our favorite but any of those places are better than staying home and cutting the grass.

I'm a fan of high end watches. Don't own them, but in St. Martin you can actually take a look at and hold watches that took two people two years to make by hand.

Saw a Patek down there once that kept time, date, date, leap year and lunar all mechanically. Sticker price was just north of 165K if I recall.

My phone keeps great time. Leap year too. Even switches itself as I travel thru different time zones. 👏🏻

Let’s see the kid with the hearing aid on Barney and Friends do that!

Just got back to the boat. We hired a local lady named Maria who took us all around the island. She was the sweetest lady and she was an encyclopedia of knowledge about everything from the local flora and fauna to geology to the island’s history. She’d drop us off at the places that we wanted to check out like Orient beach and Marigot and wait for us. We really enjoyed her and our day here. I don’t ever want to go to Mexico or Hawaii again after this trip. We were definitely aware that we aren’t in “Kansas” anymore but the locals were kind and polite and NONE of the high pressure sales BS like Mexico or the angry glares from locals in Hawaii. I know it’s a third world environment but they don’t act impoverished, they are just living their lives as best they can. I felt safe and didn’t have a care in the world.

Calvin….You should definitely check out the Caribbean and we’ll be coming back for a longer stay. The Keys were awesome and so far the islands have been incredible.

Unfortunately I won’t be doing any fishing this trip but I’ll be booking a lot for the next trip. I think we are planning on doing a 3 week cruise from Singapore to Vietnam and around Thailand in January and then the South Pacific next winter (2025) but after S.E Asia we are going to come spend time in the Caribbean and the Keys for a couple weeks of fishing.

Tomorrow is St. Thomas and St. John with most of our time spent snorkeling on St. John.

I can now understand why Jimmy Buffet and others were hooked on the Caribbean, it’s a different place altogether but in a good way.

I don’t wear a watch anymore. I did for years in the fire department and EMS but I have a phone if on that rare occasion I care about the time. I did “inherit” my father in law’s Rolex that he bought in Hong Kong when he was flying for Air America. He has the original paperwork and receipt from when he bought it ($179). If I ever find myself needing or wanting to wear a watch I’ll wear his Rolex. Unfortunately I’m just not into much “jewelry”.

Looking forward to St. John’s tomorrow.

If you are looking for a good guy to take you around and spend the day with you like Maria, Try Chico with Chico's taxi. 340-690-6507. Just tell him his friends from Louisiana gave you the number.

We've been to S.M. twice, and it's beautiful down there... Glad to hear you're having a very good time.. Now ya gotta book for next year..

Aces, Glad to hear you are getting out there. That's the way to do it. See the world and experience everything you can, while you can.

A little advice
I would not buy jewelry in St Thomas. First I have never seen any great deals and have some of my customers get totally screwed.
Two memorable instances were
One lady bought a gold rope chain, had us clean it. It was heavier when she brought it in than when she picked it up.
She said she knew it was hers because her grandbaby left teeth marks in it. It had been wax filled and the heat from our sonic cleaner melted the wax. A baby isn’t going to leave teeth marks in solid gold.
Another instance a lady bought a new wedding ring. One of the side diamonds came out. She asked me to replace it. I couldn’t there was no gold holding the diamonds. they were epoxied in place. I believe she was able to return it as it was a cruise recommend shop.
There has been a lot of under karat gold and sterling that wasn’t

It just occurred to me, it was St. Thomas where my uncle owned a beach front house, not St. Martin.

We aren’t into buying jewelry and my wife isn’t a shopper, she buys only what she needs or things for our family. None of us are extravagant in any way. Our son bought a shirt and our daughter bought a shot glass for her shot glass “collection”.

On our first Christmas married I bought my wife a Christmas ornament from our trip together that year and I told her that we will buy Christmas ornaments from everywhere we travel so that some day our children will inherit that collection of our memories together. We have traveled the world together and our Christmas ornament collection has become quite vast. I love hearing the excitement in their voices each and every Christmas when they decorate our tree with the wonderful memories of our time spent together as a family….we bought 2 ornaments today, one from the Dutch side and one from the French side.

Even as our children have blossomed into incredible adults we can’t imagine not traveling with them but eventually I’m sure that’ll change as they have their own families but for now they are wonderful to travel with. They’re so kind and polite to everyone, they’re always engaging and unafraid and they make mom and I incredibly proud of the adults they’ve grown into! We just finished a great dinner and the early planning stages of our S.E Asia cruise next year…I think January 2025. I want them to have the experiences that mom and I had and to instill the wanderlust and sense of adventure that has given us so much joy and anticipation of what’s around the next corner.

Local Dirt…I’m with you my friend! We’ve always enjoyed seeing the country and the world and we’ll continue to explore the beautiful corners for as long as the good Lord blesses us. After we’re called home we’ll have instilled not just our wanderlust and incredible memories but they’ll have the courage to find their own adventures being how well traveled they’ve become in their short lives.

TRH…Tomorrow is St. Thomas and St. John which I expect will be just as great as St. Martin was. Then on Saturday we’ll be in the Bahamas.

Thanks to everyone who has replied and offered their thoughts, experiences and suggestions!

338reddog….No gold for us or diamonds. My wife grew up overseas with her family traveling while her dad flew and taught the pilots of king’s and prince’s how to fly. They went to the finest gold souks and her mom amassed quite a collection of jewels and jewelry from Saudi Arabia to Hong Kong to….you name it. Those have been passed down and are now my wife’s but she only wears her gold wedding band since she isn’t into flashy jewelry. I lucked out in more ways than I deserve. 😉

St. John was a beautiful island. We spent the first half of the day swimming in Trunk Bay and a short driving tour of the island. It was like being on a Disney ride … part jungle cruise and part pirates of the Caribbean. At St. Thomas now which seems very nice from the little I’ve seen of it. I’m really falling in love with the islands in the Caribbean. Everywhere I’ve been so far I’ve encountered friendly outgoing locals who have shattered my preconceptions about them in all the best ways!….great people who are polite and happy.

Mexico and Hawaii have NOTHING on this place or these people!

Did you see the island cat? Little gray tabby at one of the Scooby Doo snack bars. I don’t recall which bay it was.

Back on the main island, I think on the St Maarten side, there was a flock of sheep about 30-40 that would walk down the sidewalk until they came to a crosswalk and then would all cross. Then go down the sidewalk some more on that side and would go up into an abandoned house for the night.

As if they were trained. Didn’t need no yappy black n white stripey faced dog to lead them either. 😃

please stop posting stuff like this! LOL. Before you know it, all those island will turn into Mexico and Hawaii

Aces,

thanks for sharing your vacation with us.

Last day or 2 on these tend to be Sea Days. Great chance.to find a quiet spot on the ship away from the crowds like the open deck under the lifeboats which tend to have more shade than your room balcony, and away from the crowds and noise of the pool decks.
A book, binoculars, and time to unwind after the hectic pace of port days.

Lolol…. I definitely don’t want that to happen! I’m pleasantly surprised by the lack of entitlement and actual work ethic I’ve witnessed here that I have not witnessed in either Mexico or Hawaii….there’s no hustling or high pressure time share salesman and everywhere we’ve gone we’ve been met with smiles and warm welcomes without expecting anything but a friendly hello in return. I’m rather ashamed of my preconceived notions that I had of the locals but I’m glad that it’s been shattered. Even our son said “these blacks are NOTHING like the ones back home, they’re really nice.” I couldn’t agree more.

Cv540….Tomorrow is a sea day and Saturday we’ll be in the Bahamas then back in Miami on Sunday and home Monday. I think we’ve done 5 or 6 different cruises and every one of them has been effortless and relaxing. About 12 years ago we took our children on a Disney cruise and had a great time. The last 2 or 3 have been Royal Caribbean and they too have been great. The crew are exceptional and the shows and entertainment have been fun. The food on this one was better (imo) than the last one and I’ve definitely eaten my fares worth alone. Tomorrow night is lobster…again. 😀.

I’m looking forward to going to Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam next. I’ll not have to worry about eating or drinking anything that’ll make me sick and I’ll be comfortable onboard just like every other time we’ve traveled this way. I should also mention that the other passengers have been very nice and civilized without any trouble or inconveniences. It seems like they are a “higher class” group.

When the wife and I were there, lots of jellyfish swimming about, but avoided a sting. It is a beautiful beach.

Love the Islands !!







Enjoy your trip, Aces !

One other thing that has paid off for us is searching
"secret places on" your ships name, and finding some of the obscure spots you may have missed. Lots of times there will decks or rooms that may only be open at certain times and are a bit off the beaten path. A website that is great for this is Cruise Critic.

We saw 1 cat and 2 mangey dogs. 1 of the little mutts looked exactly like the old dog on the cabin porch of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride…like exactly the dog they modeled the animatronic dog after. We heard about the sheep and the feral donkeys but never saw any. We saw a bunch of iguanas and turtles, our son saw a stingray at Trunk Bay today but that’s about it. We rode past Little St. James (Epstein island) and took some pictures of it. Apparently here in the Virgin Islands no beach is private and anyone can go to any beach at anytime including the beaches on Epstein Island but I wouldn’t set foot on that evil place for any reason….I want nothing to do with that place!

The wind and surf was really up today so snorkeling was not worth the trouble but we still had a lot of fun. We’ll definitely be back again and again since everything about the islands, the people and the Caribbean in general has been really fantastic….I’m glad to know that good people who don’t have a lot are still good people and for that reason alone I’ll never regret coming here, I only regret waiting so long before getting here.

The time we spent in the Keys was far too short but that’s another place I was pleasantly surprised by. I expected old homos in speedos prancing around but I didn’t see anything like that. The food was great, the people were great and the vibe was my kind of vibe. This entire trip has shattered my ignorant preconceived notions and I’m not ashamed to admit it….I really can’t say enough good things about the Keys and the Caribbean. Miami is a different story altogether. I thought I’ve seen traffic in Seattle or LA or Manhattan but Miami was insane and I could go the rest of my life without going back. We’re staying in Ft. Lauderdale on Sunday night and I don’t know what that’ll be like but I’m going into it with a partially open mind hoping it’s better than Miami. Our son loved the sports cars in Miami but that’s about the only redeeming quality of that place. I’m just not a city boy in the least and Miami is nothing but big city…loud and obnoxious!

Excellent reading, Aces.

Enjoying this a lot!

AceNEights: If you are on a cruise ship DO NOT get off the boat should it stop in haitti!
Many decades ago the VarmintWife and I were cruising the Caribbean and one of the stops was haitti.
It was an offensive slumish hellhole then and NOW it is 10 times worse.
And this don't fall asleep in the tropical sun or your pasty Alaskan skin will burn and blister - don't ask me how I know.
Enjoy your sunbreak.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Enjoy your time.

PICS!!!

I think that would ruin me for Texas bay fishing.

and Viagra

Great thread, Ace.

What about Labadee? Other than the current situation, Labadee was a nice surprise for us last year.

My wife was in Cap Haitian in January for 2 weeks working at an orphanage and she really loved it. We were supposed to go to Labadee on this trip but with the uprising it was canceled….THANKFULLY! I don’t anticipate either of us going to Haiti anytime soon and I’m ok with that but I do keep the good people and the children in my prayers as I know my wife found them to be truly wonderful people who were trying to do the best they could in a DIRT poor country. Her experience there was “life changing” for her despite my protestations. I don’t control her nor her me so I just prayed that she’d be safe. She went with a great group of people that I trust so that brought me some comfort. She made some amazing friends who, like all of us, deal the cards we’re dealt. Luckily being born in the greatest country on earth helps but I’d rather focus my energy and attention closer to home…I can’t fault her wanting to help the children at the orphanage and she as well as them are better for it…. I was actually asked and I accepted a spot on the medical team going over there but that’s on hold for now. I’ll go where I’m needed or called and I WILL NEVER live in fear, but with the chaos that has overtaken that country I may be dumb but I ain’t stupid. I’ll have enough to keep me busy closer to home for the foreseeable future but I never know what tomorrow may bring.

I definitely need sunscreen but I have no idea what viagra is….I’m still a young buck and at 53 I probably have another 45-50 years before I start to consider pharmaceuticals for performance enhancing substances.

I will send prayers your way and you are welcome to have my share….for now. 😀

I knew you'd enjoy the Keys. They are a special place.

You were definitely right my friend. They are indeed a very special place as are the islands. The islands are something that absolutely makes me more reticent to cast ignorant aspersions about something that I knew nothing about. It might sound funny but they changed me in all the best ways and I’ll hopefully carry that with me in the future…..I don’t mind being less judgmental and more patient.

Last night I enjoyed a half rack of Stella Artois and played poker until 1am. I’ll go back to the casino tonight and get some revenge….or not. 😀

An addendum to my previous post about Haiti….

The people living in the outer areas are a tight knit community unlike the criminals in Port au Prince. The older children all look after the younger children and the community shares anything they have. I didn’t understand why my wife was so upset about not being able to go to Labadee until this trip. The ladies she befriended and their children became so important to her and the goods like shoes, clothes and baby formula that she was planning on “smuggling” in fell through. My wife has been quietly sending money through Western Union so they can get the bare necessities. Her friend is baptizing her young son and she didn’t have clothes for him so my wife made sure to remedy that. The war there has caused shortages in a country that has nothing and it impacts the innocent people especially children the most.

Haiti might be a chithole but it’s not all a chithole! There are good God-fearing people struggling who have nothing to do with the capital. I’m going to see if there’s a way to get boat and run a load of shoes, clothes, formula and food to the northern coast…..Miami Vice style. 😂

I don’t think our Lord would look unfavorably on trying to help….