Okay, we will start with the West Jet flight down on the 10th, smooth flight though it seemed to take forever as the Satilite System was down and I couldn’t wait to get “home” for the 12th or 13th time. We had been to Hawaii on a 12 day cruise last January, beyond the volcano, St. Maarten has just about everything else. On our arrival, West Jet noted that they were waiting for Customer Service to open the door! Though I know some folks have had to wait longer, 15 minutes is an eternity to sit on a plane with everyone chomping on the bit to get going!
Met Lesley from Kenny’s with a gently used Toyota and a phone from Sharon, none more reliable. We had sold our Divi Unit last summer because of Flight reductions on Saturdays and this year rented “Baywatch” from Bob Barron of Bob’s Villas. This year was our first trip beyond 7 days, staying 9 and it was good to have the full 7 between the travel days.
Baywatch is in Beacon Hill over on Bergeaux Bay around the corner from the Canavaseri Resort, you just drive down to the Sunset Beach Bar and go left around to Beacon Hill. This small community has gated security from 6 p.m. thru 6 a.m. daily. Baywatch is an older home where you have the lower section (1200 sq ft) and the owner resides on top. Spotlessly clean it features about 40 feet of Living room, Dinning Room and say lounge. A large Deck on the front. There are 3 Bedrooms about 11 X 10 and two Bathrooms as well. One Bathroom is “Cruise Ship” like but the other is good and both have Showers.
The Kitchen, while small features a full size fridge and stove including all the other essential small appliances. The most Satellite TV Channels we ever had on the Island including Canada’s CBC, also Wifi and a full size Washer and Dryer! P.M. me if you want further information, we thoroughly enjoyed it there and are definitely going back.
We booked the Random Wind for a Snorkleing Adventure thru Dave and Adriana on this Board. Unfortunately the scheduled day had to be changed as a large party had cancelled. As Murphy’s Law would have it, the weather was perfect that day and not the rescheduled one. A dozen or so of us were ferried over by dinghy to the Boat from Skipjacks and we started out but about a half mile or so out, the wind came up and the skies opened with heavy rain and the waves commenced to rock and roll us.
I washed my dramamine kindly provided from a shipmate down with a beer and we were instructed as to where to hurl if necessary. Fortunately this did not occur.
Diane and her two crew mates could not have been nicer to us and as the concensus of us Pilgrims was to return to land, they took us back and provided a full refund immediately. Mother Nature can be unpredictable and at least we briefly got to experience a bit of what the Mayflower passengers went through! We will rebook the Random Wind next time on the Island!
The drive around the island was per usual with no mishaps and we really had no traffic issues save for the Tuesday Evening on the 17th on the way to Grand Case for the Harmony Nights event. We had been in GC earlier that day and Patti noted a sign saying the event was to start at 4 p.m. We left Beacon Hill about 5:20 and after coming thru Marigot, we managed to make our way along thru Rambaud etc. but once we got to the top of the hill at the Savanna Residences, it was bumper to bumper as far as we could see.
This Festival of sorts has obviously grown larger and more popular than ever. We turned around and decided to go over to Peg Leg’s instead. Next year we will plan on going in at 4. I had also made a tentative arrangement for a Taxi to take us over there because of the DUI check points we had read about, you can arrange that. I can provide a contact for you if you p.m. me. We were quoted 35 per person return from Beacon Hill which I didn’t think was bad.
I cancelled it only because the weather was iffy that evening and we didn’t want to be temporarily stranded in the rain. We had planned to tea total it had we been able to get there in our car. Observations on some potholes, if they filled in the ones near the Tropicana Casino, the traffic flow thru Simpson Bay would be greatly improved.
One rather strange thing that occurred was that a Cow ran out on the road, near the Wilson? Estate and was hit by a Car and killed. A Bull, looking for it, came over shortly after causing some concern with the people there. A Tow Truck was called to drag the cow off the road. A few nights later, that particular Bull ran out on the road in the same area and it too was killed. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" /> Stay tuned for Part 2 coming soon!
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