THE BOAT, SHAMU OF TORTOLA:<br><br>47 ft. Length, 24 ft. Beam, Visiona Sailing Catamaran, German built in 1999.<br>Sloop rig with Spinnaker, 2, 20 H.P. Diesel Engines, Watermaker, 2 Water Heaters, Solar Power with inverter, Electric heads with holding tanks.<br>*Stuff on the Boat: 2 Dinghies, Kayak, Floating Mattresses, Water Skis, Inflatable Toys, Fishing Equipment, TV/VCR, 12 CD Player/Changer, CD and Video Library,Deck Chairs, Cockpit Cooler, Sun Umbrella on Bow, Hair Dryers, Screens for Cabin Hatches, much more… <br><br>THE CREW:<br><br>Brian and Ann Petley, very professional and accommodating, I don't believe there could be a better crew. OUR CREW<br><br>US:<br><br>Me, I'm Doug, aka Dug, my wife Diane and my brother Kent.<br><br>THE ITINERARY:<br><br>*Chicago to St. Thomas, two nights at Secret Harbour.<br><br>*Red Hook St. Thomas to Honeymoon Beach on St John for lunch then on to Leinster Bay for the night.<br><br>*Leinster Bay to White Bay on Jost Van Dyke, then to Great Harbor for the night.<br><br>*Great Harbor to the Indians then to The Bight on Norman Island.<br><br>*Norman Island to Fallen Jeruseum, sail to Marina Cay for the overnight.<br><br>*Marina Cay to Long Bay on Virgin Gorda, then to Saba Rock in Gorda Sound for the evening.<br><br>*Gorda Sound to Anegada.<br><br>*Anegada to Cooper Island<br><br>*Cooper Island to Cruz Bay on St John.<br><br>*Cruz Bay to Charlotte Amalie, last night at Best Western Emerald Beach. <br><br>THE REPORT:<br><br>*Travel Day: Jan. 01, 2003. Left Decatur for Chicago. We're listening to Southern Cross on Fruitcakes, there's a line about flags, and then Diane realizes that "I" forgot the TTOL flag. We do a U-turn and drive 45 mins. back to Decatur for the flag. Missed our exit in Chicago, the rest of the trip was uneventful. Stayed at Four Points Sheraton, parking in a fenced lot is included in the room rate.<br><br>*Travel Day: Jan. 02, 2003. We take the Hotel Shuttle to O'Hare, the electronic check in won't print Diane's boarding pass. Through security with no problem and AA prints Diane's boarding pass at the gate. Arrived in San Juan on time, long walk to the AE gate, short delay while they unload the luggage from the previous flight, but we arrive on time at St. Thomas anyway. We had the complimentary rum punch at the airport, strong and tasty, then off to a taxi.<br><br>The taxi ride gave us a great tour of the Island; we ended up on Ridge Road then through Red Hook to Secret Harbour. This year we were in a second story beachfront efficiency with a Murphy bed, small but plenty of room for the two of us. The room wasn't as nice as the two BR ocean view room we had last year, the toilet needed repair and the soap dish in the shower was falling off the wall, nothing major though. It had everything we needed except an oven for Diane's pizza. These condos are individually owned so each one is furnished differently. The view, grounds and beach, are wonderful at Secret Harbour, not to mention The Blue Moon Café and the bar, we love this little resort. <br><br>We called Nutmeg to let her know we'd arrived and she picked us up so we could get a few things at the grocery store in Red Hook, thanks Nutmeg!!! I picked up a couple of bottles of Jerome's Hot Sauce and a bottle of Cruzan Single Barrel Reserve at the same price as K-Mart which I found out later. Diane was hungry and got beef something at Wok & Roll and said it was good. Later we walked the beach at Secret Harbour and completely forgot about the Manager's Party, missed out on free rum punch, the music coming from bar should have tipped us off, it was slightly off key as Nutmeg warned. Later in the evening we had dinner with Mr. & Mrs. Nutmeg at Sopchoppys in Red Hook, very good pizza. <br><br>*Jan. 03,2003. This was our day to do touristy stuff. The Taxi Driver assigned to Secret Harbour is Stanley; I can't say enough good things about him, very nice, I highly recommend him.<br><br>After breakfast at The Blue Moon Stanley drops us off at Coral World. The underwater observatory is pretty cool. Iguanas are all over the place. There's a nice gift shop where Diane bought a couple of prints to have framed at home. We spent about an hour here and didn't have quite enough time. We didn't get to spend as much time as we'd have liked on the nature trail and we didn't make it to the building with the aquariums. I had their signature drink, a Sharkbite, a frozen rum drink with Cruzan of course. It was Ok.<br><br>Stanley arrives right when he said he would and we're off to the tram at Paradise Point. The tram looks very well maintained and shoots you to the top in quick order. We had lunch, drinks, relaxed and enjoyed the view. Diane wanted us to get our pictures taken with parrots on us for $10 but I weaseled out. There were two huge cruise ships in town but where all the people were I haven't a clue because neither Coral World or Paradise Point were crowded, quite the opposite in fact, they must all be at the Baths or Cane Garden Bay <br><br>We call Stanley from the bar after Diane does some shopping then we hop on the tram and have a short wait at the bottom. We decide to take Stanley's "Island Tour," he stopped for pictures in a couple of places and we end up at Mountaintop, noticeably cooler up here. Stanley tells us that the Banana Daiquiri was invented here in the 1930s, so of course we have to try one. The bartender is a hoot, he mixes the drinks then fills the straws with two kinds of rum and tells us "you must suck up before you can pick up" As I'm sucking up something catches my eye, I turn and see Stanley laughing at us, as I turn back to the bar I catch the bartender topping off my drink again with more rum. This is my kind of bar!! <br><br>Back at Secret Harbour. Sherry Yates called to wish us Bon Voyage. Dinner and drinks at the bar, the food is good but there's a mix-up on Diane's order, later when we pay the tab we discover they took off all the bar bill except 3 drinks from our ticket, and that's a bunch of Drinks. We get a call at the bar, my brother Kent arrived at the airport but his luggage didn't, as well as everyone else's luggage who connected through in Miami. He finally gets to Secret Harbour late after filling out the forms for AA. He's tired from the trip, culture shocked and carrying on about the suicide taxi ride so we fill him full of booze and call it a night. The next flight from Miami is 3:00 pm the next day so there is a good chance his bag won't make it before our charter leaves at noon. <br><br>*Jan. 04,2003. We're up and mostly packed by 8:00am. We meet Kent at the Blue Moon for breakfast, I recommend the Western Omelet, very good. Kent buys a T Shirt at the dive shop and we head to the office to check out and decide what to do about Kent's wayward luggage. We decide that the bag probably won't arrive before we board Shamu so we taxi to Red Hook with Stanley at 10:30 so Kent will have time to buy a few things before we sail. We park Diane at Molly Malone's with our bags. While we're checking out the stores I see this guy at Sopchoppy's reading the paper with an American Yacht Harbor T Shirt on. I strike up a conversation and he suggests we arrange to have AA deliver the bag to AYH and he'll throw it on a ferry to West End. That sounds like a plan so Kent buys a few things for one day. Back to Molly Malone's, our meeting point for Shamu, Bloody Marys for me and Kent, umbrella drinks for Diane. The guys name from AYH is Paulo or something like that, "just call me Paul" extremely helpful.<br><br>11:45am Ann from Shamu shows up at Molly Malone's and guess what, so does Stanley!!! AA must have sent the luggage through San Juan to STT then to Secret Harbour. Stanley heard about our problems, grabbed the bag when it arrived then set out for Red Hook to track us down. Life is good. We jump in the dinghy to Shamu then head out to St. John. <br><br>Shamu is one beautiful boat, I'm immediately impressed. A pretty good squall passes through on the way but it clears quickly and out comes the sun. We stopped at Honeymoon Beach for lunch and a snorkel, saw a small ray. We head to Leinster for the night. Brian drops us off on shore and we trek up to the Anneburg ruins. Along the way we met a guy looking for shells named Glen, said he started Mongoose Junction in Cruz Bay, now I guess he just hunts for shells, not bad work if you can get it. On the menu tonight is beef tenderloin so tender you can cut it with a fork and plenty of boat drinks. Tomorrow we head to Jost Van Dyke in the BVI.<br>