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MARDI GRAS - DAY 1 (July 19, 2014)

FYI, We flew home late Tuesday night around midnight, experiencing some decent boat rock today for sure!

Let me start by introducing you to the 2 family crew and yacht, from left to right you'll see yours truly Capt Rick aka BEERMAN, my wife Donna, daughter Sydney, her BFF Erin (she was on BlueMoon with us last summer) her mom Robin, her brother Matt and seated is her dad and first mate John.




The yacht that we chose to be our home for the next 10 nights would be S/V MARDI GRAS, a brand spanking new 2014 Lagoon 39 catamaran which is chartered through TMM, or in my case owners time via Tony (aka Mardi Gras on TTOL). Tony was awesome to deal with over the 9 months it took to prepare for this trip, sending many emails back and forth discussing the boats features and additional upgrades that were made by Tony and TMM. We started coordinating the charter prior to Mardi Gras even being delivered to TMM from France, so I feel like I know this boat better than any other we've chartered. Check it out at www.sailmardigras.com


Now let's get this travel day over with and start this vacation! Our alarm goes off at 2:50am uggh, that's seriously 0-dark early especially after just laying our heads down at 11pm! Our flight leaves Reagan National at 6am and our friends, who are actually our next door neighbors in Virginia, leave out of Dulles International around the same time. They had no issues flying through Miami and we also enjoyed a pain free flight through Kennedy, even enjoyed my first of many beautiful sunrises on our approach there.




Our flights landed in STT just 45 minutes apart with our friends wheels down at 1:05. Since our layover at Kennedy was very brief we had our friends check the plump Polar Bear cooler packed with 50lbs of frozen goodness to make sure it made the connecting flight, it did! During our planning I didn't think we could make the 1:30 ferry so I didn't schedule a private taxi, but in hindsight it was very possible that we could have made it since we arrived at the pump room at 1:40pm. No problems, cold drinks and spicy wings on the breezy balcony of the Pump Room were a good way to spend 50 minutes.

The 2:30 Native Son was already at the dock so as soon as we heard the metal gangways being dragged on the concrete some of our crew scrambled to claim the perfect outdoor seats! I of course dragged my feet a bit and got stuck in the cattle line next to the bar...fortunate to lock eyes with the bartender I responded to his gaze with an appreciative nod and said yes sir...2 Carib please!




As the timely ferry navigated through Haulover Cut to open waters keeping Hassel Island to port, I started to feel it...... After so many trips, through so many years, the feeling that I get here is unique to these islands, it has never gotten watered down. Time for us to sit back and enjoy the smooth ride on calm Caribbean seas, sip my cold Carib, apply a little more UV protection, and fill our lungs with the intoxicating sea air around us.













After a quick stop in charming Sopers Hole we were soon approaching the Road Town ferry terminal. After so much research prior to this trip it was easy to spot the channel markers for the Road Reef Marina, home of TMM Charters. In my mind's eye I had been visualizing a very tight difficult entrance, once I saw it in person it really isn't as bad as I had read!





The Customs and Immigrations process here is always tediously long, especially when you are near the end of the line as we were this time. As we approached the serious looking inspectors one family went right and one left. Our friends declared one Polar Bear cooler loaded with gluten free products, spices, coffee beans (with grinder and French press) etc. and were not charged a dime and we declared the 50lbs of frozen meat and were charged $13. Sheeew, 40 some minutes later we were in a taxi heading to TMM, which is just 5 minutes around the harbor.




John and I walked into the office to check in with Sandra and to also hand over some U.S. Coast Guard documents for Tony (Courier fee=one Presidente when we meet in person). Sandra was very nice and helpful. She gave us just enough info to make it through the night and told us that Tim was at the boat to show us around. Well there she is waiting patiently for us at Dock A, S/V Mardi Gras!

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It was probably after 5pm, so TMM staffer Tim gave us a quick boat briefing to get us by until we met in the morning. Once he left everyone picked a cabin and stowed their gear. Starboard hull consisted of Donna, Sydney, Erin and myself and the port side was occupied by John, Robin and Matt. You could hear us oohing and awing over how nice and clean everything on this new Lagoon looked, TMM had her shining!

Before we would head off to dinner we moved some of the meat (which was still frozen solid after 13 hours of travel) from the Polar Bear cooler to the boats freezer. The boat has a smaller freezer than we're used to, but it actually held quite a bit, 8 beef filets, 2 pork tenderloins, 3lbs hamburger, sirloin/couple chicken breasts for fajita's, 5lbs bacon. The rest of the frozen meat stayed in the soft cooler with a block of ice in the middle and we planned our meals from the cooler first. FYI, the steaks were our last meal cooked onboard 9 nights later and the freezer did its job well.

Time for dinner, unfortunately Sharkey's at the marina was closed this evening, but we saw The Pub on the way in so we walked there, easy 5 minute walk. The Pub overlooks the marina where Conch Charters is located, nice spot. I remember everyone enjoying their meals, but I can only remember that I had their BBQ salmon special with red beans/rice and sauteed veggies, very tasty!

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After a relaxing dinner we walked the road back towards TMM, trust me when I say this...if you value your toes stay well off the road at rush hour when walking this corner!


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There is a small Riteway located at the entrance to TMM that stays open until 9pm. We were able to easily push a shopping cart back to the docks. This Riteway may seem small, however it has everything we would need to provision for a few days, the produce was pretty nice and we picked up packaged deli meat, english muffins, bread... some beer, water, gatorade, soda to ice down for the night! Nice store!

Back at the boat we spent time filling coolers, unpacking bags, familiarizing ourselves with the boat and simply enjoying our first night's sleep aboard. One bit of advice, which Tony warned me about is that the government does a roaming water outage that affects this marina at night, I discovered this when I tried to use the Marina showers. No biggie, the holding tanks worked like a charm on Mardi Gras the whole trip!

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The long travel day would catch up to everyone and soon all the crew would be down below fast asleep, however the Captain could be found sitting quietly at the helm with a cold Presidente in hand and the glow of the navigation equipment on his face...he was happy...and wondering where the winds would guide them tomorrow ........

To be continued............... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Cheers.gif" alt="" />