Headache! Man. I was up for a good two hours nursing a headache that developed, in my opinion, from drinking 5 glasses of red wine the evening before. I never do that and I paid for it dearly. It finally broke and I was able to get back to sleep. We woke up together (for some reason at 7:15am each morning like clockwork, though we did not have an alarm). Light was peeking in from the shades on the window and the first thing I did was toss the t-shirt that I had slept in (not wanting the air conditioning to blow on my shoulders) and again I was enjoying the clothing optional experience.

Our routine, on most days, would be a walk down the beach. Unlike many who stay at Club O., our preference beyond Pedros is to wear something. We walked down to the Bikini Beach Bar and then decided to turn and walk back. The breezes were warm and gentle and the sun was shining, usually through broken clouds. When we happened to catch a breaking wave it felt only a tad cooler than we were used to from our two previous trips in July-August.

This morning we would have our first breakfast at Baywatch. First we went back to our chalet to get some cash and then made the quick walk back to Baywatch. Andy greeted us, though I don’t think he remembered us from last year, but by the end of this trip we were “good friends” from all the joking around during the week. Cheryl, we found out, was in the States and expected back by Thursday, but as it turned out she did not come back when expected and would stay with her ailing mother for a while longer. We unfortunately never got to see Cheryl this trip.

My wife had Andy’s peppers and egg omelet, coffee and toast. I had two eggs over easy with a side of bacon. The eggs and peppers were out of this world, I snuck a taste, and I had them on subsequent mornings during the rest of our stay. We had to ask Andy what the secret was; He sautés the peppers in olive oil and a little garlic and basil before adding them to the eggs. Very, very tasty.

Following breakfast we would usually go back to our chalet and baste each other in sunscreen before heading to the beach with our yellow towels, beach bag with iPods, paperbacks, water and other incidental items. It was nice not having to bring any cash with us as our Chalet was only a few yards away if we needed it. And need it we would for our usual jaunt down to the Perch for happy hour from 12:30 – 1:30 pm.

As I mentioned, this would be our usual routine after breakfast, but on this first morning we decided to first take a walk, in the altogether, over to La Boutique to pick up a few staples for our Chalet. The walk through the club grounds reminded me of walking through a campground, except for the obvious difference. It is a very nicely kept property. We would occasionally pass another couple walking through and would greet them with a “hello”, or “good morning”. However, we did not find many folks had much of a “friendly” demeanor and unless greeted they would simply walk by without even a smile. On the beach, we found people a bit friendlier and struck up several fun conversations that continued our beach relationship through the week.

We found La Boutique to have most everything you would need and we talked about the fact that we could even come down sometime and not rent a car because we wouldn’t even need to leave the property all week…everything is there…restaurant, store, best beach on the island (IMHO), beach bar (Perch)…and Baywatch! This trip to La Boutique we purchased water, eggs, bacon, a couple bottles of Bordeaux wine, beer (Sam Adam’s light for me and Carib for her) and French bread and cheese. You can set up a tab for your stay and pay before you leave, which we choose to do.

The beach at Club Orient, what can I say? It was so cool to be able to enjoy it this trip without having to truck all the way down Orient Beach from where we were staying on previous vacations. Though we never minded it that much when we had to, staying at Club Orient was so much more convenient. With the new “system” in place we simply attached our personalize lounge chair tags to two lounges and they pretty much stayed in the same spot throughout our trip. We just need to find them each morning and position them as we wanted. The beach boys put up the yellow umbrellas any where between 9:30am and 10 am working their way down from Papagayos. There is something about “owning” a yellow beach towel and not having to pay the 18 bucks for the umbrella (I always gave him $20 as a little tip). We noticed Fred wasn’t there this trip and wondered if he moved on from being a beach boy or if he was working at a different location along Orient. Does anyone know?

We spent the majority of our time during the eleven days on the beach. This was usually between 9:30am to about 4pm. As I mentioned on the first installment of this trip report, we had nothing but blue sky and sun for all but two days of our stay. The beach was much more crowded than we experienced in our summer trips and I noticed that often folks walking into the beach area who were not staying at the Club had to look around for awhile before being able to locate lounges without tags already attached. This was more true the first week we were there than the second week. The beach wasn’t as crowded the second week and locating an empty lounge was much easier. A group of five down the way a bit from us had posted signs in front of their lounge chairs that kind of ribbed the cruise folks for “staring”, etc. There was at least one day, Wednesday I believe, that the place was crazy with cruise passenger look-e-loos. It never bothers us as we started off visiting the beach on cruise vacations and look at us now! Well, don’t look that earnestly! Our practice was not to just stroll down the beach, but we always found a lounge, disrobed and enjoyed the experience. I’m not sure if I would have repeated that if I had seen signs like these…thinking that maybe we weren’t welcomed. I believe most Club O. guests don’t have as much of a problem with it and understand that clothing optional is often a gradual slide in from the textiled world.

On most beach days we would bring out a few nice, cold beers to enjoy while we sat under our umbrella. This we did on previous years too, but I would have to leave and take a half mile walk down to our room and bring them back to the lounges. So, because we were staying at Club O., we also were able to enjoy a nice bottle of cold, white wine on the beach, which we simply retrieved from our refrigerator. One bottle was the complimentary white wine Club Orient so nicely gives you. There was something very wonderful about sitting there on the beach, looking out at the sea, the sparse clouds in the distance and the radiantly blue sky, sipping cold white wine with the person you love. We kept the beer and wine in a little burlap bag that was lined to keep cold things cold. Two used water bottles filled with tap water and frozen in the freezer helped keep our drinks very cold.

One of our favorite things to do is to walk down the beach toward Papagayo’s with our floating noodles and let the current drift us down. Most of the time while doing this we reflect upon how blessed we are to be able to vacation in St. Martin and enjoy such unimpeded time together where each of us is the focus of the other’s full attention. We did notice that the water was a bit cooler than it is in July and August and on occasion my wife did get a bit too cool and wanted to head back to the lounge to warm up. I didn’t find that to be the case and simply would kick a little harder or swim about for a little while to “warm up”. In July and August the ocean is bath water warm.

There was a couple who looked in their late 60s or early 70s who would walk up the beach from the Perch area toward Papagayo’s several times a day. For whatever reason, I thought they were long distance walkers who would circle the beach, through Club Orient and then back along the beach again. It wasn’t until we got home that I mentioned I had read that someone on this board referred to an older couple as the ‘dolphins’ because they would constantly swim down along the water in front of Club O. I didn’t put two and two together until I realize that it was probably the same couple. They would walk down and swim the opposite way. I never saw them swimming! They repeated this many times during the day and looked quite “in shape”….no wonder!

One day another couple could be seen swimming out toward Cay Verde. They kept heading out and we wondered if they would make it all the way. We wouldn’t want to try it, that is for sure. I barely make it from one end of the shower to the other. They got about half way and turned back. On one of our walks back from the Perch we asked them if they were trying to make it to Green Cay and they said they were experimenting but that it was too hard.

Next and Final Installment: The Perch, Tiko Tiko, People, Restaurants and SSBB.