Virgin Gorda to Saint Barthelemy and then back to St. Maarten: Post 1,000

THB's 1,000,000,000 POST

 SAINT BARTHELEMY 

is a French-speaking Caribbean island commonly known as St. Barts, and is an overseas collectivity of France (say what? collectivity????)

Daily Update

• Weather: Sunny and warm
• THB feels like crap this morning: too much fun  in the sun? The beer at lunch yesterday? Too much  time on the travel PC? Good news: THB recovers to  go on a catamaran ride to a great snorkeling spot. HURRAY
• St BART is known as the home of the ultra rich, and we tour Gustavia. THB and DB enter exactly one shop...HAH! some of you are mind readers, yep it is La Boulangerie Choisy
• Time to pack up, the crew picks up the bags tomorrow at 6:30am for an excision prior to our flight to Dulles (fingers crossed)

Big ships in the St Bart harbor

The catamaran taking the snorkelers for a ride. THB thought the cat very dangerous: slippery when wet and not much flat walking space 

another excellent snorkeling spot. One person in the group was late to the pre-meeting, late to getting on the tender,  late to getting on the catamaran, and it took two different boat guys to tow here aboard....she almost ended up lost at sea. 

the equivalent of a spotter on a safari truck?

three pastries, two loaves, ice coffee, and THB and KB did not visit this boulangerie when we were in Paris last summer. Total somewhere around $20-25

Gustavia harbor at sunset

SAINT MAATEN 

(back to where we started the cruise)

Daily Update: 

• Weather: Same as it ever was
• Up early to put the bags outside our cabin at 6:30am
• Take a very short ride to another part of the marina to be shuttled to either one of  two 1987 America's cup yachts for a short race between Canada and USA
• THB ends up a mid-boat  grinder and DB is timekeeper and bartender. The ride is thrilling (about 45 minutes long), and THB ends up with lower back pain

RF is one of two team captains, picking their crew...schoolyard stuff!

Canadian boat

USS Greenland boat (or is Iceland) is now a USA Collectivity

half of the primary grinders

other half

Morgan is our skipper

the rear grinder (one grind on left and one on right), with MB on right winding rope as needed

Off to D.C., and the Dulles airport Marriott...DB and HB and 15 others are frozen solid after waiting over 15 minutes for the hotel van to show up HOW COLD WAS IT: 20 degrees Fahrenheit. One part of our room is over bright

Book Review - The Road, Cormac McCarthy (read by Tom Stechschute, pub’d 2006): Another of THB’s favorite authors tells an apocalyptic tale of a father and son (nameless) trying to outrun the death (cause unnamed) of the planet. Only a few things are left alive. Highly Recommended (for adults only)