Tim's is bigger than mine. He was supposed to get a 44ft boat but when the charter company found out there would be 8 of them, they were forced to get a 48ft boat, but Tim didn't tell them there were actually 9 instead of 8. Jerry's is bigger than mine. Cheryl says she likes the big one in Florida better.
We spent a week anchored off the mega dock in Charlotte Amalie. The unofficial size for mega yachts is 100ft and they are not really interested in little guys like us. They have their own collection of specialized Gucci type stores at this dock. Believe it or not, Joan wasn't even interested in seeing what the prices were. I guess if you have to look at the price, then you can't afford it. We saw some 50, 60 & 70ft boats sneak into the yacht harbour, probably hoping that some day they would have a boat the unofficial right size. 50's & 60ft boats look pretty small beside the 100ft boats. The 100ft boats looked pretty small compared to the 200ft boats. There was a big size difference between the 200's & the 250's (Kismet). Natayana at 300ft was grander again. None of them approached Princess Marianna at 350ft with a helicopter on the back deck. The mega yacht harbour is beside the cruise ship terminal and even Princess Marianna became quite small compared to the cruise ships. When we were developing the breakwall for the Lion's Head Harbour, one option we looked at was sinking a Great Lakes freighter for the breakwall like they did in Port Credit (they used 3). The cost at the time was $30,000 - the value of scrap steel. I'm going to buy one of these 730ft Great Lakes freighters. I have all kinds of friends storing various items for winter in Lion's Head. I'll stop storing Jerry's boat & cars at the house and store them on the ship, so now my ship has a Lincoln & a Corvette, 28ft runabout and I'm sure I can find canoes, kayaks, seadoos & dinghys that need storage as well. Tim has all his sports equipment stored away for winter, so I'll store that and now my ship has a basketball court, volleyball court, archery range and a fitness centre. My ship will come complete with a fitness trainer (Nathan). Fuel might be expensive, so maybe I can go over to Europe and pick up a couple of windmills for Wiley in exchange for fuel. Maybe a better idea, I'll just have Wiley store a windmill on the ship (they are only 400ft tall - half the ship's length, with 300ft of sweep on the blades). A nice 2 mega watt would do. Heck, the boat would easily hold 2 - lets get 2! This may produce a surplus of power so now when I visit an island and plug in, I'll be able to light the island up.
I'll need some mechanical help, so I'll do all the welding, Joe will become the ship's electrician & Mike will be my diesel mechanic. Peter's restaurant is doing well in Thunder Bay, but he probably needs a winter break. He won't be able to serve Princess Diana again and I won't let Prince Philip on the ship, but I'm sure we can find some other royalty down here. For the summer maybe I'll just dock the ship in Port Elgin or Kincardine - plug into the grid & make money........Stand back & look at the decadence that my ship has. Maybe Bruce's is the biggest!
The week in St Thomas was very unique and it's easy to see why as many as 7 cruise ships can be here on one day. St Thomas was a bit of a slave colony but functioned more as a central trading area for the entire Caribbean. This required large warehouses which have now been converted into an endless montage of stores. I think if I said, if you put all the jewellery counters end to end, they would easily approach a mile and I do not think I'm exaggerating. To see the 200-300 year architecture was interesting. Many of the stores don't have opening doors or glass windows, but simply the hurricane shutters which are opened during the day and padlocked at night. This gives the old downtown area a quaint look.
We have been in St Croix for almost a week now and enjoyed its different historical architecture in the city of Christianstead. Some of the buildings are crumbling ruins (think Roman Coliseum, Stonehenge) no garbage dump here.
Later today we will leave St Croix for St Marten, an approximate 18hr sail. Next posting should be from there if all goes well!
I'll need some mechanical help, so I'll do all the welding, Joe will become the ship's electrician & Mike will be my diesel mechanic. Peter's restaurant is doing well in Thunder Bay, but he probably needs a winter break. He won't be able to serve Princess Diana again and I won't let Prince Philip on the ship, but I'm sure we can find some other royalty down here. For the summer maybe I'll just dock the ship in Port Elgin or Kincardine - plug into the grid & make money........Stand back & look at the decadence that my ship has. Maybe Bruce's is the biggest!
The week in St Thomas was very unique and it's easy to see why as many as 7 cruise ships can be here on one day. St Thomas was a bit of a slave colony but functioned more as a central trading area for the entire Caribbean. This required large warehouses which have now been converted into an endless montage of stores. I think if I said, if you put all the jewellery counters end to end, they would easily approach a mile and I do not think I'm exaggerating. To see the 200-300 year architecture was interesting. Many of the stores don't have opening doors or glass windows, but simply the hurricane shutters which are opened during the day and padlocked at night. This gives the old downtown area a quaint look.
We have been in St Croix for almost a week now and enjoyed its different historical architecture in the city of Christianstead. Some of the buildings are crumbling ruins (think Roman Coliseum, Stonehenge) no garbage dump here.
Later today we will leave St Croix for St Marten, an approximate 18hr sail. Next posting should be from there if all goes well!
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