Terrific web site www.brentjes.com

This guy has published tons of pictures and nice descriptions of his Wind Star and Wind Surf trips in the Mediterranean and Panama Canal crossing. I really thinks anyone interested in these area should have a look. He even has a section on Tahiti before the Wind Song sank.

Great Site Lair Bear. (You wouldn't happen to be a Cal grad now would you?!?;) ) As a HUGE Clive Cussler fan, I was also intrigued about your information regarding the lost sub.

As luck would have it, a group of 6 are doing the same itinerary as you on the Wind Star in March/April 2007.

In the "small world" department, my folks who are going on the trip with us live on the 7th hole of Quail Lodge.

I would love to know more about your trip. Please post, if you can.

Mike

We have cruised on the Wind Surf and Wind Star and liked the smaller ship better. One of the reasons was the stuffy attitudes of some passengers on the Wind Surf trip. Alas, you cannot blame that on the ship. But, yet, we found that it was easier to meet most (almost all) of the 130 or so people on the Wind Star. The service was terrific on both ships, but again it was easier to get to know the crew better and we liked the outdoor barbeque on the Wind Star (versus an indoor buffet on the Wind Surf).

Our trip through the Panama Canal was very interesting and had some personnal family meanings that date back almost a century. Since this is a repositioning of the Wind Star and the ship was in need of repair in Portugal, the trip was slower than anticipated and we had to bypass Santa Marta, Columbia. We ended up spending an extra day at sea which was not to our liking.

Other than that, the trip was great. For more details you might contact me direct if you have seen my email address on the website.

PS You were right about Cal alumni. We just came back from another week at the Lair.

To KLRDUKS:

In Clive Cussler's book Valhalla Rising the historian St. Julien Perlmutter makes no reference to the Explorer and its history. Instead he goes into "depth" about the Hunley. Did Clive Cussler know about the Explorer?

There seems to be some controversy about which sub was the model for Jules Verne's submarine the Nautilus.

But it was interesting to see the real Explorer stranded and rotting away on a small Panamanean island.

(This was part of our excursion on the Wind Star Panama Canal cruise.)