Summit Review - 1/12/2013 Sailing

[The Flying Pirate]

 

We had no idea what to expect when they showed up with this giant metal cone.....

[The Flying Pirate]

 

When the cone was lifted, it revealed the dessert menus in the form of these cube puzzle toys. It was a very clever idea.

[The Flying Pirate]

 

The presentation of the "Strawberry Fields Forever" dessert at Qsine. It was as good as it looks. Yes that is real grass growing in the box. The eggs are hidden in the grass with the chocolate covered strawberry's "growing" on a stick. The presentation was impressive, and the taste even better!

[The Flying Pirate]

 

 

The results of our do-it-yourself cupcake decorating.

[The Flying Pirate]

 

The chocolate tombstone. I am fairly sure the key to world peace starts with this cake!

[The Flying Pirate]

Friday

 

Today we spent in St Thomas, an island we have visited many times on past trips, and I spent a week down here for work several years ago, so we really got to know the place.

 

This morning when we docked we got ready and headed out to find a taxi. That proved a bit more sporting than it should have. We walked to the taxi stand and hailed a cab, we got in and explained to the driver where we wanted to go and he promptly told us to get out and get into a van parked next to us with 8 people already in it who were heading to a similar part of the island. The taxi dropped them off at the ferry dock first, allowing them to take a ferry to the neighboring island of St John. I thought that we would be late in getting to the dive shop, but he got us there with 5 minutes to spare.

 

My friend Michelle that used to work at the aquarium in Milwaukee where I volunteer was there to greet us. She has lived down here for about two years now and works as a Divemaster at one of the local dive shops. She had all the tanks and other gear ready when we arrived so we were quickly in the water.

 

I had never dove in that side of the island but we thought we would try it and help keep Michelle employed. For the first dive we briefed it and then my wife set out of follow us with her snorkel gear. She kept up with us until we got too deep for her to see us at which point she gave up and turned back to shallower water. The water was clearer down where we were diving but there was a lot of plankton at the surface which clouded my wife's view.

 

After the first dive we got back to shore and switched out the tanks for fresh ones and then headed out on a second dive. My wife choose to stay on shore because of the conditions which was too bad. After today’s adventure we’ll probably decide to stick to diving off the south end of the island, where the visibility is generally much better. Although my parents were on a back to back and said the visibility was much better the following week. I did enjoy the two dives and got some pretty good pictures. I saw a pair of snowflake eels which are quite shy, much more so than their green moray cousins. The snowflakes are black and white in color and are quite interesting looking. Their distinct markings make them popular is aquariums, but they are fairly rare to find in the wild, so seeing two was exciting.

 

Ironically, we found them both while cleaning up the coral. Since both of us worked at aquariums where conservation is key, we took a mesh bag to collect any garbage that we found on the reef. Since the reef is off a popular tourist beach, it is inevitable that things find their way into the reef. First we found a handful of ketchup packets, maybe the fish were planning a picnic or something, although more than likely the bag they were in disintegrated leaving the packets together.

 

We found a really cool Arrow Crab, a tiny spindly looking creature with a body similar in size and shape to an acorn, with long skinny legs the front most two being capped with tiny bright blue claws, it looked like an outtake from a Star Wars movie.

 

The first of the snowflake eels were spotted when we reached for an abandoned scuba diver ballast weight. Some careless diver from the "snuba" program took the weight and set it on top of a large piece of coral. The area under the weight had already started bleaching indicating that the weight had suffocated the coral below. Since the surrounding coral was still healthy there is a good chance it will grow back.

 

The second snowflake was hiding behind a Heineken beer bottle. Actually spotted a second beer bottle but a critter of some sort had moved in and was living in it. One of the strange rules of reef conservation is it is garbage until something claims it as a home, if it is being lived in it becomes part of the reef. I guess it makes sense.

 

After the second dive I was pretty cold from nearly two hours underwater so after hearing my wife’s report that the snorkeling was sub-par that day, we decided to head back to the ship early.

 

We hailed a taxi, and as it turned out it was the same driver that dropped us off earlier in the day. He was a nice guy but really loved the Air Conditioning, it was sooooo cold in that van that I am pretty sure I was suffering from the onset of hypothermia by the time we reached the harbor. We got back on the ship and rinsed the salt and sand out if the dive gear and I stood under the hot shower for 5 minutes before I stopped shivering.

 

After getting the gear cleaned and the chill out, we had lunch on the ship and then head out for a walk. There is a restaurant on top of one of the big hills overlooking the island that has a winding road that leads to the top. There is also a cable car that will take you to the top, but there isn't much exercise in riding in a cable car.

 

Sarah and I hiked onto the top. We made pretty good time, getting to the topic about :30 mins although both of us were a big sweaty mess by the time we got there. We each had a Diet Coke, and I took some pictures of the harbor area below us. We also tried a new local brewery's offerings. I tried their Island Hopper IPA, and Sarah had their Root Beer. I sampled the Root Beer thought it was quite good.

 

The walk down was slightly easier than the hike up. We did a brief amount of shopping. I bought a bottle of Scotch for my boss as a thank you for giving me the time off to be able to take this trip.

 

We got back on the ship and started the project of packing. At 6:00 we went to the martini bar as my wife had her eye on the martini flight all week and we were about out of days to try it. The flight is 6 mini martinis of various flavors.

 

The coolest part was the presentation. The bartender first carefully arranged the glasses and then prepared the drinks. Then to pour them he stacked the mixing shakers and then carefully poured all 6 at the same time. It was worth it just to watch him make it. They didn't taste to bad either.

 

We elected to skip the main dining room again and eat upstairs and had a wonderful and relaxing meal out on the deck at the Sunset bar.

[The Flying Pirate]

 

Divemaster Michelle gently holds an arrow crab on our first dive off St Thomas.

[The Flying Pirate]

 

These Four Eyed Butterfly Fish were fun to watch.

[The Flying Pirate]

 

This Coral propagation experiment in the water off St Thomas looked like a Caribbean version of a Christmas Tree. It is part of an effort to help regrow damaged coral reefs in the region.

[The Flying Pirate]

 

Divemaster Michelle displays a Brittle Star we found near the Coral "tree"

[The Flying Pirate]

 

You can see in this shot that the visibility was less than great at the start of the dive.

[The Flying Pirate]

 

Keeping with the Save the Waves program we picked up any garbage we found on our dive. Here she jokes with an old beer bottle we found.

[The Flying Pirate]

 

If you look carefully you can see the head of one of the snowflake eels peaking out at us. The eels are very timid and hid as soon as they saw us coming. He is in the gap between the two pieces of yellow coral.

[The Flying Pirate]

 

The view of the harbor in St Thomas from the bar on top of the hill at Paradise Point. It's a long walk (There is also a cable car) but it's worth it!

[The Flying Pirate]

 

The Summit as seen from Paradise Point, St Thomas.

[The Flying Pirate]

 

St Thomas is one of the prettier islands in the Caribbean

[The Flying Pirate]

 

One of Seaborne Airlines, Twin Otters leaves St Thomas. Seaborne is the only airline in the world that operates on straight floats, not amphibs.

[The Flying Pirate]

 

One of the bartenders pouring a Double Martini Flight. It is worth ordering this drink just to watch them make it! He is pouring all the drinks in one pour!

[The Flying Pirate]

 

A single Martini Flight presented, ready to drink!

[The Flying Pirate]

Saturday

 

Back in San Juan, the Cruise was over, but not the adventure. Because our flight was scheduled to leave later, (at 5:00pm local) we booked a tour through the ship. We choose the Rainforest tour and I highly recommend it. They picked us and all our bags up at the pier and then loaded us into a bus for the drive to the El Yunque National Forest, the only tropical rainforest in the US National Forest System. We had been there in the past and enjoyed it.

After the tour they dropped us off back at the airport, where our luggage was waiting for us.

[The Flying Pirate]

 

This little guy was waving goodbye to us as we got ready to leave the ship on Saturday Morning in San Juan.

[The Flying Pirate]

 

The sign near the entrance to the visitors center at El Yunque.

[The Flying Pirate]

 

The entrance to the Visitors Center at the El Yunque National Forest.

[The Flying Pirate]

 

One of the smaller waterfalls in the park.

[The Flying Pirate]

 

These large snails could be found through out the forest if you looked carefully.