Caribbean - St Maarten

Oct 16, 2010 St Maarten - We woke up early this morning. Ordered a simple breakast from the room service menu rather than hit the buffet. By 7:30 we were headed off the ship and walked to the town of Philipsburg. Since it was so early, not many shops were open but as always, we're not big shoppers. We wandered through the town, took a few pictures, and debated a huge shore excursion. We normally don't book things through the ship but something big caught our eye late last night. After much thought, we hurried back to the ship and booked/paid for it. After all, it's vacation, right? (Annoyed that I'm not saying what it is yet?) We changed clothes really quickly and went back to the dock to meet with our guide and the rest of the group. Made our way to the water taxi where we learned some history about the sport we were about to participate in. We divided into two teams of 9 (we lucked out and scored the better team) and were shuttled out to our America's Cup Regatta 12-meter race boats.

Yep, we were going to learn how to sail, and we were going to race against the other team! We were assigned the Canada II and the other team was on the True North. Both are former America's Cup race boats. Each person participated and was given a job. Chris was a primary grinder and I was assigned to the port-side winch. Our captain and his crew gave us quick lessons on our respective positions and a short time later we were ready to sail.

In the America's Cup, they do a 6-minute running start. Since boats don't have brakes, it's impossible to line up and do a true start. So the boats taxi back and forth for 6 minutes and when the time is up, the boats make their way to the start line.

Our captain taught us various strategies on start-line positioning and how to steal the wind from the other boats. On the first turn, True North actually ran over the marker. In a real race, that would have been considered a penalty and they'd have to circle around and complete the turn again. This gave us a great lead which we kept for most of the race. At one point, they caught us and even passed us. However, we were able to re-gain our lead and ended up winning by a couple of boat lengths.

It was a FANTASTIC way to end our cruise. We celebrated with beer and rum punch. Got some great pictures, learned a little about sailing, enjoyed our time with the captain and crew, and worked our butts off! Yes, they were tough on us. At one point the captain turned to me while I was tightening my line and sternly said "that's not race speed, Mandy." Okay then! I made sure I was faster next time! They were serious about winning.

Afterward, they took us back to their gift shop at the dock. Chris and I normally don't buy a lot of souvenirs (my journal and our pictures are the best souvenirs, although we always make sure to purchase at least one cheesy Christmas ornament). But they had shirts with our boat name and the year, and Chris really wanted one. We bought a matching one for Owen too. So the sailing was totally worth the money and we had an amazing time. This is definitely one of those experiences that most people won't have a chance to participate in. Once again, we're all about getting off the beaten path and doing things just a little differently.

After sailing, we came back onto the ship for lunch and to rest for a bit. Went back out to the pier to wander around and take a few more pictures. It was very hot along the pier so we didn't last long outside.

Made it back to the ship and took a short nap. Woke up just in time to catch the final sunset of our cruise. Had dinner, packed our suitcases up, and headed for the Caribbean Lounge for some entertainment. First up was trivia (product slogans, then TV theme songs, then movie songs). Chris and I didn't officially participate although we should have. We knew all 20 of the TV theme songs. We would have won two crappy plastic boats. After trivia was the big Bingo game, then the big raffle. The final show of the cruise was a Legends show which was comprised of guests who auditioned in the karaoke bar during the week. A few were really good (Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and Garth Brooks). Actually, Garth Brooks was performed by Marshall, a friend that we made in Barbados. Overall, the show wasn't really that great. It was entertaining, but not the same caliber of the other shows we've seen. Definitely not worthy of ending the cruise.
So now we're holed up in our cabin. Our stuff has been packed and is waiting in the hallway to be picked up by our steward. Our anniversary cruise has just about come to an end!