NEWS FLASH ! ! !

Ladies and Gentlemen we have our sixth couple joining Caribbean Cruise 2007. Welcome Dale and Kay Robertson (D&K) to our November cruise in paradise. They have booked their flights to Saint Thomas to arrive on Friday the 9th and return on Friday the 23rd. They have not picked a cabin as of yet. They are planning to sleep-a-board on Friday the 9th and help with provisioning and our skipper checkouts on Saturday the 10th. Once they pick their cabin we can assign them duties and titles.

With the addition of our sixth couple I have great confidence we will have 8 couples for the cruise and probably have to tell some friends there is no more room.

MORE NOTES ABOUT THE CRUISE....

I intend to rent a car in Saint Thomas when Barbara, Rick and I arrive on Thursday. I hope to find a large enough vehicle to accommodate the transportation of all cruise members (not at one time) this would eliminate the need to pay for a taxi. My plan is to rent the car from Thursday 2:20 PM (our arrival) to Saturday afternoon. This would facilitate our provisioning and transportation to the boat for all and to and from our Hotel (Barbara, Rick and me) on Thursday night / Friday morning. I will inform you on the BLOG of my progress in finding a suitable vehicle for this purpose.

I spoke with Nori to get an update on our confirmation of our charter dates. She informed me (new news) that our second boat that we requested for a Saturday Night sleep-a-board will not be available as it is returning from mechanical service with the owner on Saturday and will not be ready before Sunday morning. DO NOT DESPAIR ! ! I am sure we can fit everybody aboard the first boat that we (P&B, Rick Lester, G&D and D&K) will be sleeping-a-board on Friday. After we complete our skipper checkouts (Rick Lester and I) on Saturday we will find a slip in the Crown Marina in Charlotte Amalie. This marina is less than 2 miles from the airport. One of our Friday sleep-a-boards could drive the rental car for the round trips necessary to transport all Saturday arrivals (T&L, S&P and Amy so far) to the boat. We might even find having all 16 of us aboard for the first night might be fun! We would need extra bedding or sleeping bags (for three couples - remember we have the two bunk beds available) but surely this will be less expensive than hotel rooms. If anyone would not want to do this they could stay in a hotel on Saturday night in town.

We will need a complete list of provisions for our departure from our cook(s) before we travel. This will allow us (the Friday sleep-a-boards) to acquire the items on Friday or Saturday for delivery on Saturday/Sunday to our boats. So far our Cook and Bartenders are Todd and Lysa. Hopefully we will have a Cook for the other boat. However our menus will be such that Lysa and Todd could provide a list to review at our next meeting at Greg and Darcy's

I know there is a great desire on the part of our fellow travelers to have every detail prepared in advance, including our itinerary. This is the purpose of our BLOG and our monthly meetings. Rest assured we will not go without an agreed upon itinerary months in advance. I hope to have a good outline of our itinerary completed at the next meeting. I will plan on being prepared for this goal. Please call me if you have any special desires. I might even publish on the BLOG a rough draft before the meeting.

On another note, I was informed by Nori that "rafting" of the two boats is not allowed. I am sure we can find many ways to share our fun from one boat to the other. Many of the couples have "walkie-talkie" type radios. I recommend one in each cabin. I have a couple of sets to share if needed. We should bring them to the next meeting to make certain they will all communicate with each other. Please post a comment if you have radios to bring.

I hope everyone finds the monthly meetings useful. I know it seems we don't do much. I believe having the meetings allows us to get comfortable with each other before the cruise. This way there won't be such a "culture shock" when we get on the boats. Planning for the trip is at least half of the fun.

Until next time...

Pat