Sail on Sail Pending

Over 1/2 of Montserrat, including the capital city of Plymouth, has been buried by an active volcano. Because of modern technology, and the warning systems in place, only 17 people were killed by the major eruption in 1995, but the volcano took a lot more from this island than lives. Family’s have been separated, businesses have gone bankrupt, and hopes and dreams of prosperity have been destroyed.   

In 1995, before the eruption, the island was thriving with tourism. There was daily cruise ship activity, scenic golf courses, and many boutique and luxery hotels. Legendary producer of the Beetles, Sir George Martin, opened a small recording studio on the island called AIR Studio Montserrat and many stars in the music industry including Paul McCartny, Jimmy Buffett, Mick Jager, Michael Jackson and many others would frequently come here to record music and get away from the hustle and bustle of the larger studios. 

On July 18, 1995 the dormant Souffiere Hills Volcano became active and everything change.  

Eruptions completely buried the Capital City of Plymouth. Visitors to the island must now hire a guide to show them around since the volcano is still very active and many areas are off limits.    We hired George, who has lived in Monserat his entire life. He said on the day of the eruption he only thought it was the Concord flying over because hearing the sonic boom from it was a common occurance back then. It flew over every few days. 

George has experienced the devastation of the volcano first hand. Between 1995 and 2000, more than 2/3rds of the islands population left the island and has not returned; including George’s wife. He also owned a thriving taxi service and was one of the first operators on the island to receive a license to carry cruise ship passengers. Unfortunately, since the first eruption the cruise ships have stopped coming and other tourist are afraid to visit. There is now only 1 hotel on the island. 

George picked us up in the town of Little Bay Beach where Sail Pending was anchored.     

Then he took us to a nice view point where we could see the entire anchorage of Little Bay. Sail Pending is the sailboat anchored farthest out, to the left of the blue fishing boat.

 Monserrat is a very lush island with dense forests and rocky cliffs that fall into the deep blue sea.   

  
As we were driving along the main road, George bragged about how pure and clean the water on the island is. He said it was the best water in all of the Caribbean and told us about a natural spring that was nearby. He told us if we drank from it, we would be guaranteed to return to Montserrat again.  

 

 We all drank from the spring.   

George was a talker and loved showing us around and telling us about his island. He was explaining the islands week long St. Patty’s Day celebration and how the loud music continued until 5am the night before, in the town of Salem, where he lives. He told us the music only stopped when the electric for the entire town went out. He said we may not be able to drive through the town because the festivities were planned to start early again this morning. He was right!! We were stopped as a Music Parade (click for video) started going through the streets. Check out the size of those speakers.     

Because of this dance party through the streets at 10am, we had to take a long detour around the town of Salem. George showed us where he lived and told us who his neighbors were and showed us where all of his friends lived. Once we got pass Salem, we headed towards the devastation from the volcano. 

First, we went to an area that use to be a golf course and large dock but is now completely covered in ash. My pictures don’t do the significance of what we saw justice, so I took a picture of the picture in the Leeward Island Cruising Guide written by Chris Doyle.  Several hundred yards of new land has formed and there is a  beautiful new black sand beach. 

Continued on Part 2….

 After a 30 mile, very wet and bumpy, sail we arrived at St. Eustatius which is also know as Statia. It’s a small volcanic island that rises from the ocean almost straight up to 1800′. The island has about 3400 residence.   

 The history of this small island is fascinating!! In the mid 1700’s, Statia was the trading capital of the West Indies and one of the world’s busiest harbors. This was because the Dutch remained neutral with the major powers of the world who were all fighting at the time and opened Statia as a free port. You could buy anything here, including fine fabrics, gold, slaves, guns, tabacco, sugar, and cotton. Countries who were not allowed to deal with each other,  could deal with Statia. From what we were told this is still going in today. Oil from another country is brought here and stored by a US company and then disturbed throughout the world. There were at least 15 large oil tankers anchored off of the coast just waiting for their oil to be off loaded or filled up. Filled up with what is now “US Oil” 
As soon as we arrived we cleared in with customs and paid $15.00, which allows us to enjoy their island for up to 3 days. It was a very easy process and the officials were very nice. Now that we are official, it was time for a beer and snack with Kevin and Barbara from Escape Claws.   

  The view from our table at lunch.

 

The Old Gin Mill Restaraunt.    

After our snacksit was time to go explore. The town has two different areas, Old Town which is below the cliffs by the beach and docks where we ate lunch ….         

 

 

… and “upstairs” (as the locals called it) which is the main area of town that is up a huge flight of steps and a very strep cobblestone road, called Old Slaves Road.
  

      

The walk up was gorgeous and had great views along the way.   

Upstairs is a charming town where everybody says good afternoon as they walk or drive past. The residence on this island are the friendliest out of every island we visited so far. The roads are made from cobblestone and brick.     

The churches and buildings are beautifully painted in bright Caribbean colors.    

 
We also visited Fort Oranje. It is a very well preserved fort. …..We didn’t have time to read about its history, but we will and add it here later. …   

 

     

   

  

  

  

  

  

  
After all this walking it was time to quench our thirst, so we stopped at a corner bar called Cool Corner, which reminded us of a British Pub. They had CNN on the TV and we all talked about how glad we are to be living the cruiser lifestyle  where we don’t have access to TV’s and the garbage of the political ads. It’s frustrating at the money that is being spent on this trash by all parties and candidates. Enough of my political rant!!! Here’s to not seeing another political ad until the election is over. Cheers!!  
   
 

When the weather is crappy and we are stuck in one place for a few days, we catch up on Tyler’s school work and work on “boat jobs.”

So, What are boat jobs? Here are a few projects we have worked on the past few days. 

1.) Freezer. 

Our freezer has not been working as well as it should be and really hadn’t worked great since we moved aboard in October. The bottom two shelves kept items frozen, but the top two shelves worked more like a very cold refrigerator. So, this is where we kept our beer. We couldn’t make or keep ice. 

We heard of a local sailor, named Stinger, who was good at fixing refrigeration units, so we contacted him via our VHF. He came over later that afternoon and took our freezer apart. He discovered our circulation fan wasn’t working. He also topped off our freon. 

He told us that we needed a 5″, 12 volt fan and exactly where we could purchase one. He charged us $20, + a beer. Best deal ever!!! Our entire freezer is staying around 16-18 degrees now and I have ice cubes for the first time in over 4 months. 

Ice cubes!!! Sometimes the simplest first world items can mean so much when living on a boat.   

Since we now have an extra cold freezer, we are going to try to save energy by turning it off every night before we go to bed. The way the refrigerator/freezer is currently wired, we have to open the freezer to turn it off. When we open it the tempurature inside the freezer increases about 2.5 degrees. Rich decided to rewire the units so the freezer switch is on an external switch and we won’t have to open the freezer to turn it on and off.   

Success!!! It worked, now the freezer won’t run overnight when we don’t have solar power to replace the energy it uses. 

2.) Deep Clean our Grill. 

We use our grill almost every day. It has not had a deep cleaning since we moved aboard in October. It was time to take the entire grill apart to clean and service it. 

  
All the parts looked good, so luckily we don’t need to replace anything yet, but it did need a good soaking and cleaning. We filled up our big cooler and soaked all the parts in soapy (Dawn) water. Then we scrapped off all of the baked on grease, food and rust. 

 It’s all back together and looks almost as good as new.  

3.) Check and Clean out the Bilges

The bilges always get some water in them, but if there is a lot of water we have to track down where it is coming from. First, we have to smell the water, to make sure it’s not sewage and then we taste the water to see if it’s fresh water or salt water. Once we know what kind of water is in the bilge we look for the leak. Usually it’s just a simple leak like a loose connection between hoses, but it could be more serious like a thru hole or seal. So, we check our bilges regularly. 

  

4.) Wipe down all Surfaces. 
As you can probably imagine, when living on a boat in the tropics things can get moldy (and smelly) pretty quick. We open up all the windows to get a good breeze going through the boat and then spray a bleach/water mixture on everything, wipe it down and let it dry. Then we spray everything with a vinager/water mixture to prevent any future mold from growing. Everything inside the boat is wiped down with this process including the the bilges and inside the refrigerator and freezer. 
   
The boat smells so fresh and clean afterwards. 😊

5.) Provisioning. 

Once this weather front clears out of the area, we are going to continue our trek South down the island chain. From what we’ve been told, everything is much less expensive in St. Martin, so we need to stock up on things now because our next large scale shopping will not be until we reach Grenada sometime after July 1st. We have to think about purchasing everything we may need, including spare parts, toiletries, paper products, etc. for 4 months!!! What makes this an even bigger task is that we do not have a car and most stores are about 1/2 to 1 mile walk from the dingy dock. So, we can ONLY purchase what we can carry on each trip. This means we have to try to make a couple trips each day to be able to purchase everything we may need for the next 4 months. 

Unfortunately, a trip to the store is not as easy as jumping into our car and running to the nearest Walmart. This is what a trip to the store is like: 

  We all pile into the dingy (our car) with our shopping bags.   

 
 We drive the dingy to the dingy dock.       

 

Squeeze the dingy into a parking spot.

  
We walk to the store.   Most of the time we see some fun things on our walks. Today we saw a big lizard up in the electric wires.  

 

  
We walk back to the dingy with as much as we can carry and head back to Sail Pending…. and do this over and over and over again. 

   

  By the time we get back to Sail Pending we are usually soaked!! 

 

Working on boat jobs is definitely not as much fun as exploring new islands or relaxing on a beautiful beach, but they are fun in a different way. Everything we do is an adventure. These items and a ton of other boat jobs must be completed to keep Sail Pending in good condition, so she can continue to take us to scenic and exotic locations. 

Kaycie wanted to visit St. Barth during her visit, so from Grand Case we sailed SE around the northern end of St. Martin and headed for St. Barts. It’s only about 15 miles away and we sailed the entire way, but 4-6 foot (and occasionally bigger) waves crashed over the side of us for 3 1/2 hours. Needless to say, it was not a very pleasant ride, but everyone voted to keep going. 

Once we arrived in the main port in the town of Gustavia, we found a place to anchor and headed to town to check into customs and then take a leisurely walk around town and grab a bite to eat. But, it was around 3pm, and we discovered that most of the bars and restaraunts were closed for several hours until their dinner opening. 😟 ugh!!

 
  

 
So, we just went back to the boat and rounded up some leftovers and enjoyed an early dinner from Sail Pending. We were pretty tired so we watched the sunset, played a game and went to bed. 

  
The next morning we were up early and we decided to rent a car and explored the island. Our first stop was the town of Lorient, where JB owned a hotel in the 70’s and wrote a song about it. We found a cute little bar on beach with a great view, just outside of the town. 

 

We also drove around the island and here are some of the awesome views. 

 
   

    

After our drive around the island we went back to Gustavia and ate lunch at La Select.

  
La Select is the inspiration of JB’s song “Cheeseburger in Paradise.” Of course, we each had cheese burgers, although we weren’t very impressed with them. We’ve had much better cheeseburgers other places and kinda thought this place was a tourist trap. 

  

Our rental car parked in Gustavia.

  

But, to us the most exciting part of Gustavia was watching the airplanes land!!! St. Barth airport has one of the most dangerous final approaches of any commercial airport in the world. The gap in the hills make the approach very windy and there are several obstacles that the planes have to maneuver around. To top it off the runway is very, very short. 

  

We’ll upload a video of a couple planes landing when we have good wifi. 

We returned our rental car in the early afternoon and purchased a couple baguettes and cheese for dinner. We dingyed back to Sail Pending and repositioned her to an chorale around the corner called Anse de Columbier, which is a much quieter and calmer anchorage than Gustavia. 

  

Leaving Gustsvia.   
  
Our delicious sunset dinner once we were moored in Anse de Columbier. 

  
  
The next morning we woke up had a quick breakfast and took a walk to check out the beautiful beach we were moored just off of.

   
As you can probably guess, we are becoming huge beach snobs by now. A beach has to be breathtaking and relatively private for us to spend any time there. 

 

The anchorage/mooring field at Anse de Columbier is pretty spectacular and this anchorage is one of the most beautiful that we have visited yet. So, far it’s one of our favorites. 

We look for 3 things to rate an anchorage on and Anse de Columbier gets 5 stars on all 3!!!

#1, a private beach

  
One of the things that makes this beach special is that it is ONLY assessable by boat or a very long hike from the town of Columbier. So, there are very few people. 

#2, hiking and areas to explore 

There is a stone fence that surrounds a run down, vacant house on the hill.  The stone fence is starting to fall apart too. But, it’s a charming addition to the one side of the beach. 
 
There is also a stone walkway from the house going into the water.  

 
These were the steps leading to the house.  

More pictures from the Southern side of the beach 
   
     

On the Northern side of the beach there was another stone stairway that went up a steep hill.   

The steps lead up to the hiking path that takes you to the town of Columbier and the view was pretty amazing. Here is the view looking into the anchorage. 

  
Rich and Kaycie walking up the steps.  

Once at the top you can also see across into the sea on the other side.

   

  

#3, lots of sea life and good snorkeling 

The amount of turtles we saw in this anchorage was insane!! As we looked around the boat there was almost always a sea turtle in sight. At one point we counted 7 turtles who surfaced at the same time. 

  

There were also a ton of starfish

   

 
There were also some squid and an octopus who was camera shy.

  

So, Anse de Columbier will be an anchorage that we’ll return to soon.  

Overall, St. Barth was a fun few days but we have to get Kaycie back to St. Martin for her to catch her flight home.

 
 

From the lagoon, Grand Case is a short 3 mile sail along the North West Coast of St. Martin. We left the Lagoon through the Sandy Ground (French side) afternoon bridge opening. This bridge is only 29′ wide, but Tyler maneuvered 24′ wide Sail Pending through like a professional Captain!!! Here is a short video. Tyler driving through Marigot Bridge

 
 

The beach at Grand Case is absolutely beautiful!! The island you see in the back ground is Anguilla. The anchorage and dingy dock can get rolley since it’s a northern bay, but everything that the town has to offer makes the rolley night worth it. 

 

   
Sail Pending anchored in Baie Grand Case.  
Grand Case is considered the gastronomic center of St. Martin. The Main Street is lined with any thing you could want, from cute little Bar-B-Que places with picnic tables, to beach bars, to 5 star French Restaraunts with linen table cloths and fine china. So, we decided to splurge and have Lunch at one of the fancy places. 

 Our table nicely made with linen and China.   
The view from our table.

 
   

  

We ate pretty good. We started out with Foie Gras and Escargot. Tyler didn’t like either of them. 

 And had Salads as our main course. 

Rich had his topped with Duck Breast and Gizzards 

  
Mine was shrimp and Lobster
 

Both kids had Hamburgers???
There was complimentary house made Ginger Rum served afterwards. 

  

There is definitely something for everyone in Grand Case. Here are some pictures from our walk around town.

  

 
  

  

  

  

  

  

After all the walking we have to stop for a Gelato. 

  

Every Tuesday night there is a street festival with local vendors selling hand made jewelry, paintings, crafts, cloths and best of all International and local cuisine!!!

I got 3 hand made ankle bracelets from a vender for only $10.00!!

    
  
  Here is just a very small sample of some of the foods. Rich had a Stuffed Box Fish, which is s local fish that has a very hard shell. They stuff it with a bread stuffing and grill it. It’s amazing. A Box Fish and Heinehin was $6.50. 

  

  
 

When in a France Island, you must eat French Fries.  

   

And Crepes… 

   

The International Fares included…

Paella and Sangria,  

  

Gyro’s    

  

Shrimp and beef kabobs.   

Stuffed Crab Shells  

  

Grilled Red Snapper with Beans and Rice, pasta salad and Cole Slaw.  

Around 8:00-8:30 there is a parade with Caribbean dancers and local drummers. (I’ll post a YouTube video here if I can ever get it uploaded.) 

Needless to say, we did our best to eat our way through this epicurean town of the Caribbean, but there was still a lot of food that we just didn’t have room for or time to try. This is definitely a place we are going to come back to. 
 

The overnight passage across the Anegada passage was a success. The winds were 15-20 (we had an occasional gust or two to 30, but nothing too scary) knots from the North – North East. Seas were a 2-3 feet. It was actually a very nice ride and we sailed the entire way. Rich was very upset because the only time we had to start the engines was to charge our old batteries. Ugh!!!

At sunset we saw a pod of 3 whales that swam with us. (We didn’t get any pictures) and we had a beautiful sunrise in the morning. 

  
St. Martin greeted us with an early rainbow. 

I had a breakfast of Cheese, crackers, and hard boiled eggs prepared for us ahead of time. I knew we’d be hungry and tired when the sun came up. 

   
One of the first things we learned when we arrived was most places take USD and give you an even $1.00 = 1,00€. So, I feel as if I am getting a 10% discount on everything!!!!  

We check in on the French side for only $2.00 and put up our French courtesy flag.   
 
Then we go shopping and check out the town. 

Of course, we find French goodies like warm baguettes, fancy cheeses and wine.

    
Rich found a guy selling fresh Lobsters for $20 for 2.5 kilograms. (1 pound = 2.2 kilos) so that’s less than $8.00 a pound!!! Guess what’s for dinner. 

 
After shopping we went to Budget Marine and picked up our new batteries. Rich got his second wind and even installed them AND returned the old ones!!! We (ok, Rich) is getting a lot of stuff done for not having all that much sleep last night. 

Then, our daughter Kaycie called and said she found cheap airline tickets to St. Martin and that she was coming the next day!!! Really? That’s great!! I guess no day of rest for us. 

Friends talked us into staying in Virgin Gorda, so we didn’t leave yesterday…Take 2, we are definitely leaving today around 5pm and friends we met yesterday, that have made this passage a couple times will be our buddy boat.

The Anegada Passage is also know as, “Oh-My-God-A Passage” will be our longest passage yet.

For us to expand our cruising destinations and continue down the Caribbean Island chain we must make this next step and cross the infamous Anegada Passage. The Anegada passage is an 80mile stretch of open water between the BVI and Anguilla. Depths quickly go from 150′ to over 6000′. It is known for its crazy currents between the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. Waves don’t come from just one direction. They are mixed up, confused, and we are going to feel like we are on a ride inside a washing machine. It is commonly referred to as the Cape Horn of the Atlantic and nothing we have read about this passage is good. We will probably be beating straight into the wind the entire time, so we will have to motor sail, and we won’t have the sails help for stability, either.

What is even scarier (for me anyways) about this stretch of ocean is that we have to do this passage AT NIGHT!!!!! Several non boaters ask us why….here is why: You always want to leave your anchorage and arrive at a new anchorage during daylight hours when you can see obstacles, such as, unlit channel markers and reefs. You never want to arrive at an unfamiliar location at night and try to anchor in the dark when you don’t know what you are anchoring on. You don’t want to set your anchor on a reef or a bed of sea grass where it won’t hold. Since this passage will take us between 15-20 hours (depending upon the wind and the currents) we can not make this entire passage during daylight hours, so we have to leave The North Sound in the afternoon and sail all night to arrive in St. Martin in the morning.

We have been watching the weather and the weather looks good for us to do the crossing tonight. We’ll be updating our progress with our Satellite tracker/phone to Facebook via WordPress all night so our families won’t worry about us. Sorry in advance for all of the posts, but this will be the easiest way to keep our worried family and friends all updated all at one time.

Yesterday’s post did not post from WordPress to Facebook, so this is another try.

Also know as, “Oh-My-God-A Passage” Our longest passage yet, which is not long for a passage with long time cruisers…. But, this is a huge step for us.

For us to expand our cruising destinations and continue down the Caribbean Island chain we must make this next step and cross the infamous Anegada Passage. The Anegada passage is an 80mile stretch of open water between the BVI and Anguilla. Depths quickly go from 150′ to over 6000′. It is known for its crazy currents between the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. Waves don’t come from just one direction. They are mixed up, confused, and we are going to feel like we are on a ride inside a washing machine. It is commonly referred to as the Cape Horn of the Atlantic and nothing we have read about this passage is good. We will probably be beating straight into the wind the entire time, so we will have to motor sail, and we won’t have the sails help for stability, either.

What is even scarier about this stretch of ocean is that we have to do this passage AT NIGHT!!!!! Several non boaters have asked us, “Why at night?” Well, here is why: You always want to leave your anchorage and arrive at a new anchorage during daylight hours when you can see obstacles, such as, unlit channel markers and reefs. You never want to arrive at an unfamiliar location at night and try to anchor in the dark when you don’t know what you are anchoring on. You don’t want to set your anchor on a reef or a bed of sea grass where it won’t hold. Since this passage will take us between 15-20 hours (depending upon the wind and the currents) we can not make this entire passage during daylight hours, so we have to leave The North Sound in the afternoon and sail all night to arrive in St. Martin in the morning.

We have been watching the weather and the weather looks good for us to do the crossing tonight and tomorrow night, so Rich wants to get it over with and go later this afternoon. We’ll be updating our progress with our Satellite tracker/phone to Facebook via WordPress all night so our families won’t worry about us. Sorry in advance for all of the posts, but this will be the easiest way to keep our worried family and friends all updated all at one time.

This is a test post to make sure the satellite will post to FB via WP

On Valentines Day we treated ourselves to a tour of Necker Island, an exclusive, eco-friendly, private island that is owned by Sir Richard Branson. The island can accommodate up to 40 guests who can stay on this island for $64,000-$78,000 a night, (yes, per night) double occupancy.

Necker Island is located just North of Virgin Gorda. Sir Richard Branson purchased this 74 acre island in 1978, when he was 28 years old. It was listed for 6 million dollars and he made a low ball bid of $150,000, because that was all he could afford at this point in his career. His offer was turned down and he was asked to leave. After a few months the owner needed some immediate cash and since Branson was the only person to make an offer they settled on a sales price of $180,000.

Today, Sir Richard uses this island as his main residence and a nature preserve with over 140 different species of animals. Only a few tours are done each month and these tours are usually booked months in advance. I didn’t even try booking a tour in advance because we weren’t sure exactly when we would be in Virgin Gorda and usually if Rich and I plan something, something else gets in the way. On the morning of February 14th, I saw on Gumption’s Tours website that there was a Valentines Day tour, so I sent an email asking if there was room on the tour for 3 last minute guest. Surprising, Gumption wrote right back and said, “YES, There was room on the tour for that afternoon.” I was shocked!!

Gumption came to our boat and picked us up in his glass bottom boat around 2:00pm and we made our way across to Necker Island. Here are pictures of us on the dock.

Once we were docked Gumption lead the way as we walked around the island.

The first stop was the Lemur area. Before we entered the area we had to sign a release that released Necker Island and Richard Branson from any injury’s that occurred from the Lemur’s, but they were very cute little things that just wanted you to feed them food.

They also loved camera’s and almost knew they were getting their pictures taken.

Tyler was a little hesitant and didn’t want one on him and he kept his distance for awhile, but then he had no choice when one jumped on him.

 

Unfortunately, I stood under a Lemur that had a little too much to eat. YUCK!!!

The Lemur’s are an endangered species and according to Gumption there are no longer any Red Ruffed Lemur’s living in the wild…. which is very sad. They are not monkey’s, but a species all their own. Sir Richard Branson is successfully breeding Lemur’s and helping the endanger species increase their numbers. When Madagascar’s government improves their hunting and poaching laws he will send some of the Lemur’s back to their original country and have programs in place to help them get back into their native environment.

After the Lemur area we continued our walk around the island. We saw all kinds of birds that have been rescued from around the world.

We walked past the dining and sports room along the beach.

 

During our walk we saw several giant tortoises just wandering along.

Richard Branson’s private residence sprawls along one of the highest peaks on the island.

His office is the building on the right, then the kitchen area, the dining/living area and then the bedroom suite on the far left.

We also walked past a guest house that has hosted Princess Diana, Michael Jackson, Mel Gibson, Bono, and recently Prince William and Kate. These are just a few of the people who have come for a quiet relaxing holiday on the island.

Before we were allowed on the island we had to sign a photo/social media disclosure because someone very famous (who they would not name) was currently staying on the island with their entire family. We had to sign a release stating that if we saw any guest on the island that we would not take their picture. Our tour guide, Gumption, had to enter every area first to make sure the guest or any family member was not in the area before we entered it.

Every guest house, walkway, and building on the island charmingly blended in with the natural landscape and was not pretentious or obtrusive in any way. Even the flowers and landscaped areas looked natural and not overly manicured or maintained.

We walked down a natural trail to a beach on the North side of the island. Next to the beach was a large patio area, with a fire sculpture and bar area which was facing the beach, but behind the bar area was a salt pond that was home to several types of colorful birds including a Flock of Flamingo’s and Scarlet Ibis’s.

The grey birds on the other side of the pond are the juvenile Flamingo’s that have not turned pink yet. The Flamingo’s are thriving so well here, that there are 175 juvenile’s this year. Each Necker Flamingo is tagged and they have turned up in flocks all through the Caribbean and as far South as South America. I really can not think of anything much more awesome than sitting on your beach, on your own private island, sipping a drink and watching your flamingo’s …. Well done Mr. Branson. Well done!!
After we watched the Flamingo’s we headed for …. wait for it …. The Gift Shop, of course!! We did not buy anything, but if you go and want something, expect to pay a very pretty penny for it. We decided the view outside was much better.

After the stop at the gift shop we went back to Gumption’s boat and he brought us back to Sail Pending.