Sunday 2/7 - GRENADA!!    Mandoo, our driver, met us and took us to the Windward Sands where we would spend the night. It's a nice little B&B owned and operated by Jonny and his family. Rooms are basic and clean. I shared my shower with a tiny frog! Sweet. Jonny's stepson fixed us breakfast and served us in the outdoor dining area that affords a view of the sea. Mandoo picked us up at 11am for our island tour. We saw everything there was to see in five hours. Since I was sitting in the back seat I took a bonine to control the nausea that swept over me while navigating the roads.

Mandoo took us to the ship at 4:45pm. WOW! The Yankee Clipper is as beautiful as I thought she would be. We went to check in with Annie, the Purser, and show her our tickets and passports. Then Ricardo was to get our credit card number for charge purposes (a.k.a. shopping!). I reached for my purse and it was not where it should have been. Panic ensued! Steve thought I would implode - blood & brains all over the saloon. He tried to get me outside but I couldn't budge; I was hyperventilating. Steve left and decided to call Mandoo on our marine radio (we always keep it with us). When he opened his bag - Voila! my purse. OK, now I can shop.

After that was completed we found our cabin #10 to be very comfortable, yet tiny. We met some of our fellow passengers. Most of them are our age (30's - 60's) which is nice. One man wanted to know where the babes in the brochure were. I told him I was there! ha ha ha! We met some of the crew and realized that two of them (Ricardo and Duane) had written me on Delphi. Neat. Stow-away party was ok but not great. Band was ok. I was bored so went to bed at 9:15pm.

MONDAY 2/8 - Sailing! It's an awesome feeling. Gliding over the saphire blue water with only the sound of the wind. Peaceful. When the sails went up and they played "Amazing Grace" I cried. Yeah, right, and who doesn't? Steve helped with the ropes (they forgot to tell him to let go when the rope starts to move so he got rope burn). I think he wanted a sailboat until he realized how much work was involved. We sailed all day (18 hours to be exact). It sure did move around a lot. We popped a bottle of champagne and toasted the "jam". Then we popped another bottle. Bad mistake. That one set us both to rocking. I got to skipper the ship for a bit, but was kinda tipsy (aka drunk) and Ricardo took the helm. The champagne coupled with the pina colada I drank and the wine with dinner (which I barely remember) we went to be at 7:15pm. Party animals, aren't we? It was a wild sailing night. Rock, roll, up, down, twist, turn. A couple of times Steve was airborne - NO, I had nothing to do with that.

TUESDAY 2/9 - Up at 6:30am to shower and get coffee. I talked to Annie about staying on board for a 2nd week at 1/2 price. We came very close to doing it but decided against it. Shoped in Bequia today. I love Bequia. Julian's (the First Mate) mother braided my hair (she has a tee-shirt stand in Bequia). We met Julian's wife and little boy. Cute family. Took the launch to the beach. No snorkling due to merky water.

The Wine & Cheese party on board was ok. Steve ate some really nasty cheese! The duo that played music was so-so. The guy just couldn't sing. Annie ate dinner with us. She said there was a jump-up at the Plantation later that evening, so she got 20 of us to go with her. We piled in the launch, stopped by a bar for a drink, then headed to the jump-up. Alas, it wasn't jumping up. So Annie made her own. She told the orgasm joke, really, really loudly. Duane went with us. Steve and I managed to stay up until 11:30pm. BTW, Annie and some of the passengers missed the last launch so she hired a water taxi.

WEDNESDAY 2/10 - Sailing to Tobago Cays. As Steve and I were looking out our picture window this morning we were very aware that we were sailing in 8'-10' swells. As one oncoming swell would meet the wake from the ship it resulted in waves crashing over the rail and onto our window. It was spectacular!! It gave us a small taste of what the early explorers must have felt.

OK, we had an incident last night after we went to sleep. There was much banging of doors and then a male passenger entered our cabin! He was pretty toasted and he asked if I had a car!? I pushed him out the door and he continued on banging and looking for a car. This morning (Wed) when I was talking with Annie she indicated that someone was in HER room and that some strange things happened throughout the ship during the night. Captain John McLean spoke with our visitor and gave him a 2nd chance to behave.

Back to sailing: Capt John is very dedicated to his craft. His personality is subdued and not out-going but we didn't mind. Sometimes the crew appears aloof too, but I think it may just be my imagination.

We went to the beach in Tobago Cays. Snorkling wasn't very good but the beach was pretty. We found a dead cat that had washed up on shore. It wasn't pretty.

Came back to the ship at 2:30pm. Both of us went out into the widows net on the bowsprit for a photo op. How touristy! Captain John hoisted anchor at 4pm and we set sail for Palm Island and the on-shore party at the Sunset Bar. Great steel band. Steve and Dave (another passenger) formed a chorus line and danced for everyone. I got too much sun so I went to sleep at 9:15pm.

THURSDAY 2/11 - Palm Island all day! It's lovely. Spent the day relaxing on the beach. no sun; sat in the shade. Tonight were the crab races and the PPPBLT contest. Steve won on the crab races ($35). For PPPBLT he dressed as a pregnant prostitute by wearing my red thong panties with a paero over them and my bikini top! He was lovely. He placed first. They paired him with Tim who dressed as a Budweiser girl. We won a bottle of champagne (just what we needed).

Earlier in the day I had given Country (the Bartender) a tape that Steve recorded. Well, Country played it tonite. We were so proud. We even sold a few.

FRIDAY 2/12 - Mayreau. Well, almost. We were ready to go ashore when Captain John noticed there were 300 lounge chairs lined up on the beach and a huge Club Med Foo-Foo ship had pulled in. Captain said we wouldn't be staying there because it wouldn't be a pretty sight when Club Med unloads 600 passengers. So we hoisted the sails, played Amazing Grace and off we sailed for Chatham Bay!!

Chatham was lovely. My favorite. Great snorkling. Steve met a couple of natives who lived in a hut on the beach. One of them had a guitar so Steve played and sang. The "Barbeque King" of Union Island offered him a job. My hut will be built next to his. I can't wait. We also swam off the ship. A couple of guys mooned us as they dove in; one lost his pants. I took pictures.

Our farewell dinner was sad, yet fun. We popped our last bottle of champagne to toast the perfect vacation. When Captain John hoisted ALL the sails while "Amazing Grace" played. Tears flowed from passengers and crew alike. Then as we sailed for Grenada the Captain played "Ride of the Valkyrie". He turned to us and with a slight smirk said, "Impressive, isn't it"? He's cool. It was a lovely sail and a lovely evening.

SATURDAY 2/13 - Woke up in Grenada. How sad to leave the Yankee Clipper. We will return. Annie came up to the top deck and read a press release from American Airlines. Basically it said that we were stranded in Grenada but that American would put us up in a hotel and give us meals and taxi vouchers amounting to $400 a day. Yahoo!

Mandoo took us to the airport to get the vouchers where we were told that we would be staying at the Renaissance. Yeah American!! It was great. The resort is beautiful and fancy. We didn't know when we would be able to leave Grenada. Didn't really care.

SUNDAY 2/14 - Happy Valentines Day. Steve and I took a walk on the beach wishing that we knew where some of our new-found WJ friends were staying and low and behold, we found eight of them within a few yards of our hotel. Oh joy.

MONDAY 2/15 - Time to go. American made us leave. Our flight attendant offered to call in sick for me.! Funny guy. All wasn't lost though. American put us in first class to Atlanta. We were like Beavis and Butthead flying first class. Taking pictures of each other, drinking like there was no tomorrow. Yahoo again.

To sum it all up, Windjammers are the best vacation I've ever had in my life. I don't care if I ever see the inside of a foo-foo ship again (unless I'm playing music on one and getting paid to be there).