no, you may NOT braid my hair!

Sheesh. You’d think I was Rap-freaking-unzel the way ladies on St. Maarten were asking to braid my hair.

Today we’re in St. Maarten, and I figured during this brief patch of sobriety, I’d update y’all. Actually, I do this for myself as well, since I know details of my trip will escape me as soon as I sober up get on the plane home.

We arrived to a very cloudy and dreary St. Maarten, but it brightened up considerably. We did the America’s Cup 12-metre regatta excursion where we were divided up into 2 teams and performed crew duties on racing yachts. I was forced to volunteered to be captain of my crew, which meant absolutely nothing at all. I was also a primary winch grinder, which was a heck of a lot of work. My arms feel like spaghetti and I’m sporting a scraped knee and some sort of abrasion wound on my arm. Battle scars, baby! We raced on one of the original Stars and Stripes yachts that Dennis Conner raced.

And our team lost, only because of a change in wind direction RIGHT at the finish line. Boo!

It was a VERY rough sail, but fun. After the excursion some guy puked on the tender on the way back to port.

After heading back to the ship for a quick lunch, BvP (a mainstay grinder, I think) went shopping in St. Maarten. Now, I was under the impression that jewelry on the islands was a pretty cheap buy. At one point in time, I was sporting over 10,000 worth of sapphire and diamond tennis bracelets on my arm. Then we were told exactly how much the bracelets cost. Eek!

Sales rep: “What *is* your price range?”
Me: “um..I’m have a coupon here from my shopping book for some free tanzanite earrings…”
Sales rep (spoken): “My pleasure, ma’am.”
Sales rep (thoughts)” #$)%&(#&*$ cheap-ass Disney tourists!!!111one!!!”

The Tanzanite stud earrings are about the size of the lowercase “o” on this post.

Our last stop in Phillipsburg was the Guavaberry Emporium where they’ll let you sample the liqueurs (hic!) before you buy. Niiiiiiiiiiiiice.

Now we’re back on the ship…we don’t pull away from St. Maarten until either 7 or 9 tonight (I saw 2 different signs) but we chose to come back and enjoy some pool time. Now he is napping and I’m about to venture to the Spa to see what appointments they have available. Oh, and I think I’ll have a drink too.

whoa…you think I’m bad for blogging on vacation? A guy at the Internet station next to me is on eBay!

Gauw tot ziens!