I awoke a tad bit slower this morning than previous ones. Little excess last night but that's ok. We had one cruiser head first down the stairs of the piano bar last night ... 5 stitches later and he has the quintessential "Scars to prove it." Now that's a cruise warrior if I've ever seen one.

Chris and I had originally signed up to go on the ATV tour, but we cancelled at the last minute. My focus today is the Gustav III airport and some footage of the planes taking off and landing. In addition, there was reportedly an airshow to take place today but according to the banner at the airport it is tomorrow. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

After breakfast and morning announcements, we headed into Gustavia, St. Barthélemy.

The trip overnight took us 102 nautical miles from Spanish Town, Virgin Gorda to St. Barthélemy (or St. Barths). St Barths has a population of around 9,000 people. The indigenous people called this island Ouanalao. Again, I'll let Wikipedia tell you the rest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Bart h%C3%A9lemy

There was some sort of regatta today, and I believe a sailing vessel race. These ship are amazing. Some of the private Yachts in the harbor. I wouldn't even know how to begin to describe them. Awe inspiring to say the least. I'm guessing anywhere between 50 and 150 million .... yes ... dollars.

Once we were on dry ground, we hailed a cab and headed to the road above the airport. Not really sure what was up with the cabbie but it seems to me that a NYC cabbie would probably know more about St. Barth than this fella did. We stopped at the top of the hill overlooking the airport and I told him to drop me off there and then take Heather, Chris and Kim to St. Jean beach down past the airport and I would walk down ... "oh no no no .. You can't walk that. It'll take you all day." "you see panes good from beach." So ok .. he's local and I'm not ... So he drives us down to the beach access past the airport which is less than a mile away. Drops us off, charges us $35.00 for the 5 miles he took us, and we hit the beach.

Wrong .... This is ALL sorts of wrong. So .. off I go. I walk back, past the airport, and up the hill to the top where I proceed to be in aviation heaven. This is an awesome airport. Video to follow. After about an hour on the hill, I run into the ATV tour we cancelled. They stopped and stayed for about 5 minutes and then took off. Good call DVD .... Good call. From everyone I talked to on the hill no one could confirm nor deny the WWII era planes that were supposed to fly over, I hung on the hill for about another 10 minutes and then headed back to the beach. The sailing vessels were on the horizon .. racing away.

We grabbed a cab back to Gustavia and got dropped off at the marina. Wouldn't you freaking know that we no sooner got out of the cab and the planes, from the Texas Legends Museum WWII Warbirds group, specifically:

- B-25J Mitchell Bomber "Betty's Dream," made famous by the Doolittle Raiders' attack on Japan four months after the Pearl Harbor attack.

- TBM Avenger 3E Torpedo Bomber, flown by former President George H.W. Bush when he was just 19.

- FG-1D Corsair "Whistling Death," a carrier-based fighter plane that reduced the enemy's air power during the war.

- P-40K Warhawk "Aleutian Tiger," the same model flown by David Lee "Tex" Hill, a famous pilot who was a member of the first "Flying Tiger" American Volunteer Group.

- A6-M2 Model 21 Japanese Zero "Last Samurai," the symbol of Japanese air power during the war.

..... all did several flyovers over the airport. Directly over the hill I was just on.

Boo for me. Yea for those on the hill though. What a sight that would have been!!
Since there was nothing I could do about missing what was probably a SPECTACULAR flyover, we met up with Andy and Shannon and all sauntered to Shell Beach. They call it shell beach because because it's a beach covered in shells. How bout that? After shell beach we hit a little burger place at the marina and grabbed lunch. After lunch we hit a couple shops and then back on the boat. We're tired. All of us. Everyone is really really tired today. Alot of sun, fun, and spirits have worn us all out.

Once on the boat we did an afternoon hangout by the pool which was nice as we had yet to do this all week.
By this point I could see it on everyone's face. We were tired. Freaking tired. Everyone was hitting the wall at various points.
I took the opportunity before sunset to jump out on the nets on the front of the ship. That was pretty cool. Little scary but cool none the less. After the nets, I went to the back of the ship and photographed the last sunset of the ship. To completely steal a pun .... The moment was bittersweet.

The last formal dinner on the boat was nice but all I could think about was a nap.
I was awoken to Heather informing me that the band was signing things so I gathered up the overview itinerary and the red cruise cap and head up. While signing everything for us, the band took the time to shake all of our hands and thank us for being part of such an incredible week. Every one of them remembered my name ..... I'm still trying to decide if that's good or bad LOL. It was impressive, that's for sure.

Nick took the stage after dinner and played several songs that he had written. This kid is a great musician. Period.

Around 10:30, the band setup and allowed musically inclined cruisers to join them in a jam session. Although I had brought my harmonicas for just this occasion, and although I do know the bass for "dirty juice" I chickened out and oped to get some good photographs. After watching Nick master the harmonica the way he did, if I had joined in it probably would have sounded like a wounded seal had been harpooned and thrown on deck, and the bass thing .... Well lets just say that Rob seems to genuinely like me .... and I'd hate to ruin that LOL.
It was pretty cool, and again, an awesome testament to this band. These guys are awesome and deserve the place they have busted ass to get to.

Around 11:30 things began to wind down and so did I. This is it. The last night aboard the Star Clipper. The seas were a little rough as we sailed back to St. Maarten. Sleep was fitful.