Thursday, May 29. 2008
The journey continues!
Every one was pretty exhausted last night, the kids were tucked in bed, the big kids watched a movie and this morning there was a lot of lying in too! Except for the kids, they were bright eyed and bushy tailed at 7am!
So today! We cruised to Monkey point for an after breakfast snorkel
It was a spectacular one, there were tarpon galore
a flounder
an arty window shot
a cute pelican about to fly away
Anne hung out on the rocks watching the world go by
Then a nurse shark was spotted
and to top it all off Rich found something new, its not the best picture, these are all with our little snorkel camera, hence the quality
We had to look it up, it is a mollusc and it is called a Sea hair, now I stamped my little foot when he said he had seen a shark and not come to get me, but to see new things with out me! and where was I you may ask, baking cookies!
So after discovering new species, we sailed on down to Jost, it was a beautiful spinnaker run
We had super heros aboard
We even caught fish and yes the deck hand was no where near Kerry, the sending him to the bathroom really works!
Heres Rick with his fish!
and the day was finished with painkillers in soggy dollar and a predator for the kids!
So today! We cruised to Monkey point for an after breakfast snorkel
It was a spectacular one, there were tarpon galore
a flounder
an arty window shot
a cute pelican about to fly away
Anne hung out on the rocks watching the world go by
Then a nurse shark was spotted
and to top it all off Rich found something new, its not the best picture, these are all with our little snorkel camera, hence the quality
We had to look it up, it is a mollusc and it is called a Sea hair, now I stamped my little foot when he said he had seen a shark and not come to get me, but to see new things with out me! and where was I you may ask, baking cookies!
So after discovering new species, we sailed on down to Jost, it was a beautiful spinnaker run
We had super heros aboard
We even caught fish and yes the deck hand was no where near Kerry, the sending him to the bathroom really works!
Heres Rick with his fish!
and the day was finished with painkillers in soggy dollar and a predator for the kids!
Spirit great rates to St Thomas, USVI in August
The Promenade Pot of Gold at the end of the rainbow!
Our friends, Mark and Sally, off the catamaran Viking Dream took a couple great pictures of Promenade out sailing one day. Well, sailing would not be the word as it is as flat as glass! They thought it was an eerie effect, and they are great! I was being very creative and turned one of them into a painting!
The Canadians in the crowd will appreciate this, although I am waiting for them all to start booking charters left and right with there strong dollar right now! I always thought this was a $5.00 Canadian Bill, but apparently it is a COUPON GOOD for a litre of gas!
One other tidbit of advertising here, which you can file under the "is all advertising good advertising column?" Here are Swimvacation and Promenade under a header that says Got Shark? Reminiscent of the "Got Milk?" campaign maybe?? I am not sure!
And just for Lisa, as she could not believe that my son Chad, has been dressing up our guests in halloween costumes forever to go ashore, here is the proof. This was at least 5 years ago and the group still comes back every year, so there must be something to his method!
I had guests ask me yesterday if they should wait to book their flights from Chicago (6 of them) down here for Thanksgiving, as a lot of people say things drop in the summer. I think this summer will be an exception. There may be a few low fares around for next winter, only enough so they can advertise them, but I would not wait personally. With Spirit Airlines cutting back to one flight a week into St Thomas in the fall, and AA announcing today they were cutting the size of their hub in San Juan and only flying 33 flights a day instead of 55 to the islands, once you add on the costs of fuel into that mix, I don't think the fares will go cheaper.
I am going to have to talk to the charter flight companies locally and see if their charter rates have gone up at all lately.
I received an email from a charter company in Puerto Rico, Airline Support Services, with an email address of atc@prw.net and his name is Luis Salva that they are offering a King Air that seats 9 for $1850.00 one way to San Juan with VIP transfer service in San Juan and a 7 seater Navajo for $1450.00. Charter flights are going to becoming more viable, although they are going to have to put there prices up as well with fuel. Diesel is sitting around $4.80 a gallon or so in Roadtown at the Delta Dock. Up on Virgin Gorda, diesel was about 65 cents less at Leverick Bay Resort then it was at Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbor, which I found strange.
I also pulled this off the news last week, it is written particularly about the USVI and Global Warming, but I think it pertains to us here in the BVI just as much. Virgin Islands and Global Warming
I also had a friend who attended Earthfest up in Boston this year and spied the VIEC's information for the court case against Beef Island there! Boston is a big market for the BVI, and it was interesting to see that they are watching us down here up there. Here are a few pictures I was sent, apparently there was about upwards of 50,000 people at this event.
Remember the charter boats have donated heavily to the VIEC and the court case, they were still giving donations at the recent boat show. You can read all about it at BVI Heritage Conservation Group
There is a lot of talk and controversy going around the island because the island is extending its cruise ship pier, and most are wondering WHY in the world we are doing that when we have such a hard time handling what we do have now. I am sure I do not know the reasons, the government says it is a necessity so we can keep what we DO have for cruise ship business, although most, I believe would be glad to see it go. One thing I thought of, and i have no idea on whether they are thinking this or not, is with the way fuel prices are going, and the shortage of flights there is going to be into the islands, perhaps they are far sighted enough to see that with economies of scale, the weak US dollar, that cruise ship passengers will get on a boat in Miami and be able to come down here without flying and connections. Could be some sense in that. And the cruise ships always put their base price very low. I even heard rumor around town that there had been some talk about switching to the english pound in government, but then someone pointed out that since most of our guests are americans, it really would not help us much.
If fuel continues to go the way it is, we will have to make some changes on the boat besides, putting on fuel surcharges.
We find more and more people want to be freezing on the boat at night, and wrapped up in blankets! One smart person told me that they just took the blankets out of the room. I have also heard many crews say that they will be doing smaller circles around the islands and sailing more. What can you do?
The Canadians in the crowd will appreciate this, although I am waiting for them all to start booking charters left and right with there strong dollar right now! I always thought this was a $5.00 Canadian Bill, but apparently it is a COUPON GOOD for a litre of gas!
One other tidbit of advertising here, which you can file under the "is all advertising good advertising column?" Here are Swimvacation and Promenade under a header that says Got Shark? Reminiscent of the "Got Milk?" campaign maybe?? I am not sure!
And just for Lisa, as she could not believe that my son Chad, has been dressing up our guests in halloween costumes forever to go ashore, here is the proof. This was at least 5 years ago and the group still comes back every year, so there must be something to his method!
I had guests ask me yesterday if they should wait to book their flights from Chicago (6 of them) down here for Thanksgiving, as a lot of people say things drop in the summer. I think this summer will be an exception. There may be a few low fares around for next winter, only enough so they can advertise them, but I would not wait personally. With Spirit Airlines cutting back to one flight a week into St Thomas in the fall, and AA announcing today they were cutting the size of their hub in San Juan and only flying 33 flights a day instead of 55 to the islands, once you add on the costs of fuel into that mix, I don't think the fares will go cheaper.
I am going to have to talk to the charter flight companies locally and see if their charter rates have gone up at all lately.
I received an email from a charter company in Puerto Rico, Airline Support Services, with an email address of atc@prw.net and his name is Luis Salva that they are offering a King Air that seats 9 for $1850.00 one way to San Juan with VIP transfer service in San Juan and a 7 seater Navajo for $1450.00. Charter flights are going to becoming more viable, although they are going to have to put there prices up as well with fuel. Diesel is sitting around $4.80 a gallon or so in Roadtown at the Delta Dock. Up on Virgin Gorda, diesel was about 65 cents less at Leverick Bay Resort then it was at Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbor, which I found strange.
I also pulled this off the news last week, it is written particularly about the USVI and Global Warming, but I think it pertains to us here in the BVI just as much. Virgin Islands and Global Warming
I also had a friend who attended Earthfest up in Boston this year and spied the VIEC's information for the court case against Beef Island there! Boston is a big market for the BVI, and it was interesting to see that they are watching us down here up there. Here are a few pictures I was sent, apparently there was about upwards of 50,000 people at this event.
Remember the charter boats have donated heavily to the VIEC and the court case, they were still giving donations at the recent boat show. You can read all about it at BVI Heritage Conservation Group
There is a lot of talk and controversy going around the island because the island is extending its cruise ship pier, and most are wondering WHY in the world we are doing that when we have such a hard time handling what we do have now. I am sure I do not know the reasons, the government says it is a necessity so we can keep what we DO have for cruise ship business, although most, I believe would be glad to see it go. One thing I thought of, and i have no idea on whether they are thinking this or not, is with the way fuel prices are going, and the shortage of flights there is going to be into the islands, perhaps they are far sighted enough to see that with economies of scale, the weak US dollar, that cruise ship passengers will get on a boat in Miami and be able to come down here without flying and connections. Could be some sense in that. And the cruise ships always put their base price very low. I even heard rumor around town that there had been some talk about switching to the english pound in government, but then someone pointed out that since most of our guests are americans, it really would not help us much.
If fuel continues to go the way it is, we will have to make some changes on the boat besides, putting on fuel surcharges.
We find more and more people want to be freezing on the boat at night, and wrapped up in blankets! One smart person told me that they just took the blankets out of the room. I have also heard many crews say that they will be doing smaller circles around the islands and sailing more. What can you do?
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