Swim Vacation

Nope, not planning on doing double entries for my blogs, just bear with me if you get them twice until I get them all sorted out! I wanted to make sure that I had all the exposure I could for this...


November 8th to 13th is another Swim Vacation Trip on Yacht Promenade!!!


Hopper has just a couple spots left that he is looking to fill on the boat and has offered a great deal on them, at $3600.00 per cabin, single OR double occupancy!


We always have so much fun on these trips...

AND you do not have to be a hard core or long swimmer! Non Swimmers are welcome too!


These pictures above are all from past trips on the Promenade. For more information please go to SwimVacation's website.
I have linked here to some past blog entries on the trip, which will give you a great idea on what you will be missing if you are not on board in November...

http://www.saildivebvi.com/serendipity/archives/1611-Swim-Vacations-next-swimming-dates-on-Yacht-Promenade.html

http://www.saildivebvi.com/serendipity/archives/1532-Turnaround-day-on-Charter-yacht-again...the-last-hurrah-from-Swim-Vacation.html

http://www.saildivebvi.com/serendipity/archives/1395-An-encore-about-Swim-Vacation.html

http://www.saildivebvi.com/serendipity/archives/1383-Swim-Vacation-arrives-on-the-Promenade-and-to-the-BVI-again!.html

http://saildivebvi.com/serendipity/archives/1141-Why-Bother-with-the-Hotel-Pool-with-you-have-Swimvacation-and-Promenade!.html

SwimVacation
Summer Newsletter 2009


Hi fellow swimmers.

What will you discover on your SwimVacation? A secluded island cay? A better crawl stroke? A baby sea turtle? Our clients have discovered all of these things and more while swimming and playing in the crystal clear waters of the British Virgin Islands.

Our all-inclusive 7-day open water swimming adventures aboard a 65 foot trimaran sailing yacht are the perfect way to get in touch with your adventurous side. Experience swimming as it should be; warm, safe water, beautiful scenery, and a big soft towel waiting for you back on the yacht.

SwimVacation hosts swimmers with a very wide array of abilities. Our motto (one of them) is "your distance at your pace". Join us on an upcoming trip; we can't wait to swim with you.


NEXT TRIP: NOVEMBER 8-14, 2009

Early November is a great time to visit paradise; uncrowded airports, sunny days, and warm breezy nights are typical. Our trips are limited to about 9 guests, and they fill up fast! Don't miss out - make your reservation today and get ready for an amazing aquatic adventure.

Guest rooms are available for singles, couples, and friends.
THE YACHT PROMENADE


One of the things that makes SwimVacation so special is the fact that we live right on the water for the whole week. This gives us the flexibility to find the best swimming conditions every day. The vessel that makes it all possible is the Promenade, as 65 foot long, 35 foot wide trimaran sailing yacht. The three hulls allow for a very smooth, stable sailing experience. The roomy cockpit has a permanent shade awning where we take our meals and enjoy the beautiful scenery of the islands. The staterooms are spacious and well-appointed, and fully air conditioned when needed. There is plenty of deck space for stretching out, and the trampoline is a favorite spot for napping or watching the blue waters beneath go by.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS ARE SAYING

"My experience with SwimVacation onboard the Promenade in December 2008 was FANTASTIC! It was the perfect break from the months of swimming with that black line on the pool bottom staring me in the face...The food was great, the sailing was thrilling, and the staff and other swimmers were the BEST...Now that I'm home and back in the pool, I know I'm swimming more efficiently as a result of the underwater video taping and stroke analysis session...One of my workout buddies asked me the other day if I would go on that BVI swim trip again. Without hesitation I answered, 'Yes I would!'" Linda C. Georgetown, TX

Feel free to contact us with any questions at (207) 975-5489 or SwimVacation@me.com, visit our web site at Swim Vacation
Let's go swimming!

Sincerely,
Hopper McDonough

While in bed last night, I could hear the strains of a bit of a dance party on the back deck...Apparently Hopper could not let a Swim Vacation week go by without getting his ceremonial Swan Dives in off the dinghy!!!




This was cocktail hour last night, Brent did a trivia quiz with the guests and HOPPER won! Everyone else called foul!! It had such exciting questions on it such as "Does Simeon shave his chest?" (Don't ask, I don't know and was cooking dinner at the time!)

We were up early getting everyone to their respective planes and ferries, unfortunately our girl flying back to Switzerland left her keys!!!! We hope the next person arriving at the STT airport was able to catch up with her before she left... We are now, well, what else, cleaning! We have 24 hours off!! We don't go out until Monday! Yippee!!
We fit everyone into the saloon last night for a slide show, which I think is a fitting picture to finish off the week along with the guest comments. Swim Vacations next trips are planned for November/December and March if you would like to swim around the British VIrgin Islands as well, contact me and I will put you in touch with Hopper, or go straight to Swim Vacation.


To the captain and crew of Promenade: Thank you for sharing your home with Swim Vacation 2009. Your yacht is beautiful- with beautiful people to match. You guys really made the week so special and Hopper made me laugh. It was an honor to be on board! TRACI, LARGO FL

I have to admit---I was terrified of marine heads! But you all made everything so amazing and welcoming for those of us on Swim Vacation this week...Swimming...History Lessons....Island Hopping....Swimming some more....excellent meals...fine conversation....We will really hate leaving you guys tomorrow. Hopefully we will be back in the future. Thank you for a GREAT week! CAROL AND HANK, NC

The Promenade became my home for 7 days. In fact, the Promenade was better then home. THe crew, the boat is a service like no other...I am here for Swim Vacation and I will be back again! BILL, PHILADELPHIA, PA

I truly enjoyed the week on the Promenade. The crew was friendly helpful and competent. Swim Vacation is a great way to spend a week- long distance open water swimming has been great! Thanks AMY, SWITZERLAND

YOu have opened my eyes to a whole new world of entertainment (ahem) I had a wonderful time on the Promenade and Swim Vacation taught me so much about open water swimming. See you again in the near future. YVONNE, ANCHORAGE, ALASKA

Bazza, Kerry, B and Simeon: What a pleasure to see a crew that works so well together- liven the dream- how lucky for you! Each of you have a story. Hope things go good for you TUNDRA BOY and Simeon. I hope when you get that boat you can go and do as you please!
Swim Vacation and the Promenade are a great match. I enjoyed my swim time and came away with a much stronger base for open water swims. Thank you. Good luck with your future swims Hopper, Keep up the energy!
RENEE, ANCHORAGE

ey! This is from dinner last night. We attempted fishing last night, but our fishing luck sucks lately quite truthfully!

We heard the engines starting at some ungodly hour, like just after 6 this morning as apparently we were going up to Great Harbour for a swim. Which they did. A long one. I am impressed. It is hot out. That about covers that one! I was begging for us to go sailing instead of sitting boiling to death in Great Harbour. Some did run, some hiked, you know, all those exercise type things! I baked buns for lunch and key lime pie for dessert which might have had something to do with the heat issue...Found this on my camera. Not sure who's feet these are or how they got like this, but I suspect maybe because of the round about hike up to great thatch yesterday!

I was a busy girl this afternoon trying to get pictures copied onto discs, food orders in and all that other stuff that goes along with turnaround. The boys did go sailing, with just enough wind to play the jump off the front and come up underneath the boat under sail. Always fun. The swim this afternoon was from Angelfish Reef around to Willy T's to finish off...



I jumped in to take some pictures and immediately thought "my gosh the water is murky" And it did not seem to matter which way I turned I was fighting current. One of those dives where I happily could have skipped. However, I did get a couple nice pics of the divers jumping in....





















My swimmers were saying as well tonight that there is a lot of algae growing at Great Harbour on Peter Island, way more then they saw in December. So, we are all noticing it in the channel! They made their way around to WIlly T's and I took a different lens in the water to try out. I took my 18-70, and surprisingly, it was quite helpful and I think I could see myself using that a fair bit under water. Here is a little sting ray (not so little, he was actually quite large)

Some assorted reef fish...



A spotted eel...

Fish thinking that they are going to go to sleep...

YOu can see the current here on the soft corals...

Another Sting Ray...

Barracuda...

More assorted fish....




We had dinner tonight in the back of Willy T's. Ribs was on the menu, however we cannot stay here overnight, as we have guests who need to be on the 7 AM ferry in the AM, so at 10:10 we are making our way back to Roadtown, not sailing though, as not enough wind!

Found a few more pictures from my long snorkel trying to shoot the divers yesterday morning on Salt. This is a tiny little Thimble jelly fish of some sort in the middle of the picture. Salt often gets a lot of jelly fish...Not sure if it was a stinging one or not, but I dodged a lot...

This is the beach (and my fins!) where I hung out on the east end of the island. Been here a couple times before, it is just a tiny little beach, but so pretty...

Great colors there...

Looking up at Man Head Point...

I was up in time this morning to get some snap shots of the guys in there "good go to town" swimsuits for the swim....



At least Brent has not stole any of them yet! It was a big morning though, even Brent was up and swimming with the swimmers. He said he had to go at full speed the entire time to keep up!

After breakfast the next activity was taking a swim to the Moon Hole (or the Toilet Bowl!)

I had not realized how damn far I had to cart my camera under water to get there to get there. I have had more exercise this week then I have had for a looonnnngggg time. However, it was well worth it, and I enjoyed taking the pictures there very much...

This is a funky monofin that Hopper had brought down, i would hate it and feel like it was binding me in about 3 seconds...

While they all took turns catching there breath and swimming under the coral into the moon pool, I laid on my back on the bottom and was washed back and forth like a toilet bowl taking pictures. Clunk! Went the tank, Clunk went the strobes!

Yep, I know, like always I can never figure out which picture I like best so end up putting up a hundred or so!





Love this one of Tracy power swimming under the coral. Traci is training for a triathalon, after deciding that a new direction in life was definitely in order. She starting a blog about this process, and how scary it is at http://www.traciwilson.wordpress.com/
She has also been blogging about her trip!



This is probably my favorite, Hopper looks to me a bit like the Grinch who stole Xmas!

And the guys just hanging out in the pool...

I have had complaints for former female guests that I am not putting up enough eye candy pictures of Simeon! So, just to make you all happy, here are a couple to start your day... (I will rent him out!)



On my way back to the boat I went out in the sand, and obviously there was more current then i realized, when I started seeing pinnacles I have never seen before at Mountain Point, and schools of Amberjack...it was a bad sign! Ending up having to swim a long way back to the boat, after I could not get my safety sausage to inflate, nor did flashing my strobes do any good.... A good lesson remembered, especially since i had no snorkel and had to do a surface swim. Yes, I called myself and idiot!

It was off for a sail to the Dogs, and lunch...

It was a tough swim against the current around the island from the chimneys... but they perservered...

And the first one to the beach was victorious! By the way I understand that they were playing with an octopus who was just in the waves!

While they Swam, Simeon and i kept watch...



A few more pics, a spinnaker run down to Marina Cay to see Beans Happy aaarrr and that is all the story you are getting tonight!

I heard the splash of swimmers hitting the water about 730 this AM over my hatch, and thought I would be very ambitious, and take my camera in to meet them as they came back by Man Head Point. The light was wonderful for taking pictures.. I was even being a good girl and going in on snorkel instead of dive gear so I would get better shots..Ha! Look at these next pictures, you may see many things but you won't see any divers...
You will see a fish trap...

A purple anemone...

a green anemone and a conch...

A starfish...

A cowfish...

An angelfish...

an upside down jelly fish...

A flame Helmet...

and the animal inside the flame helmet.

No swimmers as after I swam half way around Salt Island, thinking I would not go any further and would just wait for them to come by this perfect little beach on the way back, I snorkeled, I took pictures, I climbed out of the water to walk and scan the horizon, I snorkeled back around the point to see if they had gone the other way and were back at the boat, and finally, an hour and a half later, I found simeon who told me they went for a swim to Cooper Island. I could have stayed there all day and they never would have shown up! Good swim though!! Oh yeah, and I found urchins...

That was my first hour and a half in the water today... then I went for a dive after making omelettes for breakfast, for 75 minutes while the guests made their way up and over all the hills and salt ponds on the island! Notice how dry the island is in some of these pictures...





















We had a tiny bit of rain and seas mid day while we made our way up to the Baths... Swim Vacation's fearless leader Hopper was looking very touristy goofy like for the trip to the Baths...

And Promenade's fearless leader was just looking, well, out of it!

Then it was time for Simeon to take on Video duties in the water, as the swimmers were doing some stroke analysis. Looks like a tough job hey???

And in the water they went...



All showing great form...



Some I think were being hams for the camera!



Ham moment!

Hopper the fearless leader eggs them on for "just one more swim" today...

Until I made them pose for pictures! Trying to do some split shots, but the water was just a bit too choppy to really do it properly, so we took some over and some under!



After that it was time for a sail and cocktail hour finally (did you count it up? I spent 4 hours in the water today! And I am not a swim vacationers, boy does my arm and legs feel it. I think I actually feel the muscles in my biceps tonight, something I have not felt for about, oh, 35 years!

With a great sunset....

Yvonne caught us our only fish, a stinky old barracuda that got it's own back on Brent, bit him a little on the finger it did!

Tonight's dinners was barbecued chicken, bruschetta, caesar salad....



With a chocolate sail cake and ice cream for dessert...

Someone (Brent) seems to have used my zoom on the camera to focus down to get an unflattering shot of me stuffing my face with Haagen Daz in the galley! Kind of cute though!!

That is it, bedtime for everyone on the boat.

Under you know it has been a tough week when...column, Heather of Heather Perry Photography and Swim Vacation, who was the photographer, naturalist and swim guide extraordinaire last trip was supposed to be on this trip.
The day before she was supposed to get on the plane, she had a sinus infection. Her son came down with a rotovirus and apparently there is poop everywhere that just will not stop, so she had to cancel her trip at the last moment, then, today their cat was hit by a car and died. Truly a bad week, and I hope that it improves really quickly for her! I should thank her for the extra exercise I am forcing myself to do this week to take pictures of the group, although my efforts are not nearly as wonderful as hers are. Interesting though to challenge myself in new ways with the camera...