The Cajun Invasion

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Our first clue should have been when our latest guest’s preference sheet said the following “ we have 6 kids between the two couples (whom we are foisting on the grandparents for the week!)  so we want to kick back a few drinks and act we’re 20 again..” This coupled with the fact that they are all from New Orleans should have prepared us…..imagine our surprise when Ronnie, the “Ragin Cajun”, decided to leap off the transom onto the unsuspecting Tarpons gathered at our underwater LED lights getting their nightly lumen fix…I’m sure numerous Federal Endangered Species laws were broken in his vain attempt to catch one of these 5 foot beasts with his bare hands! He did manage to to grab a few minnows on each attempt but he kindly set them free instead of eating them whole which we were fully expecting this wild man to do!

 

At one point the party degenerated to the point where he and his best bud Chad Durbin, (pitched in two World Series... Google him ) tried to outdo each other in performing truly scary back flips and forward somersaults onto the unsuspecting wildlife gathered under our boat. This included trying to catch fishing bats in mid flight…needless to say the bats had way better reflexes at this point of the evening having missed out on Bonnie’s famous Painkillers of which many were consumed by the human team.

 

The girls, Crystal and Jeanna wisely turned in early claiming they and been through this movie before and with no emergency room within 100 miles couldn’t bear to watch. The highlight of the evening came when Ronnie conned Admiral Bonnie into handing him her iPhone ,at which point he picked her up and  tossed her to the waiting Tarpon…..all good clean fun!

 

All in all we had a great time with these folks and will remain lifelong friends….they even invited me to visit even though I am a damn Yankee.....Capt.Steve

Halyard Flying.....what could possibly go wrong?

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So we were anchored in Great Harbor on Jost Van Dyke the other day, just hanging out with the Admiral on the back deck (not the correct nautical term at all..) when we were startled to hear shrieks of delight coming from a neighboring catamaran. Suspecting some x rated fun going on next door we naturally rushed to the bow to see what was going on....Instead we were greeted with the sight of a bunch of college co-eds flying through the air on the end of a 200 ft ski tow rope attached to the main halyard at the top of the catamaran's 75ft mast! The girls were screaming all the way up and down, the boys were trying desperately not to sound like the girls with varying degrees of success.....We dinghied over to check out the set up and immediately set about putting together our own rig. Our next set of charter guests included two young guys - a 23 and a 26 year old so we suggested trying our new aquatic "activity" on them, assuring them, all the while that they wouldn't go that high.....they wisely declined.

Jack Flying on the Halyard

Our next chance to experiment came a week later on Peter Island when we were able to con our new set of guests, this time two 18 year old high school seniors....who lacking the wisdom of their elders agreed to give it a shot..this went fairly well however I was disappointed with the modest  heights achieved (maybe 20 feet) so we planned to add another 100 feet of ski rope...

Finally, last Sunday we tested the newly improved rig on our all too trusting friend Brianne, mother of two delightful little boys, 4 and 6 years old.....Let's just say that the results were spectacular in many ways...one being that the lovely Brie almost lost her bikini bottoms, the other when her 45lb six year old, Jack, almost went into orbit!  See for yourself and tell me this doesn't look like harmless fun...

Boom, Boom... Pow

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Just finishing up our week long charter in the British Virgin Islands with a truly eclectic, charming, and downright hilarious group of 3 couples from Atlanta, aka Boom Boom, Pow....don't ask. They are all close friends on one of their many sojourns to the exotic places of planet earth of which we were lucky enough to qualify as, hosting them aboard for a week of sun and fun (ok a little rain..)

Apart from seriously laying waste to our liquor cabinet we collectively managed to empty the wine cellar as well!! Paradigm Shift is now an inch and half up on her waterline....We did find time to explore some great snorkeling spots, attempt some stand up paddle boarding (which did not end well....) and caught the Pirate Bean Show at Leverick Bay.. The girls dressed in pirate costumes supplied by Frederick's of Hollywood and have been censored due to adult content...

Meanwhile we invited Pirate Bean aboard for breakfast the next morning and were treated to a fascinating account of the good work he is doing in supplying school materials to needy students in Haiti

We hit some good restaurants (Corsairs in Great Harbor, Hog Heaven on Gorda) and beach bars, most notably Soggy Dollar and the wonderfully retro B-Line beach bar on Little Jost....We caught the Bubbly Pool on Jost when the North swell was running and all jumped in to the natural jacuzzi...with the exception of 2nd mate Tabasco who thinks humans are nuts anyway! 

Turned out the best restaurant was Miss Bonnie's galley aboard Paradigm where we think she qualified for at least two Michelin stars! Everyone immediately enrolled in both Weight Watchers and Alcoholics Anonymous upon their return to the Mainland......We are looking forward to seeing these amazing people again hopefully in New England this summer.. 

Capt. Steve