Windjammer Nude Caribbean Cruise
That ship can really go!
Windjammer has designed their cruises so that most of the sailing is done at night so that you can spend more of your vacation days in port or on the beach. (Also they stick to nearly-unknown local islands so there’s less total travel.) Our first night we sailed from Grenada to Union Island. We motored out of the St. Georges harbor, set sail, and arrived the next morning around 10am. Although the Yankee Clipper is a fully functioning sailing ship, it’s also got engines. With the sails up and engines going, we really booked. Also got really warm. The aft two masts double as engine exhaust pipes and they tend also to carry the heat from the motors throughout the ship. As a result our first night was a little difficult because the air conditioning in our cabins just couldn’t quite keep up with the engine heat. The rest of the week we had no problems, though.
That first night is also where we all developed our sea legs, easier or harder depending on each person. Dave has no problem at all. I find that I’ll wake up that first morning a little bit queasy, not really want to eat breakfast, but by lunchtime I’m totally fine. I’m able to “nurse” myself through the nausea because I know that it’s good to eat just a little toast, some coffee, get up on the deck to watch the horizon and breathe deeply and slowly. At least this works for me. Many of our fellow passengers wore pressure bracelets or seasickness patches, which seemed to work fine for them.
Amazing Grace
Dave and I typically woke just after sunrise every morning, quite without meaning to. I suppose we knew that we only had a week and we didn’t want to miss any of it by sleeping too much. On a few mornings we were able to rouse ourselves early enough to grab a cup of coffee and watch the sunrise over the sea before breakfast. It’s possible that intense beauty is one of the things that made sailors throughout history wax so romantically about their job. Sunrises and sunsets are special times out at sea, and when you’re in the tropics the warm humid air just feels like a loving caress against bare skin.
Each time the crew raised the sails to venture to our next port of call, they played Amazing Grace while hoisting the sails. They played a version that had a bit of whale song in the background which Dave thought was cheesy, but I liked it. I thought it was very fitting. I’m not a religious person, but I thought that the song was a gorgeous prayer for good sailing and good fortune aboard ship, as well as a lovely homage to sailing’s rich history. The loveliness of the song and the grandeur of the sails rising was quite awe-inspiring.
Happy Island — Not On Any Map
Our first full day on the cruise brought us to our least interesting destination. We dropped anchor just off Union Island but instead of tendering us to the beach, the captain sent us over to a little man-made “island” where we remained clothes-free. Many of us were reluctant to go over because the sunshine was intense, we weren’t sure if there was any shade there and we thought for sure we’d burn to a crisp. They served lunch on the island, though so eventually most of us went. It turns out that someone had dumped a few loads of concrete in the shallow waters, covered the sides with conch shells, Levelled off the top, carved a few steps into one corner and called it a destination. The owner was running a bar, and it actually did have some shade of a palm-thatched roof and a few tiny transplanted palm trees. Because the shallow area was mostly sand and small rocks, there really wasn’t much snorkelling to be done, but it was a pleasant spot for wading. Most of our fellow passengers stayed for lunch and then eagerly went back to the ship.
The highlight of that stop was probably the chocolate chip cookies that Chef Julian had prepared for lunch. Of course the whole lunch was really good, but there’s just something magical about chocolate chip cookies that have been sun-warmed. It may be the only food that actually gets better when it sits in the sun!