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Home • Contact Us • Bio • Interests • Gallery • Vacations • Our Domains • Family History (Genealogy) |
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U.S. Virgin
Islands & British Virgin Islands August 4-13, 2001 |
| August, 2001 -- We departed Salt Lake City
International Saturday morning, August 4th, 2001. We planned a stopover in
Atlanta to eliminate the notorious jetlag caused by the all so common
red-eye flights when flying to the Caribbean on Delta Air Lines. Our short
stay in Atlanta was planned for the 16-story Marriott Atlanta
Airport. Upon entry into the Marriott Hotel, the view and atmosphere were stunning, but the mood quickly changed. We were promptly provided room keys for a suite on the 15th floor of the 16-floor building. We were on our way.... or rather, we though so anyway.... We stepped in the elevator and pressed the "15" button, nothing. Siestke pressed again, nothing. Sietske started punching numbers at random, "4" was the lighted result. We promptly arrived at the 4th floor and exited into the hallway. We needed a different elevator. We pressed the "UP" button and in a matter of a few minutes the elevator across the hall opened for our use. We entered and Siets pressed "15" again. What now? "15" did not function on this on either!!! Wow - what a winning hotel! I pressed "14" instead and we arrived at the requested floor without much of a wait. So now what? A simple solution, "We're only one floor away so lets find the stairs!" With our bad luck we found the stairs on the opposite end of the floor. We walked outside into the heatwave (90 degrees or so with plenty of southeast humidity) and drug our luggage up one flight. Then I turned the knob, and guess what? -- You guess it, LOCKED! There we were on the 15th floor outside without a way to our room. I ran down a single flight and luckily the door on that floor was open. I located an attendant in an "employee only" area (the wash room) and asked if she would kindly meet us on the 15th floor. She rather quickly and we proceeded again with our luggage to the opposite end of the building (can you believe our room was next to the elevators?). And we made it... |
Our Trip to |
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Early Sunday morning, August 5th,
we were rudely awakened by the hotel's fire alarm sometime around 5:00 AM.
An announcement indicated we were OK, but the alarm sounded again, and
again, and again.... Oh boy,
it was going to be a LONG day! A few hours later we packed the few
things that had been removed from our luggage and were on our way
downstairs. While waiting in the van, we witnessed a nasty car wreck in
the driveway. That was an experience by itself. Then we were off to Atlanta Hartsfield Airport. Upon boarding the plane, we snuck a
visit to the Boeing 757 flight deck. A
brief ten-minute conversation with the captain and first officer
ensued (not to mention a nice presentation/tour of the overhead instrumentation).
I watched the first officer request and receive clearance, then we
were on our way. We departed runway 9L at
Atlanta. During our flight I was entertained by both Char and Debbie, lifetime employees of Delta Air Lines (and I need to add first rate stewardesses). Stories were shared upon learning Char herself was a pilot. Time literally "flew" (pun intended) and in no time at all we were on approach to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. As expected, we arrived on runway 10, as I heard winds nearly always prevailed from the east in the Virgin Islands. I was surprised to see two other B757's (from American Airlines) with passengers already disembarked. This extra airline traffic was not expected on this little island paradise. |
| Upon walking down the open-air jet stairway (more like a sidewalk), the sound of a piston engine awakened all my senses. I was thinking, "Man, I sure hope I get to fly one of those down here." And then suddenly the roar of a Boeing 757 caught my attention as it lifted away into the blue, a nice welcome to St. Thomas. Sietske and I continued the long march down the sidewalk and we realized we had finally arrived. It was then time to retrieve our luggage. After nearly a 30-minute wait for our luggage in the hot, humid terminal, we proceeded to catch a taxi. To our surprise each taxi makes an attempt to literally fill its capacity before leaving. After 15 additional minutes (and no other passengers), we finally hit the road to our hotel, the Marriott Resort at Frenchman's Reef. The trip was well underway.... |
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We were courteously greeted at
the main desk in the lobby and promptly
escorted to our room by our assigned bellboy. We received literally a tour
of our room, with complete explanations of the refrigerator, freezer,
television, balcony door, and more. We were fortunate enough to
receive a room in the Seacliff Wing of the
Marriott Resort on the 4th floor. Our balcony view provided and excellent
vista over the ocean to the Southeast, South,
and Southwest. Sietske and I then took ourselves on a quick tour of the Marriott facility and we met Gordo, a large 3 foot long iguana -- Amazing how he stuck around to pose for the photo! The grand staircase was my personal favorite architectural feature of the resort while Sietske's was the oversized, stretched-out pool. The layout of the resort is absolutely fabulous. The resort even features a couple man-made waterfalls and apparently J.W. Marriott's personal helipad. A portion of the gardens at the resort is dedicated to those who take on vows. Sietske tempted me to utilize this particular garden area, but the unnecessary attention of the guests at the resort swayed me from this endeavor. I'm just not a crowd guy, sorry Sweetie. |
| The next day, a nice view of downtown Charlotte Amalie was visible from the swimming pool deck. The 1st full day at St. Thomas was spent basking in the sun. But unfortunately my legs were skipped in the sunscreen bath early in the morning and sunburned legs were the result within just a couple hours, ugh! What a first day! I must admit however, the sunset that first evening was incredible notwithstanding the pain coming from my legs! |
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The 2nd full day began with an
in-house rental from Avis and due to lack of availability we ended up with
a Jeep Wrangler at a compact car rate. We
literally bumbled all over the island without the simplicity of a Rand McNally map.
We were lost most of the time, but knowing the island was small there was
no worry we'd not make it back. Eventually we ended up at Drake's Seat (the supposed location of Sir
Francis Drake's lookout point) which homes an excellent view of Maegan's
Bay facing north. Maegan's Bay is the alleged location where
President Bill Clinton stayed while visiting St. Thomas. A short 2-minute
drive just over the ridge provided us a glamorous
view of St. Thomas Harbor (looking south). And then it was time to
head back to the hotel. After returning from the road trip, we descended down the Marriott's landing to catch the Ferry from Frenchman's Reef. The ferry took us across the harbor passing the cruise ship dock and we spent the remainder of the day shopping. The flea market was an extraordinary experience with an array of jewelry, T-shirts, and other memorabilia. |
| Scuba diving was the plan for
our 3rd full-day in St. Thomas. Two dives were scheduled, one at Andreas Reef
(at Buck Island) and one at the WWII Navy Barges at the mouth of St. Thomas
Harbor. The 1st dive took us down to a depth of 60 feet for 40 minutes. We saw lots of
fish along the reef and even saw a glimpse of a single black-tipped reef
shark and what appeared to be 2 barracuda (but not 100% sure on that).
Although the
2nd dive was a visit to US Navy barges, I called it the obstacle course to say the least.
We found ourselves
shimmering through the maze of the navy barges at 35 feet under. The last half of the day was spent driving around the island again. We soon arrived at Mountaintop and after a few hand gestures, a friendly Japanese couple (who did not speak any English) snapped a shot of Sietske and I, with Maegan's Bay as the backdrop again. On the drive down the mountain, I snapped a shot with the the St. Thomas Airport in the background. The scenery was stunning, but I wish the visibility had been a little better. |
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Full-day #4 was for flying!
The goal was to receive my BFR (Bi-annual Flight Review). We met at ACE
Flight Center at 10:00 AM for ground instruction. The Cessna 172 looked
beautiful from the outside, but the inside was nothing to brag about. None,
and I really mean none, of the navigation equipment was functional and
even left fuel gauge was
busted. In fact, the parking brake did not even work. What a winning
plane! After a quick preflight (including a
visual inspection of "real" fuel levels),
we were cleared for taxi to the fuel ramp for engine run up, and soon we were
taxiing to runway 10 at Cecil E. King Airport.
I called "holding short runway 10" and we were instructed to
hold in position, awaiting for a deHavilland seaplane departing in the
harbor at our 12 o'clock. One minute later came the clearance for takeoff.
Takeoff roll (1.3MB MPG) was uneventful
and within seconds I was airborne again after 6 long years on the ground. The view
following immediate takeoff (1.3MB MPG) was magnificent. As we leveled
off at 1500 feet the view of the harbor
was breathtaking. We proceeded a nearly easterly heading towards the
British Virgin Islands, following an imaginary arc in the sky remaining
within U.S. airspace. The skies were partly cloudy and we remained just
below the cloud layer. We passed the north shore
of St. John with a spectacular view of several cays. When within about
10nm from Beef Island Airport (TUPJ). We then contacted Beef Island Tower
requesting a touch-n-go and proceeded to a heading of 070, a straight-in
approach to runway 7. This approach course brought us right along the
south shore of Tortola in the British
Virgin Islands. Within a 2 mile final to runway, we noticed the variable
wind gusts which would provide a tricky landing. And don't forget some
last minute wind shear. Experience the Beef
Island approach in our video (1.3MB MPG). You'll notice the last
minute jerk when we encountered the wind shear. (FYI, no paperwork is needed to perform a touch-n-go at Beef Island; We were informed if we landed and left the runway, we would need to fill out several international forms, pass customs, etc.) |
| After lifting off at Beef
Island, we turned left to heading 260 back to St. Thomas. We leveled off
at 1500 feet passing just south of Jost Van Dyke, then turned direct to
the east end of St. Thomas (over Red Hook). After passing Red Hook, we
came right heading 280 which would end up being a direct downwind leg for
runway 10 at St. Thomas. We passed the Marriott
Resort at Frenchman's Reef at 1000 feet, providing an excellent
background view of St. Thomas Harbor. We contacted St. Thomas approach
requesting a touch-n-go. We were cleared to land on runway 10 about 4
minutes before landing. My instructor, Rives (pronounced Reeves),
had me turn in on a short final approach
(1.3MB MPG) which ended up being quite high. After three embarrassing
bounces on the runway, we settled down and I throttled up again to go
around for a full stop. The last
landing at St. Thomas (1.3MB MPG) was a good one. I flared the
airplane right as the stall horn sounded and all three wheels stuck to the
pavement. What an experience! Immediately after leaving the active runway,
we were instructed to monitor Ground's frequency. A few minutes later the
airport's notorious landing-fee vehicle pulled
up beside our Cessna to collect the $10 landing fee. What a thrill the flying experience was! If you're price conscious, I do not recommend this avenue to getting your BFR, but if you don't mind the extra cost, it's an exciting way to do it! We ended up spending $245 for everything PLUS a 5% credit card fee by ACE (what is that all about?). |
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And of course the rest of the trip was spectacular but I've run out of time. Hopefully I'll write more about it when I can... |
