Our time has come to leave St. Martin! Today is our last day in the Caribbean and oh what wonderful time we had, however you should always leave when you are enjoying it most. Thats what I have been told anyway, so we will stick with that for now.
I got up fairly early today to pack my last bag with the last few items that I have found last minute and we still needed while in St. Martin. Sorry Ralph, but I took all the money that was hidden underneath the matrace, but to my horror I had discovered that I had lost my most important Memory stick with all my important documents on it. In my panic I made Sven go back to JUCA one more time, before they were leaving to Puerto Rico, unfortunately I had no luck, I must have lost it while moving staff off the boat. Not a good start for the day!
Just before nine o'clock I went to the St. Martin Yachtclub to wave goodbye to JUCA, our home for two years! Ralph and Eddie were taking the nine o'clock bridge opening to leave to Puerto Rico, "JUCA's"new home port. She was so beautiful as she was approaching the bridge from the distance..... kind of majestic and patient was she sitting in the water! The bridge opened and she passed me showing off her pride. I was waving goodbye, when the tears that I had been holding back were streaming down my cheeks. Even while I am writing this now, I can feel my eyes filling up with new tears. "JUCA" has been a wonderful home for the last two years and I will miss her dearly as well as my life on the ocean.
Before going back to the place we were staying at, I met up with a few friends that I have made in St. Martin, for a final farewell. Then it was time to go and to gather my belongings, my family and to make our way to the Princess Juliana Airport.
The emotional excitement and stress for the day was not going to end just yet. Luckily we had enough time at the airport to sort out our US Visa, which we did not have. Luckily we were able to do this over the internet. Jet Blue did not let us check in unitl we had applied for the VISA, do you know how much time it can take to fill out a few forms when you are under pressure.....forever! I filled in wrong dates, wrong names and passport numbers and had to start over and over again, finally I managed to fill in the needed forms, paid US$ 129 and we were allowed to board our plane to Orlando, via Puerto Rico. Finally on the plane we could lean back and relax our relatively short flight to Orlando. Now our Sailing Days are officially over!!! What a day!....... Filled with excitement, emotions and a bit of mental stress...welcome to the real world!
Without any more mishaps we managed to land in Orlando that night and organised a taxi to our Hotel. Despite the short flight we were all pooped, when we finally dropped all our clothes and fell backwards onto our beds in our room. We all jumped under the hot shower....aahhhhh....what a luxury...a hot shower before going to bed and nice, crisp, clean; white linen were greeting us afterwards..... good night and sweet dreams.
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