December 5, 2024

St. Maartin's & Anguilla 

I heard the best way to see Anguilla was from the water - so I set up a chartered boat for 10 of us to do that on black Friday November 29th. So much fun!! Any day on the water is a great day and this group was a great mix and lots of fun! On the left is my cousin Cathy and Tripod ROD (new nickname he is trying out), my neighbor on ship, Dr. David Austin and his visiting girlfriend Suzanne and Peter Devine (who we found out has not been in water or swam in over 50 years - oopsie!) On the right, is lovely Holly Hennessy (self- proclaimed mother to Captain the Sailing Kitty), the super well-traveled, retired attorney from San Francisco, Scott Hauswirth, Me, Terri Chmurak (nicknamed Wendy Terri by Cathy and I, because we forgot her name and she allows our goofiness!) and Sherrie Cornett - who like Peter didn't care about snorkeling just wanted a fun boat ride! Captain Allen and first mate Andy who kept the drinks flowing rounded out the fun. 

We meet at a marine close to our Ship's mooring and had 7.5 hours to tour. First, we came out of south side of St Maartins, on the Dutch side, past the airport and headed north to Anguilla, across the canal, with French side of St Martins in the distance. We first went to Rendezvous Bay for a swim, then onto Little Bay to swim and snorkel. We had a lunch stop at Roy's on Sandy Ground Beach,  and another snorkel and swim stop at Meads Bay. The weather was good with a quick shower hitting while we were at Lunch and again on our ride back to the marina. We stayed a little longer at each stop than was planned because Shoal Bay, the furthest out destination was experiencing high winds and waves. 

By Pat Patrick April 10, 2026
Getting to Cove Eco Resort on Yeben Island in Raja Ampat , Indonesia took us three plane rides, a ferry and finally a private boat ride to the resort. We left Perth, Australia on Easter Sunday Morning and we arrived at Cove Eco Resort at sunset on Tuesday night. It is a beautiful spot, but like alot of places in Raja Ampat remote and your biggest cost is fuel / transport to get there and back. We got hit especially hard for having to change our flights on Easter due to the weather we hit in Australia, delaying our departure by a day. But all is good and we are excited to be here!
By Pat Patrick April 7, 2026
Monday April 6th is another travel day for us on our destination to remote Raja Ampat . We started the day at 5am to make our 7am flight from Denpasar, Bali to Sultan Hasanuddin Airport in South Sulawesi for our brief layover to connect with our flight onto Sorong, Indonesia.
By Pat Patrick April 6, 2026
Easter turned out to be a travel day for Bosco and I as we were extremely limited in when we could be seen by the Australian Border Control to disembark from the Ship, for a scuba diving adventure in Raja Ampat that I have had reserved, for over 18 months! We flew from Perth to Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia on Easter afternoon.