Story time

[DGP]

We get clearance  to land on the west side of the ramp and idle back for cool down . I am friggin exhausted ! No food an flying all friggin day. I am ready to kill somebody. We get processed thru customs and finally get a cab to our resort for the night. A 30 minute drive we roll into a resort .There are hundreds of kids hanging around this place...what the he## is up here....we go inside...it is a casino and resort...tons of people around. I tell buddy I am going to the bar...look me up there. I plop my a## on a bar stool and order a triple...with lots of ice...it is hotter than he##. I just polished this off in record time when buddy comes and tells me we are in the wrong resort...I am friggin going nuts!

[DGP]

We load back into a cab and drive another 20 minutes down the road and finally get checked into the correct resort. we throw our bags in the room and I tell buddy I will meet him in the bar which we do in about 10 minutes. I had mentioned to buddy that I liked cuban cigars and when he rolls into the outdoor cabana he hands me a big fat Cuban...we get a drink from the ladies wondering around the place...they are playboy quality....I take a sip and tell buddy to don't drink that swill. I go up to the bar and tell the bartender to get out the real booze. He reaches under the bar and comes out with the good stuff....I tell him to pour a couple of stiff ones and offer him a tip which he accepts and I tell him I will be back soon. Buddy and I are enjoying the evening with the cigars,rum and the Micheal Jackson Review blasting tunes with an ocean breeze blowing a nice 70F wind off the ocean. Not to shabby!

[DGP]

Around midnight I am ready for the rack...I spend another hour getting the weather for our next couple of legs. Buddy wants to refuel in St Kitts tomorrow. I said we are only going to try that leg if we have a wind pushing us. It is 390 miles without stopping. I meet up for breakfast and we head to the airport. Buddy gets my papers again and goes in the back room with the Customs people. About 30 minutes he has all the paperwork straight and we head out to the ship. A good Di and we throw on the life jackets again and hit the sky. Its about 80 miles over to Puerto Rico and then a long haul to St Kitts. With our slow ground speed I tell buddy that we should land in San Juan and gets some fuel. This is when he lets me know that he cannot land in a US country as he doesn't have a visa....great to know now. We have climbed up to 5500 ft to get over a big mountain on Puerto Rico. Wind up there is right on the nose....90 miles an hour over the ground..water... aint going to work! I tell him to find another destination...we are heading for Saint Marteen!

[DGP]

Flying over Puerto Rico was awesome...green green jungle and blue water. We had taken a course along the south shore and I see that there is a US naval gunnery range coming up .I give San Juan control a call and ask if it is active. He says to give him a minute and comes back that it's not .That's good...we need all the fuel we got left to make Saint Marteen. I tell him our new destination and he says he will pass on the info to FSS in Saint Marteen. We are still up above 5 grand so I climb up higher to see if we can loose this head wind. I get up to almost 10 grand with no improvement...still doing 90 over the water. Ok...I put it in a dive and head for the water...we are doing a lot better when I level off at 300 ft....105. Looking at the gps we now can make it ...We can see a big island off to our 2 oclock which is the US Virgin Islands...which would have been my alternate if we ran into trouble...I can land there no problem...better than swimming! Lots of sea birds flying around down this low but we are making good time. I can see land dead ahead and I can also see a huge jetliner going from our left to right...I give Saint Marteen a call...to be continued!

[DGP]

I get the tower on the radio and they ask if I can do a 360 so this jet can get lined up for an approach. I say sure...around we go. i am looking at the fuel gauge which has dropped to 200 lbs now and the tower asks if I can do another 360. I say sure but if we got to hang around out here much longer I will be declaring a fuel issue. Now I have his attention...he then says ...are you declaring a fuel problem. I say NO but I want to get to shore...we are still 30 miles out! and fianally he says you can head into the airport and park with all the transient traffic on the west side of the strip. We fly low and slow as we pass the beach on final. This is the beach that you can look up on youtube where the jetliners are screaming into and not too far from the beach goers! Insane!!! we land on the ramp and are told the fuel truck will be right over as well as the Customs folks....to be continued!

[DGP]

I am out on the ramp watching these jetliners land on this runway and taking off.It is fairly busy and it is really hot. A few rain showers have gone thru and the runway is steaming with the water on it. At the far end of this runway opposite to the beach is a huge old volcanic mountain and it is quit the site to see these huge planes taking off and making a very radical right turn to miss  this hill. I am wondering how the passengers are enjoying the ride. Finally we are ready to go and we get our life jackets on and hit the starter button and roll the throttle ...no light off!   to be continued

[DGP]

I let the engine whined down and twist the throttle off and on a couple of time and give it another try...nothing. Well I think I have been stuck in worse places! I tell buddy to keep strapped in and open the front doors. I go and open the engine doors and grab the bung wrench and go do some gentle tapping on some of the vital parts...close up the engine doors and giver it another try...away she goes....we blast off the ramp and head south for St.Luscia!

[DGP]

We pass right over the runway on the Island of St Kitts. This was our original fuel stop for today. We continue south and I can see some nasty showers ahead.Things get pretty rough and we get to see lightning happening out over the ocean...not cool! It is a 3 hr ride from Saint Marteen to St.Luscia...over some very black and nasty looking ocean. We are also fighting daylight .We left at 3 PM and sundown is at 6. You are not aloud night vfr in the Caribbean. As the gps goes from daytime to nighttime mode we get a call from the St Luscia tower...to be continued.

[DGP]

We had bben watching the sun getting lower and lower way out to are right side. When it slipped under the waves we knew a call would be coming. The guy in the tower wants to know our eta and I tell him we are 60 miles back and will be on the ramp in 30 minutes. He is happy to hear this and also says there are 3 cruise ships leaving the island right now and says do not fly over them on the way in. These boats were lite up like a christmas tree...better than an ils....we continue in and call final for the ramp. It is pretty much black as I flip on the landing light and settle onto the ramp. We do Customs and get picked up by our hotel owners  Audi suv... very nice! Its about a 20 minute drive to the hotel....pitch black. We get to the hotel and I tell buddy I am starving so we walk downtown to have supper.....to be continued

[DGP]

We were staying at the Coco Palm Resort so the walk to the restaurant only took about 5 minutes. The Big Chef Steakhouse has great food. WE had a few drinks and then headed back to the resort. Buddy was going to hit the rack so I headed to the outdoor cabana for a few drinks. They had a live band playing and I met up with some Aussies and had a great time. Again they couldn't believe I was from Canada and heading to South America. Again I had to get the weather for tomorrow...we were going to refuel in Trinidad and then off to Georgetown.