Barbados Submarine and island tour

Almost every time on the island of Barbados the place to go is the Boatyard. A beach and bar that a lot of the crew will be at.

For the first time I did something different and it was really fun.

I have wanted to go on a submarine for a while, having been on hovercrafts and helicopters, the submarine was one more on the list.

The sub is electric powered and can dive up to 150ft. It is built by a company in Vancouver.

On the dive we went past a shipwreck and a coral reef. It was an interesting way to see some things that normally would only be seen if I was scuba diving.

View from the pilots seat

After the submarine we went on a tour of the island.

One stop was at an old plantation site, at the top of a hill that gave a good view towards the Pacific side of the island.

Big waves but dangerous undertow

It was nice to actually se something of the island other then just the one beach I have been to many times.

But next time its back to the Boatyard

Dominica crew tour

Here are a few pictures from a crew tour I went on in Dominica.

The tours first stop was at the emerald waterfalls and pool.

We went swimming for a while then headed to another area down river. Where we went river tubing.

I haven't been river tubing in a while and it was really fun, good rapids and nice warm water.

Ziolining in St. Lucia

Here are a few images of the Zip-lining tour I went on in St. Lucia.

Not as good as some tours I have been on but it was still fun.

Snorkeling in St. Thomas

This cruise a friend from a previous contract came to the ship to cruise for a week.

We were able to go on a few tour together.

The first was a snorkeling tour

The ride out to the island was on a nice catamaran, and the day and nice and sunny, which was a lot better then my previous snorkeling trip that began with a lot of rain.

The area we went was an island about an hour from St. Thomas.

we anchored right next to a shipwreck, a modern one, from a previous hurricane.

There wasn't as much sea life as previous places I have been but it was an interesting area.

One thing that was cool was another tour that was in the area was a underwater mini scooter tour. They looked like they would be a lot of fun to have as a personal mini sub on a sailboat. But as a tour it looked like it was kinda boring as everyone was just in a line.

Back and touring

Hello all,

I am going to try and get through a backlog of posts I have been meaning to do.

The first is a tour in Grenada. The rum and beach tour.

This tour took us to 2 rum distillery's on the island. Both used to use the islands sugar cane for the rum manking process but have since stopped as the island doesnt grow much sugar cane anymore.

But there is a lot of the leftover equipment on the sites.

This is the remains of a old aqueduct and waterwheel that ran the grinders for extracting sugar.

A gecko is looking at the fermentation barrel.

After our tour and free rum tastings at each stop we headed to the beach on the other side of the island.

The beach was really nice, great sand, and almost completely empty, as it was far from the ship and any towns. Just a small restaurant and hotel in the area.

After a while at the beach it was back to the ship.

Despite my lack of updates I am still around.

My plan to start doing more tours has only resulted in one tour so far.

A snorkeling tour in St. Kitts last week.

Not really many pictures to show from this one as most interesting things I saw were under the water, and despite my thoughts about buying a underwater camera that hasn't happened yet.

But I did see a lot of interesting things, including spotted eagle rays, turtles, and 2 cannons from a 1800's shipwreck.

Hopefully more tours are in my future

Poutine in St. Maarten

Last week in St Maarten we went to a restaurant that is run by a few Canadians, and one thing featured prominently is Poutine.


I went with a few friends and had some of Canada's big contribution to the culinary world.



Although not exactly as you would get in Canada, it was fairly close and very tasty.

A 360 view of the beach in St Maarten, taken using a program called 360degrees for the ipod touch.

Boatyard, Barbados

The Boatyard in Barbados is the crew spot to go in this port.

Even though a lot of guests go as well, there is a nice crew discount that keeps us coming back.

This place has everything you can want in a beach hangout.

Decent food, lots of drinks, nice beach with really good sand, beach volleyball, rope swings,even occasionally waves big enough to body surf, and a free shuttle back to the ship at the end of the day.

Shout out to CBC transmission department

Hello to The CBC Transmission department.

I noticed some comments left on here by some of my old co-workers.

In case you guys are still checking the blog out every now and again I just wanted to say hello to all of you.

I miss the good times heading up to all the sites epically when we travel in style in a helicopter.

I found this picture online.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cbcphotocompetition/4515425784/

Anyways stay in touch.

When you go into the Rainforest, expect rain.

Earlier this week a few of us went to see the Trafalgar Waterfalls in Dominica.

This was my second time stopping at this island and the first time I have gone ashore.

The day started sunny and nice out. Our mistake was thinking that it would stay like that.

We did a short drive to a lookout spot near the main city of Roseau. We got some nice shots from the top then headed inland to the waterfalls.

A bus donated by the Canadian government, and then crushed by a falling tree during a hurricane.

One thing that was interesting that we saw along the drive is the variety of food that grows on the island. Everything from bananas and coffee, to almonds cashews, nutmeg, cinnamon, and mango's, guavas, papayas all were seen growing in random trees at the side of the road. The reason for all this of course is all the rain they get as we soon found out.

As we approached our first stop, a area of geothermal hot springs, and a boiling lake the rain started. We didnt have any umbrellas and got very wet on the short walk to see the hot springs.

Every now and again the rain would stop for a few minutes.

Our next stop the waterfalls were about a 10 minute walk away from the parking area and the rain wasn't slowing down. We got completely soaked getting to the viewing area of the falls. non of us were dressed for rain.
At the viewing area there is a path that leads the the pool area at the base of the falls. Which was a sketchy walk as the rocks were very slippery.


the water coming off the falls were amazingly warm, almost like bath water, and would have make for a great swim if it wasn't for all the rain.

Even still it was a very cool trip and well worth it.

Golf in St. Kitts

The Royal St. Kitts golf course is located at the Marriott resort not far from where the ship docks.

In the last few weeks I have played there twice.

The course is really nice, bordering the Atlantic Ocean for many of the holes.

I played pretty well, for both games, keeping under 100 which was good considering I was using rented clubs.

Pictures to come

Airport Beach St. Maarten

St. Maarten's Airport Beach is famous for its pictures of planes that look like they are going to land on the sand.

The runway of the airport starts just 100ft from the end of the beach and is only separated by a small fence.

All sorts of planes and each hour from very small personal propeller planes to much larger jets, and even the occasional 747.

I sign a the local bar at the end of the beach lists the arrival times of each of the major planes for the day so you can better time your pictures.

A group of us went to the beach a while ago and it was my first day off the ship doing anything more then just a short walk around.

I was able to get many good pictures of the planes as well as getting some good swimming in as well.
Another thing to watch out for is the planes taking off because the larger ones need most of the runway they will start very close to the fence and as they rev up their engines the blast of air they send out is enough to send people tumbling into the water


Airport beach is a really fun and unique place to spend the day.

Season 4. Sailing the Caribbean

. Hello everyone and welcome to Season 4 of the Slippingthelines blog. Everyones favorite blog about my travels around the world.

This season I am sailing the beautiful Caribbean Sea.

You can expect to read about me at a beach in St. Maarten, me at a beach in Barbados, and yes possibly even more beaches at many other tropical islands. There will hopefully even be some non beach related activities.

Check back often for updates, and don't forget to leave the posts some comments.

Another Contract Over

Hello all,

Well another contract has come to an end.

This one covered 2 continents and many many miles.

But after 6 months I am very happy to come home

2 weeks to go.

Another contract is coming to an end.

The last 2 weeks of my previous contracts were made interesting because of chances to see new places, crossing the Atlantic Ocean last contract and the Great Barrier Reef, the first.

This time around it isn't the case, as its just the same 4 ports as it has been the last 3 months.

But hopefully I can get out and do something different.

Returning to the Yukon

Before I was working on a cruise ship I made a work trip to the Yukon. This trip was made in February, not the first choice for people to want to go to this part of the world, and I wanted to return again in the summer.

Skagway is only 90 minutes from the Yukon border, so one of the tours we run goes to a few places in the area.

The first stop we made was a small area called Caribou Crossing, where we had lunch, and some time to look around at the shops. One of the things you could do was go dog sledding, sort of as there isn't any snow. Its really a cart on wheels, but as close as you are going to get in August. The person I went on the tour with wanted to do it, so we both went.

It was fun. One thing that was interesting was how some of the dogs were not very happy with the other dog they got paired up with, and would fight with each other. And the guide had to rearrange the order of the dogs a couple of times. And then when the cart stopped the dog were jumping at the reins wanting to run again.

After lunch we went to a town called Carcross, which at 450 people is the 5 largest town in the Yukon.

There wasn't much to see in the town, but I was able to get a passport stamp, and a magnet.

The town was also a stop on the Withe Pass Railway, which we rode back to Skagway.

I have already been on the railway, when my parents were on a cruise, so this was similar, but the ride was still enjoyable.

The weather that day was also the best we ever had all season in Skagway, sunny, warm, and not windy at all, as is often the case around the ship, as it is at the end of a very long fjord.