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.

Dinner at the Empress Hotel

The other day when our ship was in Victoria for the night I got to go to the Empress Hotel for dinner and drinks... For free.

The Hotel was treating a group of Shore Excursions staff, from the 2 ships that were in port for the night.

I was able to go with them because my friend is the shorex manager and he invited me along. Also the ITV system sells tours as well, so in a way I am part of shorex team.

We met Rob, who was a manager of the restaurant operations for the Empress, and he took us to a table on the veranda of the hotel, which overlooked the harbour.


They started by serving us champagne from Kelowna, and a selection of appetizers from the menu, which included dungeness crab, mussels, and various meet and cheeses all from Vancouver Island.



Then we ordered dinner from the main dining menu.
I had the Ahi Tuna, which was excellent, nicely seared not overdone as is often the case on the ship.




After dinner we passed through the Tea Room, (which is what all the ship guests book tours to the Empress for) and went to the Bengal Lounge, which is decorated in a English India style.


In the Lounge we had dessert and martini's.

I had the Bengal Indulgence, which you can see at the bottom of the above picture.

Pictured above is the Empress 1908, which uses vodka infused with the Empress signature tea, and comes with a mini crumpet that gets served with afternoon tea.

We had the best table, next to the fireplace, and tiger skin rug.

Vancouver Fireworks

The Celebration of Light, fireworks competition in Vancouver, is one of my favorite events of the summer.

It is held from the last week of July and the first of August.

For the last year and this one I have missed it as I have been away.
Tonight I watched them, in the best way that I could.

Via a Webcam.

Not even close to the same, but it let me feel like I was home for a short while.

Hopefully next year I will be home for summer.

Golf Alaska

On my birthday last week I went on a tour in Haines, Alaska.

The tour was to a 9 hole golf course that was opened a few years back, in Haines, which is a 45 min ferry ride from Skagway which is where our ship docked.

The golf course was built on land that only a few decades back was under water. Because the whole area used to be under a glacier, the whole region is slowly coming upwards around 1 inch a year.

But still the golf course can still be put under water during very high tides.

The views around the course were very spectacular, and reminded me of golf courses like Big Sky and Nicolas North in B.C.

The course is called Valley of the Eagles, and we did see a few eagles flying around that day.

And we were told that they often get grizzly bears on the course, which happened the night before we were there. But we didn't see any that day.

Golfing in Seattle

I have had my golf clubs on the ship for a few weeks, but this day was the first I was able to use them.


I went golfing with a friend in Seattle, at what turned out to be a very nice public course in West Seattle, that overlooked downtown.

The weather was very warm, and the best we have had any of the times we have been in Seattle this cruise.



I was playing very well, driving the ball awesome, if my putting was better I would have scored very well, but still I was happy with the day.

Canada Day Parties

Here are some pictures from Canada Day, both on the ship and in Victoria.