Sail Caribbean: Night Sail and Jet Exhaust

This year with Sail Caribbean, I have been put on the Delta Program, which is the most adventurous/diverse program on Sail Caribbean. We travel to a number of the Leeward Islands including St. Barts, Saba, and Nevis. Right now we are a few days into the the first program and have been traveling around St. Martin. There are 27 kids on Delta for program 1, and my 50' boat (named "Aigue Marine") has 7 girls and 2 boys. I have the oldest group of students, meaning that they are either 16 or 17 and are either going to be juniors or seniors in high school or freshmen in college. They are a really really great group, so I'm very excited to have them on Aigue Marine for 17 days! I also have a really awesome mate named Margaret. The kids on the program call us Mom and Dad.

To get to St. Martin, we had to do an 18 hour sail through the night from the Virgin Islands. It was pretty cool except that I got sea sick for the first time in more than 6 years. The seas are much bigger in the leeward islands than they are in the virgin islands. It was the first time in years that I was able to head out on the ocean and lose all sight of land. The Delta program that I'm on actually does about a 12 hour night sail with the students. They are really excited for it.

One quick story:
While at a restaurant on St. Martin that's right by the airport, we noticed these signs that said "DANGER: Extreme Engine Exhast Winds from Jet Engines" with a drawing of a guy getting blown over by a plane's exhaust. A few minutes later, when a plane was about to take off, a bunch of people lined up along a fence to see if they could stand the strength of the exhaust. When the plane took off the people held on for dear life and a few ended up tumbling over and down a hill by the beach. The exhaust was that intense. You know where this is going....the next 747 to take off had me and 3 other sail caribbean employees lined up along the fence. It was really intense, little stones smacked all over your body, and I still smell like exhaust, but when the plane took off and we were still among the group to hang on, we all celebrated as if we had joined some elite club. It was awesome. I had a tourist take some pictures of it:That's all for now! Stay well!
KOMAN