Hello there it has been a while since we’ve written anything. Well, we are back at it…back on Moon that is. As she sits we are in Saint Kitts on the hard (in the boatyard on dry land). We faired well this year and there was less rain here than last so Moon is nice and dry. We are very happy to see that we did not have any ant infestations like last year. That is a great thing! It is HOT here with no wind and the mosquitoes and no see ums are bad! We are staying on the boat for a couple of weeks to make some needed repairs and then we will be sea bound again….we can’t wait!
Arriving in St. Kitts.
The trip here was a fun one. It always is when you fly Seaborne Airlines. Last time we flew here they canceled our flight and we had to spend an unexpected night in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This time the airline did not disappoint and we were once again presented with an unexpected surprise…they “lost” all of the luggage for the entire flight! Yup you heard that right, not just a bag or two, the whole flights luggage was “lost”.
We get lots of questions on where we are exactly…
When we were in the airport we were pleasantly surprised that Seaborne now had a new spot in the regular terminal where all of the other airlines were. This time we did not have to go to the old terminal that we dubbed the “zombie” terminal because it was missing the ceiling tiles, had wires coming out of the ceiling and walls and barely had any lighting. What did not surprise us was that when it was time to board the plane that we had to descend a staircase and be put on a bus to be taken to the airplane. This was new but OK go with the flow.
View of boatyard with Brimstone Hill Fortress at the top of the hill in the background. Zoom in close and you can see the cannons protecting us 🙂
We got to the plane and boarded excited that at least the flight was leaving the airport when it was supposed to…well, close to when it was supposed to. As we were sitting on the plane a airport representative boarded and announced over the loud speaker a passengers name. Sitting right next to us a lady raised her hand.The representative came over and this is where I wish that our Spanish was better. They had a heated discussion that ended up with the passenger being ushered off of the plane. Not sure what that was about but it made us wonder.
The luggage was being loaded or so we thought and we were on our way taxing down the runway. After the stewardess went over the safety of the plane she turned to the passengers that were sitting in the front seats and said, ” Due to weight and balance we need some passengers to move to the center of the plane”. Huh???? This does not sound good. The flight was full with only a couple of seats left ,apparently in the middle. What was funny was that we did not get to pick seats on this flight, the airline assigned them. Only one man moved so we were praying that he was the balance that we needed to make it safely to our destination!
Not what we usually see when we look out our ports!
Thankfully we arrived without incident and landed safely. After we cleared immigration we headed to get our checked bags only to find out that along with everyone else on the flight that no luggage was there! We were ushered to another line where we waited for over an hour to look at photo books of what our luggage might look like and asked to provide what the contents were. When would our luggage arrive? Maybe tomorrow night on their next flight…maybe.
Never less, I had nothing to wear but Brian had carried on his bag so I looked real cute wearing his clothes that night….he’s a smart guy only bringing a carry on bag but, you guys already know that!
The next morning we called, e-mailed and tried to contact the airline to see if my luggage would arrive but got no response. So we headed to the airport to see if it was there. Of course we knew that we were not the only ones that had lost our luggage but we found out that night when one girl showed up in a wedding dress that the dress that she had brought to get married in was in the”lost” luggage and another person had packed meat to bring to her daughter! I was upset that mine stuff was “lost” but at least it was not something that would ruin my big day or become spoiled. We waited patiently for the plane to unload and then thankfully we were let in the lobby and our luggage was there! Woo Hoo! What a relief. One bag I could have counted as gone without too much regret but against my better judgment the second bag that I had checked had some really important stuff in it that I should have carried on. Needless to say I will never check a bag again!
So, with our case of the missing luggage now resolved, we are on the boat sweating, moaning oooh, ahhh and ooww because we can feel every muscle in our bodies as we start our hard work here…can’t wait until it’s over and we are on the sea again! We’ll post again soon with some boatyard stuff.
Brian and Jennifer S/V Moon