Oranjestad Aruba; Willemstad Curacao; Philipsburg St. Maarten;Charlotte Amalie

[seabreeze0389]

Hello!

 

We are sailing the Southern on RCCL AOS. There are so many excursions listed with RCCL, and though other websites for snorkeling that we just do not know what excursion to book. Please be very specific with your response as to the name of the excursion, where the information about the excursion can be found, and what your experience was. We are open to private operators as well, and we are also looking for what excursions NOT to take.

 

Thanks bunches.

[Cruisesquatch]

Hi seabreeze

My friends and I chartered the IKE WITT sailboat in St. Thomas in September last year. I would highly recommend it. And oh yeah, food and drinks included in the price, up to six people. What a blast for a bunch of newbies.:)

 

St. Thomas was our first stop and we were not disappointed.

We hooked up with Capt. Pat a little later than we told him because were running behind schedule. Not a problem. We arrived at the American Yacht Harbor and he took us, 3 at a time by dinghy, to his boat the 35-footer IKE WITT. This boat is an antique ( he explained that he hadnt gotten around to this years stripping and varnishing of the woodwork on board), but handles well. Yep, I piloted the boat a few times during the course of our trip. We sailed for about an hour and a half over some of the most amazing blue waters you'll ever see. Capt. Pat can take you places no one else can because he has a special license permit for the Marine Sanctuary area (only 10 per year are given out) and has his own mooring there. He's a very personable and knowledgeable man, and can answer any questions you have (yes, even the dumb ones!). He's been in St. Thomas for 22 years I believe and is originally from Milwaukee, where he joined the Coast Guard, then did time in Cleveland and Buffalo.

OK back to the trip. I was the first one off of the boat (whether by choice or by chance) after we moored about 40 yds from the beach and he gave me some basic directions of where to come ashore at. With a little trepidation, I made my way towards the small, secluded white sand beach, and my fear turned to awe and amazement at the scenes unfolding around me. Small fish were swimming everywhere and were seemingly unafraid of human contact. After a few minutes the rest of our gang joined me at the beach (all except one, who wasnt a very strong swimmer because of health reasons), and the good Capt. proceeded to give some basic snorkeling instructions to those that needed it (and those that were willing to listen). And then we were off. We swam a few yards and he handed me a starfish; wow! He pointed out a few other marine creatures and I went crazy trying to get pics.

We swam a little further (by this point the girls had bailed out along with another guy and it was just myself and a buddy of mine and Capt. Pat) and the Capt. motioned for us to come closer. We approached him at the base of a rock that stuck out about two feet above the water and Capt. Pat told me that this is where his trained fish live. (Sure they do. At this point I'm thinking this guy may have been out in the sun too long this week.)

He motioned for us to dive down and when we were about two feet underwater he tapped on his facemask an these fish came out of the rocks! Everywhere! I almost drowned because I said "Oh my god!" underwater.

After re-establishing a normal breathing system again, I dove down to get some pics. By this time Capt. Pat was feeding the fish and they were all over the place. Wow! I got some awesome shots but havent developed my film yet. After about 10 mins of this, he took us a little farther along and showed us his lobster hangout. There were three hiding under this rock shelf about 5 feet below the surface. Too cool! (pic)

He said he was going back to the boat to get lunch ready. I hung out a few minutes by myself, then proceeded back to the boat as well. As I neard the IKE WITT I noticed a small shape darting through the water near the boat. The water is very clear you can see everything. My friends on the boat yelled to me "You gotta see this!", and then a few biscuits(?) landed in the water near me. A silver phantom approximately 2.5 feet long appeared directly to my left. It had large eyes and resembled a small shark. This was his pet remora. It almost kissed me! Once again, wow! Out of breath and still amazed at what I'd just experienced, I boarded the boat for a drink and a badly needed cigarette. He has a smoking section at the back of the boat, but PLEASE no littering and use/find/make an ashtray.

After eating a meal of fresh fruit and his own recipe of chicken salad sanwiches (not sure what was in them but they were good!), we sat around a bit, relaxed, had a few drinks and chatted like we were old friends.

The wind wasnt too cooperative on the sail home, but we managed a nice leisurely pace, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of the Caribbean Sea. Before we knew it we were back at his boat mooring and getting in his dinghy so that we could get our taxi back to the DESTINY. All good things must come to an end.

Let me just close by saying that Capt. Pat is a gracious host, who trys to accomodate everyone , even people who arent that great of swimmers and his culinary skills arent too shabby either, as we soon discoverd drinking glasses of Pirates Punch and his sandwiches.

It was well worth the 120$ pp. We went from 9:30am until 4pm.

I would highly recommend this trip and would'nt hesitate to do it again next time I'm there. Thank you Capt. Pat (and the wonderful Staci, his wife /secretary)! A good time was had by all!:) Pics are in my link.

 

Heres his contact e-mail address

info@ikewitt.com

AND I forgot to mention he welcomes children of all ages.