Some recent additions to our "Cool Boat" file

We all heard that some government employees tend towards leisure whilst on the job...at least in some of the occupations (not ATC). Evidently, this tendancy doesn't just exist in the US. Below, are pictures of the West Indies Guard Ship (WIG) HNLMS Rotterdam...a Royal Netherlands Navy amphibious transport ship. In the second photo, you will probably notice the folks at the back of the ship are landing their kiteboards on the loading ramp after a fun romp across the Charlotte Amalie harbor. The ship is quite a bit smaller (545ft) than the cruise ships that normally tie up here. I read a recent article about this ship in "All at Sea"...a Caribbean boating magazine. The article mentioned all of the training exercises the ship was recently involved in at the island of Curacao. I wonder what the kiteboarding conditions were there?

The second group of pictures are of sailing cruise ships (or maybe privately owned?), although they were too far away to determine their names. The top one is different from some of the others we've seen because it has the yardarms (cross bars) on the masts that are typical of the old clipper ships of the 1800's. You will notice the difference when comparing to the 2nd picture of the 3-masted ship under sail...no yardarms.

Lastly but not leastly, are the pictures we took of the "Maltese Falcon" in N. Sound, Virgin Gorda. This sailboat is probably one of the most famous in luxury sailing yachts. Even though it's privately owned I read that it is available for charter...I think if you have to ask for how much, you can't afford it. The masts on this sailboat actually rotate to orient the sails. The sails themselves roll down from the yardarms like venetian blinds. I read somewhere that the bridge looks like something from Star Trek. I also read that captain can sail the boat by computer-controlled adjustments for all the sailing conditions it encounters. I'll bet it even has an espresso machine on the bridge.

Here's a link to find out more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maltese_Falcon_(yacht)

Of course, we are never satisfied with just the normal pics, so I had Karen motor past the Maltese Falcon in our boat for a size perspective.

289' vs 36'

I like the persective for the stern of our boat...it's not nearly as famous (infamous?) yet, but at least our boat is paid for!

Payments...$140,000/month

Ain't she cute (Karen)!
Payments...$0/month