Close Call!

Nikki’s 3rd birthday was celebrated the next year on a cruise. Once again, we sailed from Miami and our first stop was San Juan where Stan had to get off and returned to work. My girlfriend, Ronna sailed with Nikki and me the rest of the way.



This was the cruise where Nikki discovered Cesar Salad (with extra croutons), caviar and cappuccino. She ended up having these 3 items every night even though the Cesar salad and caviar wasn’t on the menu. And double helping on the caviar no less. Other passengers stopped me on the ship to comment how delightful it was to watch Nikki eat her caviar. Using a heavy silver knife, she would start to put together her perfect bite…caviar, minced onion, chopped egg on toast points. The cappuccino was more milk than espresso. Till this day, Nikki has a fondness for caviar.


Ronna & Nikki with her caviar


In St. Thomas

One of our stops was Martinique, At the time, Ronna was a real sun-worshipper and we had to visit every beach on our route. When we came to Martinique, the ship needed to anchor which meant we needed to take a tender to shore. From there, we needed to take a small ferry to the beach. There was a huge billboard with the time table of the ferry and we had to be back in time to catch the last tender. The schedule was in French but read like a railroad time table - we pretty much deciphered it.


One of the many beautiful beaches

The beach was okay…small and quiet - we had a nice day. When it was getting to be time to catch the ferry, we packed up and headed to the landing. We waited and waited. No ferry. As we looked at the billboard again, we came to the realization that we read it incorrectly. The next ferry would arrive at our destination about the time the last tender would be leaving!!

I didn’t say a word. All I kept thinking was that Nikki needed to pee and there was no bathroom in sight. We didn’t have any change of clothes but thankfully I had my credit card and I was trying to figure out how we were going to find a hotel and then a flight to the next island! I believe it was St. Maarten but I don’t really remember.

Nikki was so GOOD! She knew something was wrong and even though she needed the bathroom - when I asked her to hold it, she did. The ferry finally came. Time was very tight. The ferry ride was about half n’ hour. As we got close to the pier, we could see the tender pulling away. Ronna, never one to be shy, picked up Nikki and shouted to the tender to “WAIT!! WAIT!!” and waved the baby at them. The tender returned to the pier and we were able to get on! Whew! What an adventure!


Happily back on board!