Chasing The Blue Beyond

The Honeymoon continues with another 21 DAZE at sea-My bucket list for  Infinity Pools  is getting  shorter-with three pools down this month- Curacao, St Maarten yesterday and today in St Lucia.Love illusions? Swimming? The Jade Mountain Resort in St. Lucia  has an infinity pool in every room. Weighing in at $900 bucks a night...and it goes like this-  .

From Zerox To Infinity Smooth Operator. No Chalk.Just Talk for the Sage on the stage Tourism is taking something out of nothing and selling it.  Il Dolce Far Niente – The Sweetness of Doing Nothing. Coventional wisdom says, there is no such thing as a good  island hot spot about nothing. I disagree, In fact,  St Maarteen doesn't imitate life, it imitates episodic TV, think  Seinfeld, a show about nothing;  Dutch Jerry's the engine, and  French Kramer does the steering.

When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging--- From Playing Poker in Macau to playing Terry O'Quinn's  Body Double in Hawaii, it's all been about LOST, Heads Up!  Now 3 years  traveling around the world on Cruise Ships. Paradise Found because  The older I get the better my past gets

Foreign Land / Cabo San Lucas Cabo Marlins Time Flies When You're Having Rum One photograph. One year later. A field note about marlin fishing, Mexican sunsets, and the stories that outlast the paperwork. See Full Image Show Text Ordinary World The Call Answer the Call Foreign Land Trials The Elixir Here is a picture from one year ago this month in Cabo San Lucas. Time flies when you're having rum. I like writing about Mexico. I just do not like the paperwork. Sometimes the best stories come from the adventures we live rather than the documents we file. Why fill out forms when you can fill up your memory banks with marlin tales and Mexican sunsets? Field Note The writer's dilemma ...

MS Noordam · Caribbean Field Note The In to My Sane Every day I get to go to work on a cruise ship. It is the in to my sane: doing the same thing again and expecting a different result. Cruise Life Luck Poker 21 Daze The actual line is usually rendered as: insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results. Poker complicates that idea. Sometimes making the right mistake pays off. I would rather be lucky than skillful—at least until luck sends the bill. I remember the rhythm of The Color of Money : it is in the way that you use it; it comes and it goes. I also think of Paul Newman's observation about the extraordinary role luck plays in all our lives. "Luck is an art. Luck marches past any number of people while they are looki...

 The Rolls Royce of the  Swimming Pool Universe Found the God Molecule in Curacao. in this Zero Edge optical illusion of seemingly endless water.Visually stunning and always located on amazing locations, Infinity pools are surely the most beautiful man-made pools in existence. They take their inspiration from the island of Bali-where you can see  the dramatic effect created by the ubiquitous terraced rice paddies. Bamboo Cotton T Shirts-Why Pay Less? Some Incredible Views-From Zero To Infinity Bora Bora With Bob Reif US Virgin Islands Frenchman's Reef   Barbados  Waikiki, Hawaii      Singapore Santorini    St Lucia Los Cabos  Bali   Maldives   Burma  

Playing the game of staged authenticity in the tourist themed spaces of  The Renaissance Curacao Resort .It's got Caribbean charm combined with European sophistication. Built around the historic setting of the Rif Fort, the copy is better than the original . Set amidst the color and beauty of the historic Dutch Caribbean city of Willemstad, the power of new is in full view. H8 the game,not the player(s).

Action Sustains Hope Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying Besides The Godfather , Shawshank is my favorite movie- It is about Hope and Action going  hand in hand. Andy worked on his wall for 19 years and in the mean time made improvements to his surroundings that benefitted not only himself, but the lives of everyone around him. If you are going through hell-keep moving in a positive direction.Hell is not just other people; it is other people's thoughts about you.

As good as it gets, all of these Caribbean islands  have white sandy shorelines with the same New Yorkers you might be fighting with for parking spaces back home only this time it's beach chairs.  ABC Aruba Bonaire and Curacao  Actually BCA- that is the order we are sailing. Little Amsterdam, or Willemstad  in Curacao on  Thanksgiving.  I always like sailing to the Netherlands Antilles.Ten Years ago I came here with fifty dollars and left with $300. Now that's how they vacation in The Netherlands or is this Venezuela? They sell the paradise experience real well here.   Last year, on Crystal was amazing. Two years   before on MSC.  A is For Aruba  They speak a lot more Dutch here (in Aruba) than I expected. There's a lot of casinos, and a lot of the online poker/sportsbook sites who set up -offshore-shops. B is for Bonaire, and I  haven't been there yet. So tomorrow I am looking forward to a  Life Is A Beach day ...

The view from the Noordam.

Tendering today in Samana, a place Columbus called the fairest place n Earth.Now it is just a plastic beach.

The Elixir · Half Moon Cay · Final Call My Mane Concern After six consecutive cruises aboard Noordam, one final stop before Fort Lauderdale: white sand, vivid blue water, wonderful horses—and a brain permanently rewired by ships. Enter the Field Note Castaway Cay Ordinary World The Call Answer the Call Foreign Land Trials The Elixir The Cavalry Is Coming Last Stop Before Land I sign off the Noordam tomorrow after six consecutive cruises. This is the last stop before Fort Lauderdale—Half Moon Cay. White powder-sand beaches, vivid blue water and these wonderful horses. I used to think working on cruise ships was bad, but I stopped thinking. I guess I have ship for brains. The need to break free and sail away is ancient, enduring and incessant. Voyages trigger a concept called psychological distance. Something about leaving yo...

This is the islands idea of cheap insurance Geiko. There are iguanas all over this place

I often joke when asked " What cruise line do you work with?"- Everyone just about except Holland America. I can no longer say that.

Let the Orinoco Flow After M,T here on Sunday  comes WTF!  OMG LMAO TTUL8R K

Do you smell that? naPalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of naPalms in The Caribbean.

Hello old friends. Last time I swam in these Caribbean blue waters of Bridgetown  was 2009. Same shirt different day! The key ski Guy and waiter are still working their jobs-it is island time and one long day for these folks.

Ah St Lucia! Procrastinate Now! All you can eat of the upside down fruit. The locals are co co for coconuts too and all here because they are not all there.  Island time (manana) takes a New York minute to come into focus. Seinfeld is a show about nothing and the vibe in this vacation spot makes this the Island about nothing. The espresso I had on the ship makes me want to do nothing faster but instant gratification takes too long around here. Oh wait...the Guy with the machete is chopping coconunts.Nothing like the water from one of those to act ad the natural Gatorade.

Holy Cow After my trip to India, a place rife with professional thieves, beggars,  con artists , and skinny cows, a  vegetarian is only as lactose  intolerant  as his options.The happy go locals   will eat anything with wings except airplanes, and everything with legs except tables. Cultural Anthropologist   Margaret Mead said "It is easier to change your religion than your diet". After further  study, you don't have to change your diet or your religion to live in America, just keep an open mind and an open mouth. It took Picasso 10 years to paint like Rafael , and a life time to paint like a child. Children are, after all,  completely gullible: they will believe anything and, more than that, will eat anything. I am eating like a child again!!!  It's not as important what I eat as how I eat-in my case frequently (6-7 small portions per day) with the 24/ always on, always  available cruise ship food options. The Apprentice- "Everythi...