Gorgeous hot, sunny day, free-flowing top-shelf drinks, and clear blue water with amazing visibility. Pinch me; I must be dreaming.

Nope, I’m sailing aboard the Mi Dushi with its entertaining crew on an excursion out of Aruba. Just another example of why I love cruising so much.

The Mi Dushi is an 80-foot windward sailing vessel built of oak and mahogany in 1925 that operates both private and shipboard sailing and snorkeling excursions out of Aruba. If you follow the show, it was featured on an episode of The Bachelor.

Today we are to make three snorkeling stops, including one over the Caribbean’s largest shipwreck, the Antilla, a German U-boat supply ship scuttled by its captain in 1940. All this while enjoying unlimited drinks, lunch, plenty of sunshine and amazing scenery. What’s not to love?

Our group of about 40 are picked up on Palm Beach and we tender over to the Mi Dushi where everyone quickly scrambles aboard to pick out their spots. The ship is deceptively large, though, with plenty of room for everyone. While we make our way forward to claim our seats by the rope net - and, hey, look at that, we’re right by the bar! - a group of young bathing beauties make their way to the top of the ship’s cabin. They quickly lather up with suntan oil and spend the remainder of the day there soaking up rays.

One of the crew opens up the bar offering mimosas, Bloody Mary’s and rum punch for everyone and we’re off to our first snorkeling spot. It is a beautiful hot day with nothing to see but the most amazing shade of aqua-blue Caribbean water and blindingly white sand beaches of Aruba.

The rest of the morning and into the afternoon is spent snorkeling at the three sites. At 400 feet long and in a maximum depth of just 55 feet of water the Antilla is the most impressive of the sites. Unfortunately, because it is such a popular spot droves of other vessels make their way there as well and soon there are nothing but bobbing snorkelers’ bums as far as the eye can see. Because our captain is familiar with the others’ schedules, though, we are lucky enough to have most sites free to ourselves for some time.

At the final site while we are all enjoying the last bit of snorkeling one of the crew rows ashore and brings back containers packed with our preordered lunches from what is advertised as one of Aruba’s finest restaurants. Once aboard there is no disputing this as everyone wolfs down their lunch, appetites fueled by all the fresh air and snorkeling.

And then after lunch - ahoy mateys! The rope-swing action begins. Grabbing the rope swing our captain flies over and into the water, demonstrating how it’s done. Most everyone lines up for the chance to pretend they’re Tarzan, grabbing onto the bar, swinging over the side and splashing into the water. Once everyone’s had a turn or two, our captain starts taking people on his back, sometimes doing backward flips. A woman of somewhat “considerable size” wants to take part. Everyone visibly holds their breath wondering if he can pull it off. But he gamely goes along with it, gets her positioned on his back and to everyone’s applause and cheers, manages the tandem backward flip into the water.

It all too soon comes to end and with the wind conditions now perfect, the captain hoists the sails and we sail lazily back to Palm Beach. It’s been a perfect day for those who love snorkeling and sailing, for those who love to just chill and work on their tans and for those who love nothing better than to drain the ship’s bar, doing their best to lighten the load for the return trip.

Highly recommend tour. If you are lucky, it will not be offered as part of your ship’s excursions and you can pay half the price for it privately. They are easily found online and offer a web discount for booking ahead of time.

This was a guest post from a now, quite frankly, obessesed cruiser who was a crew member in her former life.

Koolforkatz
Crazy For Cruising

Related posts:

• Busy Doing Nothing A friend asked me the other day what I...

Posted in Excursions