We arrived at St.Martin on Sunday, October 17^th for our second trip to the island, but our first day at Club Orient. Landed about 5:45 pm and quickly got through immigration, helped at least in part by the fact that we had only two carry-ons for luggage - we were staying at Club O after all!!

We were met by someone from AAA car rental who passed us on to Michael from Unity Car Rental. The story we got was that Unity and AAA worked together, and since Alain from AAA was still unavailable, Michael would provide us with a car at the agreed rate from Alain. We were given a "loaded" Toyota Corolla (virtually new) which we understood would normally have cost considerably more than our promised price.

We quickly finished the paperwork and we were on our way. It's good that we had driven over to Club O many times, since this was our first experience getting there in the dark. When we arrived, the reception office was closed, but security had our key, etc. and we were soon in our Studio unit (#26). Quickly the clothes came off and we made ourselves at home. What a wonderful feeling!!

Monday was a relaxing day for us on the beach. As expected, the Tiko was not running, but it was while inquiring about it that we first learned of a possible hurricane approaching. We spent a few hours on Green Key for a picnic of wine and cheese and crackers. It was great!!

Tuesday the winds were picking up as the hurricane got closer and it looked more and more like it would pass very close to the island. By Wednesday morning it appeared that it would be a direct hit, so the management of Club O decided to move us to the Esmerelda at their expense. By this time we had met many new friends at Club Orient - very friendly and wonderful people. The building at Esmerelda that we were staying in had a rather secluded pool area, so we all had a nude hurricane party Wednesday afternoon - it was a great time. That night was a little scary, the winds became very strong (it may have been only a category 1 but I certainly would not want to experience anything stronger!!). We lost electric power about 9 pm, so we were in the dark for the night. Most of us had leaking roofs, and some of us spent the night moving the bed around the room to avoid getting dripped on while we tried to sleep!

The hurricane was nothing however, compared to the torrential rains that fell over the next two days - something like two feet of rain over the two days. We managed to drive back to Club Orient on Thursday morning through flooded roads - quite an experience. We had a convoy of five cars to make sure everyone made it back OK.

Since it rained most of Thursday and Friday, we had parties to spend the time and therefore still had a blast.

Finally, Saturday the sun returned, so everyone was on the beach to soak up some much needed sunshine. But we still couldn't go anywhere because of flooded roads and curfews.

That night Papagayo's had a dance, which we enjoyed very much. We have never taken part in karaoke before, but what the heck, we might as well be nude for our first time, right!!

All too quickly Sunday arrived, but since our flight didn't leave until 7pm, we still had most of the day for beach time. Had lunch at Pedros (great ribs) and decided that we had to have one more walk up and down Orient beach - this time we braved it nude in the middle of the day.

The hurricane did spoil some of the weather during our stay, but we still had a great time because of the wonderful people we met at Club Orient - you know who you are. We definitely want to return!!

Don & Linda