The $50 bra finally explained
One of the pastimes in St. Maarten's Simpson Bay is to watch the yachts traverse the Simpson Bay Lagoon Bridge. The bridge opens three times a day and has a maximum width of 56 feet. Fortunately for us, the St. Maarten Yacht Club and their happy hour is perfectly timed for the 5:30 PM opening. Sailors crowd onto the patio and prepare the cheer the boats coming in and going out, as mega-yachts often have mere inches of clearance on each side. To see what happens when the wind picks up unexpectedly at this moment, go on You Tube and look for "Azteca hits Simpson Bay Bridge". Poor, poor Azteca. I think the captain waits tables now. Most of the boats that go in and out are your typical sailboats but then occasionally, something truly amazing happens. As the bridge closed we went back to our drinks, a bit disappointed by the evening show. Suddenly at 6:00pm the bridge starts to open (at a cost of $1,000 to the boat owner - the equivalent of a toll to them), and in comes "Limitless". Yes, this boat was so awesome that it paid to have the bridge opened just for them.
We had no idea that there was anything special about this particular mega-yacht as mega-yachts on St. Maarten are like Priuses in DC. A murmur went up across the crowd and we found out that this yacht is owned by the CEO of Victoria's Secret (and the other Limited Brands). This got Tom's attention as he hoped to see the nautical version of the catalogue - to his disappointment there were no models just a lot of serious looking crew. At over 300 feet in length, it was at one time the largest American privately owned yacht (that honor now goes to David Geffen at over 450 feet - recession, what recession?).
The Victoria's Secret theme continued when we arrived at St. Barths as we spent the day on the beach watching a swimsuit catalogue shoot. The end product looks glamorous but we saw a bored young lady (tall, underfed, but well groomed) forcing smiles and poses, exasperated guys holding screens and reflective panels, and a stylist melting down......for about 6 hours. Tom has suggested that we go back to the same beach today! So the next time you buy an item at VS be happy in the knowledge that you bought a bit of diesel for the mega-yacht. The CEO thanks you.
The Victoria's Secret theme continued when we arrived at St. Barths as we spent the day on the beach watching a swimsuit catalogue shoot. The end product looks glamorous but we saw a bored young lady (tall, underfed, but well groomed) forcing smiles and poses, exasperated guys holding screens and reflective panels, and a stylist melting down......for about 6 hours. Tom has suggested that we go back to the same beach today! So the next time you buy an item at VS be happy in the knowledge that you bought a bit of diesel for the mega-yacht. The CEO thanks you.
