I have been to Jamaica approx. 17 times. I love Jamaica, however I now have not been there in almost nine years. I have been busy raising little boys.

I surprised my brother with a trip to Jamaica for his high school graduation (which was probably about 15 yrs ago).

We had met a man from New York who was travelling alone and befriended us.

He was going to rent a catamaran and invited us to come along. This was in Negril.

The place where we rented, asked us if we would like to have someone come with us who had experience. Of course being the manly kind of guys they were declined the offer. "Oh no no, we've sailed quite a bit"

Needless to say, we sailed out about a mile and the rutter(forgive me I'm not a sailor) broke.

We washed up on a reef and there we sat for hours. Meanwhile, the Jamaicans thought we were out there having a gay old time partying.

We on the otherhand were thinking we would have to wait for the tide to lift and how we would explain ending up in Cuba.

We couldn't jump in the water because there was too much coral and we were teetering.

At first it was funny and as the time passed us by and we started shivering from overexposure to the sun it wasn't so funny.

Just as the sun was setting low and behold here come the Jamaicans wanting the boat back.

We had to be towed back in. My brother had given me his tshirt hours before to help cover my skin from the baking sun. He had blisters the size of half dollars on his back. Needless to say the flight home was a very unpleasant experience for him.

Guess what, I haven't been on one since. But I still love Jamaica.