Day 5 - St. Thomas

Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013

Woke up this morning and we had already docked in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.  After showering and dressing, it was out on our deck, which was facing the shore and the gangplanks where people would be disembarking.  Things were a little noisy as there were lots of the island safari buses and other tour transportation, gathering on the dock.

After taking a number of pictures, we decided to go up and eat.  Our tour wasn't scheduled to leave until 12:30, so we had lots of time to get organized.  On deck, we got our breakfast, and sat outside at the stern to eat.  The crew were going through a number of safety exercises, so our waiter told us that there wouldn't be many of the crew available about 10 minutes after we finished.

One of the Yachts

We went back to our cabin to get our cameras because we were parked right beside the yacht club, and there were many HUGE yachts parked right beside us.  We spent quite a bit of time, looking at them and dreaming, as well as taking a bunch of photos.

Then we thought we would head back to get ready for the tour.  We had over an hour, but thought we would go to the shops and see what was available, before we boarded the bus.  We told Karen and Lloyd what our plan was, and they were planning on doing the same thing.

Shopping by the Pier

In the shopping area, we looked in a number of stores, and purchased a few souvenirs.  I walked through a shop with Cartier and Rolex watches.  The salesman thought a Cartier watch would look good on my wrist, but I didn't think my wrist was big enough to hold one.  In one shop, a young salesman spoke with me.  I found out he had been to Vancouver in July, so he had an idea where we lived.  He was going to school just north of New York, so knew about snow and the problems associated with it, as well.

Our Bus

Then we had to hurry to the bus for our tour around the island.  Lloyd and Karen were there and we all got on together so we were sitting near each other.  We lucked out and had a small bus for our tour, rather than a safari bus.  At least we had air conditioning.

View of the Ship

Bay on the Island

The tour was great.  a couple hours driving around the island, looking at many sights.  They drive on the left side of the road here, even though the steering is done from the same side as our cars.  The roads are very narrow, winding, and it seems as if they are either up or down hills.  Several places showed stop signs (which I think means slow down) and speed limit 10 MPH (which seems to mean go fast).  We got some beautiful views of our ship (and the 4 others that were in port), the harbour, fantastic bays, many of the islands of the British and American Virgin Islands, and many of the houses of the rich and the poor who live here.

We stopped a couple times for photos from viewpoints, and the final stop was at Mountain Top, another place for buying souvenirs and taking pictures of the view from high up on the mountain.  Then, it was back to the ship and getting ready to depart.

Marriott Hotel as we left

Sailing time was 5:00, and the two ships that were behind us, pulled out before we did.  Finally we started going, and it was beautiful to see the sights as we moved out of the moorage, and got on our way.  This island was one that we enjoyed visiting, and we really enjoyed seeing the sights.

Karen and Lloyd didn't come to supper with us.  They had eaten after returning from the tour, and were not hungry.  Besides, Karen had just woken up from a nap, and sounded like she was still somewhat asleep.

We had decided to go to see a couple shows tonight.  The first one was to see a ventriloquist comedian who had just come on board, and the second was to watch a singer who was the son of Jackie Wilson, a singer from the 60s and 70s.  Both were really good shows, and we enjoyed them a lot.  We were really impressed with the singer, and will likely see him again, if he has another show while we are aboard.

After that, back to our room, watch some TV, and get some sleep.  We are back into the waves, so things are moving around a bit, but it is not too bad in our room.

Tomorrow is a day at sea, as we work our way back to Princess Key for Friday, so we are going to take in some of the onboard activities.  More about the day, tomorrow...