G has wanted, for two years now, to take the 15 minute flight from St. Martin to the neighboring island of Saba on Winair. Saba is basically a tiny, but steep mountain in the middle of the Caribbean Sea that didn't even have an airport until a runway was constructed, hanging off its edge and extending into the ocean. It is considered one of the scariest landing strips in the world, which, naturally, made it irresistible to my husband. He's watched dozens of YouTube videos showing the small Winair jets landing and then stopping fast, before falling off the end of the runway, and promised himself that, one day, he'd do that himself.
I do not have a similar death wish. Small landing strips that drop off to certain death in the water, helicopters over volcanos, running up tall mountains...these are things G must do alone. Besides, someone has to survive to enjoy...er, straighten out the business of our worldly goods.
Alas, the two morning fights tomorrow from St. Martin to Saba are already full. G could get back in the afternoon, but can't get there in the morning. So committed is he to doing this that he may go to the St. Martin airport when we first arrive to see if there have been any cancellations. Stay tuned...
That hope momentarily dashed, we next turned to coffee in the IC. Have we eaten breakfast since we boarded the Caribbean Princess 10 days ago? Well, just once or twice. Mostly we're into the brunch thing on these cruises. While we were sitting there in the Piazza, enjoying our coffee, the singers and dancers did a brief performance celebrating Princess' 50th anniversary (sounding amazingly like last year's brief Piazza performance entitled "Escape Completely". Hey, it's a catchy tune; I don't fault them for wanting to use it again). I had a front row seat for this performance, and will attempt to post the video of it on YouTube from St. Thomas on Wednesday.
On a surprisingly related side note...it's interesting how, on a cruise of anything other than 7-nights in length, the days of the week become meaningless and every day is referred to as its port. But on these cruises, it's been quite easy to keep track of the day of the week. It also helps that, for two weeks in a row, if it's Tuesday it must be St. Martin, and if it's Wednesday, it's St. Thomas. But that sort of thing is impossible to keep straight on a 10-night cruise.
Back again to today...after the brief Piazza performance, we went to lunch in the Coral Dining Room. We exited the dining room into the Piazza where the cruise staff was finishing up the Mardi Gras mask decorating for this cruise. I could have raced in and done another, but I've grown rather fond of my ugly Mardi Gras mask from last cruise. It's kind of like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree in that way; so unattractive I have to love it. Besides, I'm not convinced a replacement would be any better.
I walked back to Club Fusion to sit and read while the 1pm event there was finishing up. There is a group of dancers on board again this cruise, and they get to have private functions in (primarily) Club Fusion, and they had an afternoon dance session today. Then, at 2:15pm, there was another of those special 50th Anniversary Festivals of the World events taking place, a Mardi Gras drumming circle (not to be confused with Wilson Jean-Baptiste's steel pan drum lessons that I had already missed twice today). This was started off by Music Director Chuck, but he quickly turned it over to Caribbean Princess orchestra drummer Antonio (who is a charming Micky Dolenz look-alike).
Antonio had several percussive instruments on hand for us to use, and most people went right for the drums, leading Antonio to suggest that someone should use the cowbells. I was game, and it turned out to be the most fun instrument of all (so if, in your life, you are ever presented the opportunity to choose between a drum or a cowbell, choose the cowbell).
This cowbell was actually two in one, with two different sounds, and it was fun to provide the session's sole melodious noise. Like Wilson teaching steel pan, Antonio was the picture of patience, leading us through a 30-45 minute drumming session. At some point, he asked us to exchange instruments (well, shoot) and I ended up with a drum after all, but that was fun, too. I've always been nervous tapper, prompting G to tell me 5000 times during our marriage to "relax", and it was fun to get to do exactly the opposite for a change.
It was a sunny day, but I hadn't yet been outside, so I remedied that by going up to the Terrace Deck, getting a fuzzy water and starting this blog post. It was still a bit chilly, in the 70s (I just love saying that ;-)), and windy, but comfortable in the protected area of the Terrace Deck, and there were several passengers in the Terrace Pool (I haven't been so brave. My thermostat got reset after three months in the South Pacific). I went back to the Piazza to listen to Wilson on the steel drum at 3:45pm, and then returned to the cabin to get ready for formal night #334 of our winter (or maybe it just feels like it).
That brings up another surprisingly related side note: there have been a lot of shorts in the dining room on Smart Casual nights. I'm not passing judgment here, just saying... A LOT.
We made a brief visit to the Elite Lounge in Skywalkers and then went to dinner, again featuring the special 50th anniversary menu with that yummy chocolate raspberry heart dessert. It was champagne waterfall night in the Piazza, so we spent some time there and then in the Wheelhouse Bar listening to the Massina Duo. Performance offerings were extremely light tonight, just two shows with a juggler in the Princess Theater. That's okay...our alarm is set for 6:30am tomorrow. No joke...G is intent on trying to get on that Winair flight. At the very least, we'll spend the day on Maho Beach, watching the planes land right over our heads. Fingers crossed that G gets to be on one of them.
