For whatever reason, the Emerald Princess was scheduled to arrive at Crown Bay one hour earlier than usual, at 7am, and for the first time ever, we were able to catch the 8am ferry to Water Island, instead of the 10:30am ferry. I was up at 4am and never fell back asleep (which explains why it's 8:30pm and I'm in bed already). When the alarm went off at 6am, I thought for sure that G would change his mind about the early ferry, but he didn't. We grabbed a quick breakfast from the buffet and enjoyed it while sitting on the Terrace Deck as we arrived at Crown Bay. By 7:30 we were walking to the Crown Bay Marina.
The rest of the day progressed exactly as so many Water Island days last winter (see my September post for more photos). The only differences were that Heidi's Beach BBQ is now set up on the side of the beach where the excursion boats anchor, and that there is now a golf cart rental ($35 per day) available, something we definitely want to do later this winter. We've never explored Water Island beyond the road to Honeymoon Beach.
I swam and snorkeled a lot, and although I stayed out of the sun most of the rest of the time and used SPF50 spray on my back, I must have missed a spot because I did get burned on a small area of my back. We're planning to snorkel tomorrow on Grand Turk...a rash guard will be a must.
We sailed at 4pm, and in another unusual twist, tonight was formal night (they're not generally scheduled on port days). While we looked a bit like beach rats at 4pm, by 5pm we were formally dressed and on our way to our Captains Circle party for this cruise.
Photo 1: my view for much of the day
Photo 2: for the umpteenth time, a photo of the Emerald Princess docked at Crown Bay, taken from Water Island
Photo 4: Phillip's Landing is the ferry dock on Water Island
Photo 5: G risking a finger to feed an iguana (some things never change)
Photo 6: a yacht transport was also docked at Crown Bay