But it was another rough night last night. Even the crew is talking about it, and most of their cabins are much lower on the ship than ours is. Waiter Victor said he was awakened by the ship's shaking at least once an hour last night. That's pretty good...we were probably awake four times every hour. Although the Emerald Princess didn't arrive in St. Martin until 10am today, at some point last night I did set an alarm for 8am. I was afraid that we might just sleep in, especially once the ship was docked and stable.
G skipped breakfast altogether but had a hot chocolate while we were waiting on Deck 5 to disembark. I went down to the International Cafe a little earlier and had a cup of coffee and my second breakfast sandwich of the season. (So, if you're keeping track, that's a grand total of two times that I've gotten food at the International Cafe. Staying away from that food is key to having the same clothes I wore in September still fit).
We are smarter now, and knew where to line up (right outside the Internet Cafe on Deck 5) to be one of the first people off the ship. We were packed for a boat/beach day, and once we disembarked, we walked through the cruise pier area and exited the port, turning left and walking down to the Dock Maarten small boat marina. It was an easy 15 minute walk, and we walked through Chesterfield's restaurant on the waterfront to meet up with Captain Bob.
Captain Bob's is the top rated excursion on Trip Advisor for Philipsburg, the town on the Dutch side of Sint Maarten where the cruise ships dock. This was the tour we had tried to get on the last time we were here but there was no space available. We had immediately reserved two spots for today and were thrilled to see how sunny it was. There were five boats going out today, and we didn't all do things in the same order, but, in the interest of time, I am simply going to copy and paste the tour description from the email that Captain Bob sent me at the time we reserved our trip. With a couple of exceptions (which I'll note), this is how we spent our day.
Source: http://www.paradise-islands.org/st-maarten/map.htm
It helps to picture our day if you have a map of St. Martin to refer to.
Tour description
We take off along the South coast of St. Martin to Simpson Bay and through the Dutch side bridge into the Simpson Bay Lagoon. During the winter, we pass up close to some of the biggest private yachts in the world (these were huge, but by the time we returned to Philipsburg at 4:30pm, the second largest privately owned yacht in the world was docked right next to the Emerald Princess).
We cross to the French side of the lagoon, towards Marigot and under the French side bridge into the Caribbean Sea.
Grand Case Beach lunch stop pics:
We travel along the North coast of St. Martin stopping to see all the beaches along this coast, Lovers Beach, Friars Bay, Happy Bay, and Grand Case. We also pass a most interesting rock formation.
Depending on the weather and the number of boats present, we stop at Creole Rock or one of the other nice spots to do some snorkeling. (We actually stopped at Creole Rock after a huge lunch, a couple of beers and a guava berry colada. It was very windy and rough and I opted not to snorkel, causing G to almost fall off the boat in surprise. He claims I have never before missed a snorkeling opportunity. He's probably right.)
After, we continue along the coast past Anse Marcel toward the eastern side of the island and the Atlantic Ocean.
This will bring us to Pinel Island where we have lunch (although we spent some time on the beach, we actually ate lunch in a beach restaurant on Grand Case Beach) and some time to relax on the beach. Pinel is a tropical paradise with calm, shallow, blue water and swaying palm trees. There is a small boutique under the palm trees where you will find unique items not found in the normal tourist traps on St. Martin and the prices are very reasonable.
Pinel Island pics:
Loved these tables in the water!
After lunch, we sometimes head over to Tintemarre Island if the group and the waves allow. It can be rough going there, but the spot is nice and a great place to swim and walk the beach. Tintemarre is a deserted tropical island with a beautiful beach and is usually un-crowded. There is no development on the island and no public transportation to it. (We were able to get to Tintemarre today and I snorkeled there. We saw turtles from the boat but I couldn't see them snorkeling because the wind had reduced the underwater visibility).
On the way back to Philipsburg, we go back all the way around the island past Bay Rouge, Plum Bay, Long Bay. (Somewhere in this area we went past a few huge compounds right on the water. Our pilot Arno told us that one of them was Donald Trump's. I think that's a fine place for him to live. ;-) ) Then past Cupecoy, & Mullet Bay and then stop at Maho Bay to catch a big jet taking off or landing at the international airport. The planes pass very close over your heads and you get to see why PJIA international Airport is listed as one of the 10 most dangerous airports in the world. I think it was rated as #3 on the TV show of the same name. Search St. Martin landings on YouTube and you will see what I mean.
Because the airport services a small island, there are not flights coming and going all day, every day. Normally we do get to see at least one big plane come in and go out but there is no guarantee. Some days there are no flights scheduled at the time we go by and on other days, if there is a delay or the plane leaves early we may miss them. We do not get off the boat at Maho beach because we are forbidden to come close to the beach for safety reasons. The effect of being on the water right under them is still impressive plus the view of the "nuts" standing behind the jets as they take off is quite interesting. (We saw one large Westjet flight from Toronto and two smaller planes land today).
Then we continue back to Philipsburg for a 4:40 PM arrival.
There is a short video posted on YouTube that covers the entire trip:
End of tour information
You can see why I was particularly happy that my Fuji XP80 camera had started working again. I used the camera all day today and it performed beautifully. The boats were very new and extremely powerful with three large outboard engines. There was limited shade from a Bimini cover but all the seats were well cushioned, which was a good thing. We flew across the water, and actually went airborne a couple of times. Bags that weren't secured in a dry hatch were soaked. We never even bothered to use our beach towels; we wouldn't have stayed dry very long anyway. And I'm glad we left our iPhones behind. Nothing was safe from the spray.
The water color everywhere was just spectacular. We had never before toured around St. Martin by boat, and were surprised by all the development and beaches. There are beaches tucked around every point of land, and most of the island is comprised of dry hills covered with vegetation and cacti.
We also had a wonderful view of the southern shore of the neighboring island of Anguilla (An-GWIL-a), and in the distance we could see the mountains of the tiny island of Saba (Say-ba) and the hills of St. Barths. We have never visited Anguilla or Saba but have stopped in St. Barths a couple of times on Holland America cruises. Normally, only the smallest ships stop in St. Barths and mainstream cruise lines never stop in Saba or Anguilla.
Once back at Dock Maarten, we stopped in the Amsterdam wine and cheese store on the dock where we were treated to ice cream made right on the island, courtesy of Captain Bob. We arrived back on the Emerald Princess around 5pm; it had been a full and fun day. We each raced through showers and made it to the dining room by 5:45pm. Not especially hungry after a wonderful lunch on the beach and then ice cream, we each ate a couple of appetizers and more ice cream (there's always room for sorbet!) and made it to the 7pm performance of production show Disco: Blame it on the Boogie. The cast must have had as good a day as we did; they were having so much fun tonight that they received a well-deserved standing ovation at the show's end.
David Pitchfork and the Emerald Princess orchestra were playing Dixieland jazz in the Piazza and we stopped to listen to them. We are feeling quite spoiled to have a 7-member show band after the 4-member band on the Pacific Princess. They are also performing for tonight's Love Boat Disco Deck Party, which we would love to stay up for...but there is no way. G is already asleep and I will be soon. Our arrival in St. Thomas tomorrow is scheduled for 7am and, though our plans for the day aren't firm, we don't want to sleep in.
I have several photos to post about our boat excursion today, but am close enough to free internet in St. Thomas to wait until tomorrow. I'll add them, and also upload a few more photos from the Eleuthera Death March then.