Thursday, February 12, 2009!~~~St. Barts

Wow! I forgot to tell you all about he hole in the hull! We were 5 hours late in leaving Aruba because they had to repair a hole in the hull. Although it wasn't very big, it did take them all day and into the evening to repair it. Needless to say, we were glad that they noticed it and took care of it. Poor Captain Giske, just add one more thing to his list of woes!

St. Maarten yesterday was a shopping day. I needed to get a gift for my mom and one for my mom's caregiver, Hattie. David was supposed to go on a shore excursion, Discovery Scuba for Non-certified Divers, but it was canceled at the last minute due to high winds and murky water. Poor David, he was really looking forward to that.

I did manage to get one suitcase packed---only 7 more to go! I ended up talking to Lennox for far longer than I intended yesterday and used up all our phone minutes, but how can I hang up on my grandson who says "Wait Kiki! I have one more thing to tell you!" I really, really miss the
boys and can't wait to see them. As Lennox says, "Kiki, I know what you're going to do when you see me. You're going to give me thousands of hugs and kisses!"

Last night both of the couples at our table had dinner reservations elsewhere, so they moved us to a table for two next to the Captain's table. The dining room was so empty that at one point we had three wine stewards and our waiters hovered around the table, bored because they had so little to do. Cremina, the wine steward said that the crew who didn't know us were going to ask if we were celebrities since we attracted so many staff. She said she was going to tell them we were really famous people and that she wasn't allowed to tell them our name!

We were supposed to tender in and go to the beach in St. Barts this morning, but we ended up sitting on 11 aft and talking for 2 hours to Mark Merchant. Lovely setting and great conversation! As the day wore on, we decided to stay on board and enjoy the pool. The shops close in St Barts until about 3 pm, so it was fruitless to go ashore. We are glad we decided against it. The wind picked up and the tenders were rolling around in the sea like toy boats. We watched them come up to the ship from deck 7 and people were having a great deal of difficulty exiting the tenders. Shirley told us about one guest on a previous journey who had slipped between the tender and the ship and fractured his leg. It could
have easily happened today. The weather has definitely impacted our plans on this trip. St. Barts is truly a beautiful island, even from afar.

 I can't believe we sailed at 6 pm yesterday to sail 14 miles. I wonder why we didn't stay later in St. Maarten? There is a Silversea ship anchored near us, a 400 passenger ship, as well as a Yachts of Seabourne ship. What a relief after the huge mega-passenger vessels that were docked in St. Maarten yesterday! Between passengers and crew, there had to be close to 20,000 people in town. Docked were: The Crown Princess, the Carnival Liberty, and the Royal CaribbeanIndependence of the Seas. We looked like a tender next to those giant ships.

Tomorrow is our last port, Tortola, and we are definitely planning to go to the Brewer Beach. There is supposed to be excellent snorkeling there.

Caio for now!
Ricki