A New Port and Some Familiar Destinations

The first stop the Silver Spirit made was at Road Town, British Virgin Islands.  I had been to Virgin Gorda the previous Caribbean trip but Road Town was new.  Michael and I spent the morning ashore, exploring the main streets and looking for the place where Michael had come ashore on his previous visit.  The pier the Silver Spirit docket at was built within the past few years.  Michael had gone ashore in a tender the last time and landed, he now thinks, at what is currently a pier for small pleasure boats.  Road Town showed signs of gradually changing from a poor Caribbean town to a more prosperous one.  We saw a mix of little old houses and stores between larger new buildings. Most of the businesses were tourist related. Boating and fishing appeared to be popular attractions.   It appears that tourism is bringing better economic times although the city is still relatively poor.

The next day we visited St Barthelmy, better known to tourists as St Barts.  St Barts is small, only eight square miles, very French and very rich.  There could not have been a greater contrast between St Barts and Road Town.  This was my third time in St Barts.  On the last Caribbean cruise, the Silver Cloud stopped there twice. Michael and I had already explores Gustavia, the main town, so this time we hiked over the mountain, really a large hill, to St Jean on the other side.  We wanted to see the airport, which is famous for being one of the most dangerous to land on in the world.   The airfield begins just past the crest of the hill requiring airplanes to dive down several hundred feet to land on a very short runway that ends at a beautiful beach followed by water.  All the airplanes we saw were short take-off and landing craft that were able to stop within a few plane lengths, well short of the beach.  There was a sign on the beach warning bathers not to use the area just off the runway.  Once or twice a year, an airplane does overrun the runway and ends up in the water.

The Silver Spirit stayed overnight in the harbor at Gustavia and moved the next morning the ten miles or so to Philipsburg on St Maarten/St Martin.  This was another repeat port for me.  Last time, Michael and I took a tour around the island, distinctive because it is two separate countries.  St. Maarten is a Dutch protectorate while St Martin is French.  In 2011 we were one of six cruise ships that were in port that day and the island was overrun with visitors causing a lengthy traffic jam everywhere.  We were in luck this time as there was only one other, albeit much larger, ship at the pier with us.  We spent several hours at a beautiful beach on the French side and were rained on only a little.  No problem, we were wearing bathing suits anyway.

The first five days of our eighteen-day cruise had passed quickly.  We spent most of the days relaxing on our huge veranda and taking walks at local ports. We had dinner with Heinz and Ellen several times and met Ellen’s nephew and his wife who were also on board.  We had escaped the worst winter weather in Colorado in years and were enjoying the warmth and the lack of TV news.