God Keep Me!

My artsy picture for today is again based on a scene in the harbour at Castries, St Lucia taken from our veranda. The fishing boat is named "Dieu Me Garde" which means "God keep me" with a rum bar in the background.

"Dieu Me Garde"

Scroll down to see pictures I've added from St Maarten and Barbados as well as updating some of the "on board/at sea " pictures. More to come...
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I'm Busy Getting Pictures Ready To Post

I took a lot of pictures, but it will take a few days (til Wednesday) to get them organized for the blog.  The internet on board the ship was so slow and I had little time to waste. There were 1700 or so photos but I don't have room for all of them so... Please bear with me and check back often. I'll start from the first day and work to the end.

As usual, click the pic to enlarge it.

UPDATE: Monday Nov. 30  While you are waiting for my cruise pictures, here's my "artsy picture" for today. Let's call it "Heading Home to Castries" This was taken Nov. 20 from our balcony about 3 pm in the harbour at Castries, St Lucia, as we  waited to untie our lines and cruise down to the Pitons. Is he a fisherman? I see no tackle but maybe it's minimal.
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Heading Back Home

We booked Southwest Air going down and Jet Blue coming home. Our plane leaves at noon so we have lots of time disembark the ship and get to the airport. I like the extra seat room in the Jet Blue planes  and the price was less than Southwest.  The American Thanksgiving (yesterday) is known to be the busiest time of the year for the airlines so we were lucky to get a cheap flight the day after, but I guess most everybody is already where they want to be.

Our last morning on the ship is always a sad event. You might notice I'm wearing black socks with my sandals, a violation of the cardinal rule of warm-weather fashion, and a definite sign of "old geezerism". Unfortunately the shoes I brought with me were new and gave me life-threatening blisters so all I have to wear back to reality are my sandals. I didn't think arriving in Buffalo in bare feet in late November would be too good either, hence the socks.

I'm really glad we took Wendy's car to Buffalo because when we got back home, my old Rendezvous would not start. The battery was flat. This is not something you want to deal with after a long plane ride in a parking lot at 4pm on Black Friday in a foreign country.
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Half Moon Cay

There is NO other place like it. Period!

Happy Thanksgiving my American friends. I'll take the discounted cruise while you eat turkey. I figure the price of this cruise was so low mainly because most Americans like to be home with their families for the holiday.

UPDATE: Unfortunately there was a gale-force wind blowing so the captain cancelled our stop here again this year. The tender boats could not be boarded safely and staff from neighbouring Eluthra were unable to get here on the ferry. The same thing happened last year. Too bad Mark and Louise will again be unable to experience this idyllic paradise.

 

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At Sea

A good spot to watch the sea go by is down at level 2 with a big window. When you are this close to the water the waves seem bigger and appear to rush by much quicker than watching from our balcony on level 4.

Way up on the top Sports Deck level 10 the sun is so intense you can burn in just a few minutes.
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St. Thomas

For less than the price of a new car, you can have your yacht transported here from Florida.

It seems like the huge lizards on the harbour shore are always waiting for us to return.

The huge Celebrity Reflection dwarfs the Oosterdam. We later met some of the passengers over at Water Island. Pity!

The Water Island Ferry only holds about 30 and we helped fill it to capacity and everyone in our group managed to get on board.

This derelict Carver, a victim of a past hurricane a few years ago, continues to mark the way to Water Island. Apparently there was no insurance.

Just for future reference, I thought I'd snap a piture of the timetable. Not that it couldn't change!

Maybe someday a trip here would be nice but not cheap. For now I'll take the cruise.

I found a post card of Honeymoon Beach over fifty years ago.

World famous (I hope not) Honeymoon Beach is our favorite destination when we come to St Thomas.

When we first started coming here, there was pretty well no one here. Now it gets a little crowded when the cruise excursions arrive around noon.

Dingy's Bar has a new floating bar. That should be popular. Fortunately for us the big Tiki barge that usually brings dozens of cruise passengers, broke down and the excursion was cancelled. Hurrah.

Looks like the lady that sells her home-made jewelry has something new.  Nice pair!

Holly loves to walk but doesn't tolerate the sun too well.

Yup, the swim up bar is a great succes. Ha ha.

When we first came here, this bar, now called Dinghy's was called Joe's Bar and was just a very small structure. Joe left and now the place has been commercialized into quite a going concern complete with big, flat-screen TV's.

Here's an old out-of-focus picture of Joe's Bar from a few years ago.

Dinghy's is smart in not charging for chairs. Everyone seemd pleased with the prices and the bar did well. Treat people right and they will spend.

One of the smaller excursion boats returning with 30 or so very hot passengers. Notice no shade.

The Statengracht starts unloading yachts as we pull out of or slip and head off for a day at sea tomorrow.

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