St Martin

 I had never heard of St Martin till we planned this cruise, but turns out it is just north of St Kitts. (Not Nevis). It is another shared island, half is French and half Dutch. The capital, Phillipsberg, is in the Dutch bit, and that was where we sailed into at the very early hour of 6.30. Captain Afoot had told us that he wanted to be there early to beat the crowd. There were a lot of cruise ships due in port! Luckily, I woke up just in time to see us spin round and dock. At this time there was a TUI German ship already there, Mein Schiff.

Phillipsberg and Mein Schiff

Not long after The Queen Mary rolled into town, closely followed by a ship dear to our hearts. The Rhapsody of the Seas. We had sailed on her on our cruise of the Adriatic. Then the enormous Womder of the Seas pulled up right next to us blotting out the sun. She is big! Kathy would love her.

Here comes little Rhapsody

And big wonder

We did the Epicurean breakfast as usual before disembarking and taking a water taxi over to the nearby beach. Us and a million others. It was very crowded by the pier, but we walked along to the far side and rented some chairs and umbrellas from a bar. This bit of beach was really quiet. The sand was beautiful and white, and the sea lovely and warm.

On land in St Martin

A bit busy!

Much quieter

Cooling off

Cheers!

We were joined by a busload of Americans at one point and they had to get some more chairs out for them. On the second row. Behind us. It seems they had paid for an excursion but our friend at the bar was a businessman ready to sell the front row to the first bloke who wanted them. Their excursion also seemed to include water sports and we had great fun watching them fall out of canoes and off paddle boards. 

That’s Britannia in the distance

After two or three hours of swimming, chilling, and drinking beer we set off back for the water taxi

Back down the busy end

The taxi this time was a bit ramshackle looking. It was called Black Mambo. The captain had everyone singing on the short journey back though.

Black Mambo

Back on Britannia we had our customary Pina Coladas. It was black tie night so we showered and prepared ourselves. We had booked Sindhu, the ‘signature’ Indian restaurant for 6pm. Captain Afoot came on the tannoy at 5.30 to tell us the usual, all on board, 33, bun fight to see who gets away first kind of thing. We popped out onto the balcony to hear a sing off between us and Wonder. I feel our lido deck gained a comprehensive victory, most of them having probably been drinking rum punch all day! We also won the sail away battle, and there was lots and lots of whistling and waving each other goodbye. It was great fun.

James Bond

 Me

Our final sail away

No sunset for us tonight, one because we were on the wrong side, and two because we were eating. It was a lovely meal and we thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

Sindhu

We walked down to the atrium to listen to the very good busker, while having a nightcap. Then we were shattered so wended our weary way back to the suite. I went out onto the balcony to view the stars, which are amazing by the way, and I saw a shooting star! My mum always told me that if you saw one coming towards you it’s seven years good luck, and going away is seven years bad luck. Sadly it kind of went from right to left so I can’t predict promotion or relegation for next season.