Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Monday, November 14, 2016 - St. John, USVI – Partly Cloudy – 81F

Distance from Miami to St. John: 1074 Nautical Miles

Our first port – St. John, USVI – and it’s a totally gorgeous day in the Caribbean.

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St. John from the Quest

Four of the five ports we are visiting are tender ports.  There are no tender tickets on the Quest so passengers can grab a boat anytime they are ready to go ashore.

We are both on the same tour today - “Panoramic St. John with Trunk Bay”.  Our meeting time is at 9:00 AM so I can’t have breakfast in Windows (not enough time).  We ordered room service – pancakes and scrambled eggs, oatmeal, decaf, lox, egg white omelet.  The food was delivered right on time at 6:30 AM and it was hot and fresh (advantages of a small ship).  The food was good.

We arrived in the Cabaret Lounge right on time and in a few minutes I was leading my group to the tender gangway.  When I got down the stairs, the place was packed with no-excursion tender folk.  I couldn’t get on the tender with my group but I would meet them on the shore.

The tender ride to the island was smooth and short.

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On the way in, I spotted an old friend, the Sea Dream II, anchored.  I need to get back on that ship one day.

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Sea Dream II

When I got to shore, I located my open-air van (Bus 1) but every seat was taken (4X5 across including two ladies who were sitting in the cab’s seat next to the driver/guide).  The driver wasn’t very helpful but directed me to a woman who was apparently the coordinator.  She told me to go on number 2.  Apparently, we all go on different buses than we were assigned to.  This bus had 18 passengers and I got to sit shotgun in the cab.  Very comfortable.

Our first stop was a a view stop overlooking Cruz Bay – the largest town on the island.

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Cruz Bay, St. John, USVI

We continued to circumnavigate the island, with another view stop overlooking Caneel Bay.

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Caneel Bay

Continuing our coastal tour, we next got a look at Trunk Bay.  According to our guide, Trunk Bay has one of the nicest beaches in the Caribbean or maybe the world.  At the end of the tour, we would be making a 30 minute stop at Trunk Bay to see for ourselves.

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Another Vista Point

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Trunk Bay

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Big Maho Bay

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Series Above – Maho Bay

We stopped at the Annaburg Sugar Plantation ruins as we continued our coastal view run.

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Windmill

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There was a little hut either giving away (or more likely selling) small pastry items.  The groups must have really been hungry since they all lined up to get some.

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Bakery at Annaburg

There weren’t many flowers to be seen on St. John.  On the Annaburg site, I did see some at the top of a tree (below)

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Tortola BVI in the Distance

Our final stop before returning to the tender port was at Trunk Bay.  The beach was very nice but I’m sure there are other beaches just as nice (we’ve been to some of them).  Still it was a nice, albeit too short, a stop.

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Trunk Bay Beach

On our way back to the ship on the tender, I got some nice shots of Quest at anchor.

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Ellen and I stayed in touch via text so I knew when she was returning to the ship.  From Windows I was able to get a picture of her tender arriving.  

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ET Tender Coming Back from St. John

We had lunch in Windows. 

Then it was back out on the deck to read and relax.

Another interesting wrinkle in my lecture scheduling – My second talk was to take place while the ship was still anchored and in port.  “The Mystery of the Romanovs” was at 5:00 PM. 

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Again, I was sure nobody would come but I was surprised that 60 plus folks showed up.  It was a brutal scheduling spot for most people.  The talk ran almost the full hour which was surprising since the same talk took only 42 minutes on the QM2.

Tonight we are being treated to a rare “Supermoon” – the moon is at its closest point in its orbit so it is about 15 percent larger and brighter. 

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The Supermoon in the Caribbean

Showtime tonight is “Danzare”, a dance heavy production show.

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Danzare

We call it an early night since we both have early excursions in our next stop, Nevis.

Seas are smooth.

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