Caught a beautiful sunrise just before 6 AM (kind of early, I know) and caught the sail in to Castries. The sunrise at that time of morning was spectacular.
By 8 AM, the clouds had rolled in and it was raining.
The forecast is for intermittent showers.
We are on tour today – “West Side Treasures by Catamaran” –
and our meeting time is 9:10 AM in the theater. About five minutes after sitting down in the
theater, that they started calling numbers.
The first two groups were 16 and 17 and we were in the second group. We scanned out and found our guide – there
were about 20 people or so in our group.
We walked a short distance to another small pier where our catamaran was
waiting. Embarking the catamaran was no
easy task – the boat and dock were about a foot apart in distance and the only
way to get on the boat was with the assistance of one of the crew, who
essentially pulled you onto the boat. We
grabbed seats in the inside of the cabin since the sun had come back out and we
wanted the shade. One of the crew
members went around taking everyone’s picture including ours.
And we were on our way, and at a pretty good clip.
The excursion would involve stopping at two places with good snorkeling and passengers could either snorkel (the crew passed out equipment including life vests) or swim. If you were not a water person, like us, you could watch from the boat. It took a few minutes to check out the West side of the island which consisted of homes on the hills (rich folk maybe) and resorts (lots of Sandals resorts). The catamaran eventually returned to the starting point
– we could see the ships docked in Castries.
While we were sailing around the tip of the
island, the Eclipse was joined by the Oceania Vista.
We then headed to our first stop, Anse Cochon (“Pig Bay” in French),
a popular beach on the western side of St Lucia (the Caribbean
side). Almost everyone hit the
water. We were not the only boat there
today. We stayed at Anse Cochon for
about 40 minutes – the captain signaled it was time to go with a whistle. You couldn’t miss it.
Everyone got back on and we were off to our second stop,
which was near the famous Les Pitons volcanic plugs. Thee are two volcanic
spires – Petit Piton is 2,438 ft high and Gros Piton is 2,619 ft high. Les Pitons are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The
spires were formed about 200,000 when magma cooled over an active volcano,
thereby blocking the volcanic vents. There
is still geothermal activity at the site.
We did get some nice shots of Les Pitons. I should mention that it was difficult to
take good pictures from the boat – there were a lot of people and they were in
the shot many times and the safety cables that prevent passengers from falling
off the boat obstructed the view as well.
We went a little north of Les Pitons to Anse Mamin Beach.
We thought we would be able to
get off the beach and sit on our towels on the beach. The boat, however, did not get close enough
for us to hop onto the sand. In fact, the water was almost chest high. We couldn’t enjoy the beach but pretty much
everyone got off the boat and either snorkeled or swam. Some of the people who
were in the water at the first stop opted to stay on board this time.
Again the whistle blew and the people got back on the
boat.
Ellen got a rare decent picture of me on the catamaran.
There were other boats on the same type of tour - almost raced at one point.
Once everyone was sort of dried off, we were
told that lunch was served. The
mini-buffet lunch consisted of chicken, green salad with Good Seasons Italian
Dressing (good); a pasta salad (very good – I had a second helping of the pasta
salad); a Caribbean rice dish (not good at all). Drinks included diet coke and rum punch and
some other juices. Not a bad lunch at
all. I had one rum punch, which was
good. After lunch and when we started
back to Castries, the rum punch was flowing freely.
There was another site on the itinerary – Marigot Bay.
The catamaran left the Caribbean Sea and
entered a large bay with ritzy homes lining the hillsides of the bay. There were plenty of smaller luxury yachts in
the bay and fancy hotels and a resort were found along the water. Marigot Bay is also where Dr. Doolittle (Rex
Harrison version) was filmed as well as the scene in Superman II where the Man
of Steel flies to Marigot Bay (you can see Les Pitons in the background) to
pick some Birds of Paradise for Lois, who is back in the Fortress of Solitude.
The guide also pointed out the luxury Ti Kaye Resort at Anse Cochon (where everyone snorkeled earlier).
I checked out the prices online and you will
pay between $460 and $590 per night at the resort (best price – probably not
the fanciest room). That doesn’t sound
like much when you consider prices in Boston and even in Florida.
An isolated rain shower caused the passengers that were
outside to come under the roof of the boat.
I used my beach towel to keep my shirt from getting wet. The rain only lasted about five minutes.
As we continued back to Castries, the music, which was
muted somewhat through most of the excursion got louder and louder as a crew
member turned into a DJ and some of the passengers decided that this was
actually a party boat with Karaoke. By
the time we got back to the port – a good couple of hours – the passengers were
shicker and the dancing wild and crazy.
Any longer on the catamaran would have spelled ear damage.
We could see the ships docked at Castries so we were nearly home.
The catamaran started to dock at a pier quite a ways from our ship.
It turned out to be the wrong
pier and he redocked much closer and next to the little park containing the St
Lucia sign. Getting off the boat was
even harder than getting on because now we were jumping up to the dock.
I couldn’t get a picture of the sign because there were
too many kids swarming around the sign taking pictures. We walked to the ship, tired after a long
day.
We took a quick look around at the vendors in the little shopping area but found nothing of interest so we continued to the ship.
We decided to go to the Moonlight Sonata Restaurant
for the first time this cruise because we were not planning to go to “Topper”,
the production show in the theater.
I went up there at 5:15 PM, when they were scheduled to
open – they were already open and there was no line for the hostess. I asked her if table 516 (around the corner
against the railing) was available and she said it had been reserved. I gave
her my room number and she was momentarily confused by our folios but then she
printed out my table ticket and it was 516.
Was there something she saw in my folio that changed the situation. Who cares? We had the best table in the
restaurant.
I ordered the potato leak soup (it was hot and I really
liked the cold version). I also ordered
a veggie spring roll from the vegetarian option and I got one roll, a little
larger than a tootsie roll. It was good,
though. My entrée was almond crusted
Hake. I looked Hake up and it was a
kosher fish (a member of the Cod family).
I also remember that I had Hake in the past (maybe South America)
prepared as Fish and Chips and it was unusual but good. I ordered a baked potato with the fish. As it turned out the fish was very different
that I remembered it – it had a funny texture.
I ate the potato and just messed around with the fish. Ellen had the standard Salmon and liked
it. We both had Apple Pie a la mode,
always good. Finished off with decaf tea
(don’t trust that my coffee will come as decaf).
We spent some time in the Ensemble Lounge before heading for the room.
No comments:
Post a Comment