November 22 - Phillipsburg, Sint Maarten

For those of you to whom I sent my itinerary you must be wondering why I’m here today. I was supposed to be at St. Barts.  Yesterday afternoon the captain came on the PA system and told us that the fishermen at St. Barts are staging a protest over fuel prices and have blockaded the harbor at Gustavia.  We could anchor but we couldn’t send tenders back and forth to get us ashore.  So, rather than have us all just wave at the island, he managed to get us a dock here in Sint Maarten, which we more commonly call St. Maarten.

The island is divided between France and the Netherlands and we’re on the Dutch side today.  In the 17th century those two countries were fighting a war in Europe. In 1648 a peace agreement was made and in that document the island was divided.  I told the story of how the division was made when I came here last year, but here it is again. The two countries selected a representative to walk the shoreline beginning at  one point going in opposite directions. They were not allowed to run and when they met each other at a second point a line was then drawn between the two points. The Frenchman had covered more ground so the French got a larger portion of the island, roughly 60% to 40 %.  Today the same boundaries are in place.

I’ve been here many times, but I still remember coming here with my husband on our very first cruise 49 years ago.  At that time there was no dock and only a sleepy, tiny town and a few beach resorts.  Boy, has it grown!  There are three ships docked here, with room for another couple, and lots more stores, mainly jewelry.

Sorry it's not a good picture but we were bobbing around. There are 3 ships in the photo and mine is the closest and smallest

The shopping plaza built by the dock with no shade. It felt like a concrete frying pan.

I didn’t go ashore until around 11 AM (we’re here until 8 PM) and took a water taxi across the harbor to Phillipsburg, the capital of the Dutch side.   This island is very arid compared to some of the others in the Caribbean.  In fact the big attraction to the Europeans who first settled here were the salt ponds where they could “mine” salt, which of course was extremely important for preserving foods, not just for seasoning.  There are some houses scattered on the hillsides and some resorts along the seaside but the main thing is Phillipsburg.  It’s pretty much one long street with one jewelry store after another with some liquor and trash and trinket tourist stores mixed in.  There is a nice looking beach with chairs for rent and some seaside bars, but I’m not a beach and sun person anymore. The water is the kind of crystal-clear water you see on most of these islands.  I walked the length of the street and looked in a few shops but nothing really caught my eye.  It was very hot  and humid and there  were a few sprinkles but no gully washers.  After I’d looked around I decided to head back to the ship.

The beach right by the main street in Phillipsburg

When I got off the water taxi I saw people bending down to take photos of something on the rocks.  Of course I had to see what was there and I got a picture of this fine fellow.

Mr. Iguana enjoying the hot rocks

I have a completely irrelevant story to tell about the first time we came here.  Al and I were much younger and much more fit, and I can say now we were kind of foolish.  We liked to play tennis back then and when I had researched before going on our first big cruise I read that there was a resort where we could play tennis.  So we packed our tennis rackets and when we got to St. Maarten we tendered ashore with them and took a taxi to play tennis.  I remember it was a hot, humid day just like today with absolutely no shade and after 15 or 20 minutes we both thought we would die.  That was the last time we ever carted rackets or tried anything like that.

I think some enterprising person could start a money-making business here on the island.  The walk down the dock, through the shopping area that's been built here and the walk to the water taxi dock is long and with no shade at all.  Judging by the people I saw coming from the three ships here today, if someone ran a golf cart shuttle service back and forth between the ship docks and the water taxi one, I think he could make a lot of money, certainly a better investment than FTX proved to be.

Tonight I went to a pre-dinner show by the Assistant Cruise Director James with whom I dined the first night.  He is a scouser (that's today's trivia challenge to figure out what that is).  Anyway, he did a rather nice show with some songs related to where he's from in England.  I'll give you a clue (actually a pretty big one) one song was "Ferry across the Mersey."  I had dinner with friends and then we went to the show put on by the Sojourn singers and dancers and they were fabulous.  They did a lot of 70's through 90's rock and despite the demographics of the passengers there was a lot of clapping and singing along from the audience.

Now it's time to get to sleep.  I thought I'd been to our next stop, but it turns out I haven't.  Instead of the big island of Guadeloupe we're stopping at one of the little islands that is part of the territory.  The captain told us during his evening address that he thinks it's one of the prettiest in the Caribbean so it should be fun.

Oh, I have to tell you yesterday's trivia answer.  The two things 700 3rd class passengers on the Titanic shared were  2 bathrooms. Imagine the queue, especially if one was a ladies room and one for gentlemen!

And with that I'll say Bon Soir since I'm on my way to France.