Day 71 St Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Day 71 – St Thomas, US Virgin Islands – Tuesday 24/7/12

Weather – Sunny 28C – 29C (not sure where they get this from, it was easily over 35C)

Sunrise – 5.55am

Sunset – 6.56pm

Time difference - minus 14 hours ex Sydney

In the early hours of this morning Sun Princess transited Virgin Passage, passing Savana Island, and the steered an easterly course toward the port approaches of Saint Thomas. We then altered our course to a northerly heading, passing Buck Island, at which point the pilot will climb aboard, and guide us to our berth at West India Dock.

Today in St Thomas we took to the water, as we have not seen much of that in the past 10 weeks :) We ventured out in a catamaran to a small island about 20mins out from the main harbour. This was a seriously big catamaran, very modern, and held the 50 passengers with ease. Our destination was Turtle Cove, aptly named as it is the home for a large school of turtles, as well as stingrays, and a whole host of other interesting and colourful marine life that abound on the coral.

We had about an hour to snorkel our way around the cove. It is a lovely part of the world, and we had a great time being a part of this experience in crystal clear warm waters that is the Caribbean. I it was easily me best snorkelling experience ever, but then again, I have not done many.

The sail back took about an hour, during which time we were plied with salsa, corn chips, and a very potent rum punch, combined with some very loud music, and that cat was rocking. It would be fair to say that by the time we got back to the harbour nearly all the passengers were intoxicated on a scale from 'merry' to 'very pissed'. I wont tell you where we were on that scale, but suffice to say that at one stage Donna was seen pole dancing...sorry, not photos will be revealed :)

After staggering the short walk back to the ship, we freshened up, had a bite to eat, and ventured into the local shopping strips. We only lasted a couple of hours before fatigue caused by the heat, and the morning exploits drove us back to the ship. A refreshing swim on board, and a very long nap was in order for me, though Donna still had enough in the tank for Sailaway, where we got up close and personal with the very large Allure of the Seas, which we gave way to in the channel.

Tonight there was a Christmas in July deck party that was very well attended, it even had a form of snow making coming in from the top deck, quite well done.

The gastro thing looks like it has finally settled down for now, as the yellow flag is not flying now, but all the procedures are still in place. I understand there was only 2 reported cases today, so that is well down on where it was a week ago.

Rest day tomorrow...and we need it!!! 10 weeks down, and 5 weeks to go, so we are the home stretch now, and still having a great time. There are a few folk around who have had things not go their way, but we are still living the dream

At 6pm we retraced our steps of the morning, and set a south-westerly course through the Caribbean Sea, towards our next port of Aruba.