We’re NOT on a cruise ship
If you are one of the few people who pay any attention to our Spot track, you may have noticed that we anchored in St. John’s harbor for a little while yesterday. As I already mentioned, St. John’s is the capital city of Antigua and it’s also where all of the visiting cruise ships dock. We had read that this is not an anchorage where a lot of cruisers tend to drop the hook and our experience confirms that. There was only one other boat, a nice ketch, anchored near the shore when we arrived there and he remained the only other boat when we left. There were however, 3 extremely large cruise ships moored to the city docks.
We have had a bit of experience showing up to ports where cruise ships have been docked so we pretty much knew what we were in for. As expected, there were thousands of guests from the boats wandering amongst the shops, with countless taxi drivers vying for the opportunity to whisk them away to a nearby beach. Although I don’t think that we look, or dress, like the average cruise ship passenger, we were still required to give a polite “no thank you, we’re good” to a driver every few minutes. I actually struck up a brief conversation with one of the guys and told him that we were on a yacht, not on one of the ships. He suggested that we get one of the colored wrist bands that they pass out as ID at resorts to help keep the drivers at bay. I have a better idea but I need an artist to draw up a simple design for me. Any illustrators out there care to do a bit of pro bono work? 🙂
The ship beside us was blasting out some nice steel pan music. Very relaxing.
I had originally thought that these yellow buoys were showing where submerged wrecks were located. I now am pretty sure that they were designating the turning basin for the large ships (good thing as there would have been a lot of wrecks down there if it were the other). We tend to stay away from marks like that anyway, regardless of what they’re for.
I’m pretty glad that she’s not underway right now!
Nice name. We have a lot of friends who would probably feel quite at home in a place like this.
I have had a craving for pizza for some time now.
Since we have had three gold star days in a row, we decided to treat ourselves to lunch.
A bit too close to the cruise ship dock though, which means that it was pricey ($9.00 EC for a Carib? Come on!). It was tasty though and the service was good.
Very nice. But you’re on the wrong side of “The Ditch.” Come on over, the water’s fine.
While the prospect of some downwind sailing does sound appealing, I’m not sure we’re up to the 2-4 week passages.
I am not sure if they still do it, but sometimes cruise ships allow for you to visit the ship as a guest while in port……I am going on a cruise in June (my parents 50th wedding anniversary) and I sent a letter asking for permission to get a tour of the bridge…..
That would be cool. I would love to see one up close but know that I’m never going to pay to be on one (not that I don’t think it could be fun with the ride crowd).
Was reading your definition of “gold star days”. Out of curiosity, what makes it so hard to have gold star days in Sint Maarten when you leave the boat but not in Antigua? Is it that there are more tempting things to buy available in Sint Maarten?
Perhaps it was just our experience but we found that there was little to do in St. Maarten that didn’t involve money. When we can get outside (beaches, hiking, etc.), away from bars and restaurants, we don’t spend money. Perhaps you could do that in SXM too if you were more disciplined than we are. FYI, we had another Gold Star day yesterday. Woo hoo!
Mike:
We were at that port a few weeks ago; the boat was docked at the same location as the NCL ship. I have not seen it on your blog; but have you made it over to “Hell’s Gate” yet which is located near Great Bird Island. A really neat place to see; hike on and swim on the Antiguan side of the feature. Hope the Pizza was good. We enjoy the blog very much.
Ed
Hi Ed. We have not made it to Hell’s Gate but it’s on “the list.” As for the pizza, to be honest, after craving pizza for so long, we both ended up ordering a Calzone. That was good but pizza is still on the list.