The title of this post belies our actual activities, because we stay on the ship, which anchors a couple of miles offshore at the scheduled 8am. We had signed up for a one-hour tour of the island by mini-van, but it was canceled. When we went down to Destination Services to see if there were other excursions we might like, we found out that it was canceled because of so many complaints from previous guests.
Jose, the person with whom we spoke, and a person we knew from a previous cruise, said that all the tour turned out to be was a taxi ride with a driver who said nothing, stopped nowhere throughout the one-hour, and had, let’s say, developed the attitude that us cruise ship passengers didn’t measure up to the high standards of such a place as St. Bart’s.
Now, how did such an attitude develop? Cathy and I had actually visited the island back in the late ‘80s. What we found then was a quiet, laid-back island with nice locals and great French restaurants. The place where we stayed was clean but definitely middle-class digs. Nice beaches, a leisurely Caribbean pace, and very French-Caribbean.
In the interim between our visit then and today, it had become a haunt for the rich and richer and very rich and those who couldn’t spend their money in ten lifetimes. In other words, it was ruined for everyone else. We had actually gone to Gustavia to have a look on our previous Caribbean cruise back in January, and found that even the supermarket on the main drag catered to reprovisioning the mega-yachts that frequented the island during the winter season. It was a mini-Singapore in its retail options. Name a brand of ultra-expensive clothes or whatever, St. Bart’s has it.
So we stay on board Insignia, deciding to dip our toe into shipboard life and spend a day in complete leisure. It begins, of course, at 8am in the GDR for breakfast. Our first surprise is to find that our waiter would be Putu, one of the most interesting, jovial and professional wait staff we had ever had the pleasure of meeting on board an Oceania cruise. “Putu from Bali” is how he introduced himself back when, and he actually remembers us (maybe) from that time. Any time your day starts with Putu as your waiter, you know it’s going to be a good day.
After breakfast, Steve takes a one-hour walk on the fitness track and Cathy goes to Horizons to read. We meet up there at 10:15. Cathy leaves for the room at 11; Steve stays to write for another hour. When Steve returns to the room, Cathy is finishing watching a movie both of us had begun the night before, the 1961 Elvis Presley movie “Blue Hawaii.” Steve is grateful we don’t have to watch from the beginning, because it is cringe-inducingly simple-minded and is merely a vehicle for Elvis to sing a song every five minutes in an effort to resuscitate his career after returning from a 2-year US Army hitch (this we learned from the current excellent Elvis Presley movie).
After it ends, we head to Waves Grill for lunch, and then to the adjacent pool deck to lie around in lounge chairs at 1pm. Cathy stays for an hour; Steve for 90 minutes. Back at the room, we decide to sit on our veranda and relax further.
Cathy has become intrigued with an unusual looking yacht anchored not far from Insignia. First of all, it’s got a black hull, which seems fairly unusual in the Caribbean. Second of all, it has some kind of crane on the bow. Thirdly, the stern has a stairway down to the water and is apparently designed to launch small boats and allow swimmers to enter the water easily. In fact, she notices several very small (what look to be) rafts sitting in the water behind it. The name is FORCE BLUE. When we look it up on the internet, we learn that it is a 231-foot yacht available for charter. It spends its summers in the Mediterranean where it can be chartered for 360,000 euros per week. It carries a crew of 20, and can accommodate 12 guests. In the winter, it plies the waters of the Bahamas and the Caribbean Sea, available for a bargain price of 330,000 euros per week (https://www.fraseryachts.com/en/yacht-for-charter/force-blue/).
We also see that an adorable little fleet of six tiny sailboats come into our area. It’s evident to Steve that the people sailing them are having a sailing lesson as there is a small motorboat with them, with the skipper no doubt yelling out instructions. Soon they come about and begin to head for home.
Here’s when the entertainment begins. All of these boats have to cross a wake created by a sizeable motor boat. All of them negotiate it skillfully … except for one. That one is crosswise to the wave and immediately capsizes – not only turning on its side, but completely upside down (it’s called “turtling”). If the boat weren’t so small, that could be a difficult issue, but, with guidance from the instructor and after a couple of futile tries, they right the craft and join the others. Watching all of this brings Steve back to his teen years at summer camp when sailing was his and his brother Dave’s favorite activity.
Steve watches all this from our veranda, and returns inside to join Cathy. She is watching “The Godfather,” and he becomes glued to the television as Cathy is. We watch until Sailaway.
By now, it’s around 4:30. Sailaway is scheduled fore 5pm, but everyone must have returned prior to that because we get underway 25 minutes early. We watch as Gustavia grows smaller and smaller in the distance. It is just as well we leave a bit early, because the ship must travel 235 nautical miles to reach our next port of call, Martinique.
This has been a very pleasurable day of doing nothing. We are finally experiencing the relaxation that cruising is apparently about. Who knows, maybe we will actually attend an activity on board.
Hmmm, probably not. As usual, we are in bed and asleep by 8-8:30. We look forward to Martinique, where we have never been and have signed up for a great excursion that will help us get well acquainted with this important part of the French Caribbean.
