Oasis of the Seas - USVI

After leaving the Bahamas on Monday, Tuesday was a full day of cruising to our destination of Saint Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands. Each morning of the cruise I liked to go up to Deck 15 and get some coffee from the Solarium Cafe. Sometimes I get some juice or a pastry. I like to bring it back to the room and sit on the balcony for a while, enjoying the sounds of piped in birds in the park. This particular morning Nancy saw some movement in the trees of Central Park. Sure enough, there was a real bird in the tree just below the room. I took a picture for proof, but I was not sure which kind of bird it was. Mockingbird or jay? Thrush? Not sure...

Bird in the tree in Central Park on the Oasis of the Seas

I knew we were supposed to be getting to St Thomas at 11 AM so I took a walk up to the top deck to get some pictures of the arrival. Looking back from where we came, the sky was blue with just a few clouds.

Empty deck 16 looking to the stern on the Oasis of the Seas

I walked down to deck 14 where there was an entrance to what they called the Sun Deck on the Port side only. This was a nice observatory platform at the front of the ship. The Virgin islands were in view but it did not look as nice as it was toward the stern. It was raining over the whole island. That should make for an interesting excursion...

Rain covering St Thomas in the USVI

Nancy and I had breakfast around 9 and I had noticed these birds flying along with the ship. They were diving birds and the ship was stirring up food for them to eat. They would fly from the stern to the aft of the ship, skimming just above the waves looking for food. I was thinking they were some kind of cormorant or frigate bird. I caught this photo to help identify when I was on the Sun Deck. I think it is a brown booby.

One of the birds following the ship into the Islands.

My plan was to take Nancy to St John for the day. My friends Peter and Gail live there and they would give us a short tour of the island. I thought we would have 3 or 4 hours but things do not always go as planned.

The first problem was with phone coverage. On my previous visit to the islands, I had phone coverage with my service. For some reason, I did not have it this trip. Luckily, Nancy did have service so we were able to get a hold of Peter to tell him we were on the way.

The second problem was the arrival and departure times I was using for making plans were in ship time. The local time was one hour ahead. The ferries I was planning to take were an hour closer in time than I had thought. Damn!

St Thomas and St John

We would be docking in the city of Charlotte Amalie. We needed to get to Redhook Bay to catch the noon ferry to Cruz Bay on St John, and then we would catch the 3:45 PM ferry back to Charlotte Amalie. That was the plan. Peter said it was a 30-minute taxi ride from the ship to the ferry. Well, the time difference messed that plan up.

The ship was at Point Y and we needed to get to Point Z (see map). We get off the ship, found a taxi and were on our way at 11:15 ship time (12:15 local time). No problem to make the noon (one o'clock) ferry. Except as we are driving, we start to pass the cruise ships. Oh oh! We docked at Point X. I did not know about Point X. Problem 3 was that it was going to take longer than 30 minutes from ship to ferry. We arrived at the ferry docks at 1:07 local time. Of course, the one o'clock ferry was gone and we would have to wait for the two o'clock.

I sent Peter a text using Nancy's phone and he said he would meet us at the dock at 2:20 PM local time. I got the two ferry tickets for $14, and then Nancy and I had some time to waste. There was a small bar and they served Presidente beer from the Dominican. It was cold and refreshing. Nancy also got a rum drink. We left at two o'clock local time.

Nancy on board the Red Hook to Cruz Bay ferry in St Thomas

Our hosts for the afternoon were my friends Peter and Gail. I have known them for many years and I spent many hours on the sailboat they use to own. Three trips of seven or more days through different parts of the Bahamas. Here they are at the Beach bar in Cruz Bay. Nancy took this photo as I was falling on my ass in the sand. One of the legs of the cheap beach chairs gave out and I tumbled over backward. Peter, Gail, and Nancy just watched! Lucky for me, no photos were taken, but I did have sand on me for the rest of the day.

Pater & Gail at the Beach Bar in Cruz bay on Saint John

Peter treated us to drinks and I had a Painkiller, a local favorite. Thank God for the drink; I do not know how I would have survived the pain of the great fall I had. After drinks, we headed out of a town on the North Shore of Saint John. The first stop was a lookout over Cruz Bay. If you look closely, my butt print is in the middle of the next photo.

Cruz Bay in St John USVI - Beach Bar is in Center; Ferries in lower side of Bay

Looking North from St John, you can see some of the islands of The British Virgin Islands.

Looking North from St John

Our next stop was a small hike up a hill to an old abandoned windmill. The last time I was here the island was having a small drought and things were all brown. Everything was very green this time.

Windmill off North Shore Road on St John

Nancy, Peter and Gail on the hill with the windmill

I did take this photo of a small flower. My auto-focus problem was resolved by cleaning the sand from the lens of the camera. I am not sure what this flower is called

Unknown Flower on Trail in St John

Of course, one of the most important stops is at Trunk Bay. Since we were in friends and the lookout was full of tourists, it gave us the right to complain about all the damn tourists in the way. I took two photos. One with Peter on the rail and one without.

Peter on fence about visiting Trunk Bay

Trunk Bay in St John with lots of people on beach

The reason I wanted Nancy to visit St John is because it is 90% National Park. St Thomas, where our ship had come in, was basically a large city. It is very pretty and scenic, but there is a lot of traffic and people. On St John, which is more rural, we had to find a bathroom. We stopped at this small park and I took a picture of the sign, and then I peed!

Sign for small park on water in St John

Our final stop was at Annaberg, a site of a Sugarcane processing plant from the 1700s. The windmill was used to grind the sugar cane juice out of the plant. I highly recommend a visit to this place. Plenty of great scenery and a nice hike through the woods. Here are the remains of the main windmill...

Windmill remains at Annaberg on St John

The next photo is me trying to be artistic. I liked how the plant was growing in the open window. The peak of the roof gave the piece some structure. I call it....

BJ's Artistic Photo at Annaberg on St John

Then there was the mongoose. He was too fast for me to get out of the car for a picture. I would have been quicker if I was not weighted down by all the sand from my dangerous beach crash earlier.

Mongoose at Annaberg parking lot

Looking at the map, we arrived in Cruz Bay, drove along the North Shore Road to Annaberg and back. It was a few minutes before 5 PM local so we Had Gail leave us off at the ferry. We said our goodbyes and I purchased the tickets for the ferry boat ride back to St Thomas. By the way, there were no seats left on the ferry when we departed.

Map of West St John of USVI

When we arrived at Redhook, we immediately departed and grab a taxi. It was a van and most of the other people were heading back a different cruise ship, one located at where I thought we would be docked. It took only 25 minutes to get there.I took a few pictures of the cruise ships as the sun was setting. The ship on the right was another Royal Caribbean ship that was not at a dock.

One of the cruise ships in St Thomas

Two cruise ships in St Thomas

Finally, we got back to our cruise ship. Nancy and I were the only ones left in the van and the driver was very nice. He said that the Oasis of the Seas was docked at what use to be a submarine dock for the US Navy. I guess our ship was so big it would not fit at the old docks so they created new ones. As we walked up to reboard, I caught this picture of out ship just as the sun was setting...

Oasis of the Seas docked in St Thomas USVI

We were supposed to leave at 7 PM ship time (8 pm local) but that did not happen. We heard different rumors and hearsay about engine problems. Nancy and I stayed on deck to watch the lights of the city. It was just a few days pass the full moon so I was playing around with some photos.

The moon above the Oasis of the Seas andCharlotte Amalie

I took another one without the ship....

Almost Full moon above Charlotte Amalie

There was all kind of police activity in the city. They all seem to disappear behind a large building. Nancy was texting with Peter about the activity. Lots of bad jokes were being made. But the temperature was nice and there were only a few people up here. This ship can hold 5,400 passengers (6,296 max) with a crew of about 2,400. About the population of my hometown of Middlebury Vermont.

I took one final picture of the pool deck all lit up. It was past ten o'clock and we were still in port...

Pool deck on Oasis of the Seas

Tomorrow we would be in St Maarten for a day of shopping. Nancy was excited!