Sunday, 8th March, St Maartin, slightly choppy sea 26 degrees

First – apologies for the slight glitch with the missive of the 6th March. I hope that by now it has been published. I am aware that it caused a bit of consternation amongst those who hang on my every word (joke!) but there was a technical hitch in transmission.

Onward and upward!! We are today in Sint Maarten, an island I had never heard of before our visit! Every day is an education on this trip!! All I know is that it is our last West Indian island – next stop the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean. We are definitely on the way home.

St. Maarten is an island divided, apparently. The north is French (St Martin) while the south is Dutch (Sint Maarten). It would seem that the Dutch spelling is the more usual one. This duality is reflected in the music, food and art of the island,

It was an island noted for its salt and the French wanted salt so they agreed to share with the Dutch. The treaty of co-existence was drawn up in1648 and it has more or less existed since then. The Aurora berthed at Phillipsburg on the Dutch side and we took a morning tour to the French side and back to the Dutch – there is a definite border in between.

We had booked a tour to visit both sides, first stop was meant to be an hour at Marigot the French capital but, as is usually the case in France, the vast majority of the shops were closed as it was Sunday. So the group opted to stay just half an hour. It was definitely French! We came across a delicatessen that was open and we popped inside – it made us very nostalgic for France!

We just had time for a quick drink and Keith opted for a coconut juice from a man who was whittling sugar cane.

There was a great view!

We then clambered back on the bus to take us to the famous beach where planes fly very low over it to land at the international airport. To all intents and purposes it looked a small but pretty ordinary beach. Bur then a plane came across and you could see how low it was!

I took a picture of a small plane – which was not too scary. But then Keith took a photo of a much larger one – which was so low – it was very scary.

What was even worse was when a plane took off down the runway the exhaust threw sand into the air and blew hats and sunglasses off into the sea! There were signs up warning that this would happen and despite this people could be seen scurrying after their belongings as they floated off into the water. (It was great fun. Ed)

We had a birds eye view from the bar where we were sitting having an early lunch. I had my last Caribbean cocktail – a very nice mojito with lots of lime and mint and Keith had a glass of wine.

We then set off back to the ship, but saw one more plane come in as we were leaving the beach area – the smaller aircraft seemed to come in very frequently.

We passed a traffic island with pelican statues on it, an homage to the national bird of the Dutch area. That led me to ask the oracle, Mr. Gregory, the question as to what the national bird of England is – he (rather dismissively I thought) said the robin – and, i looked it up, he was right. Humph. (Dismissively?? I just thought everyone knew…obviously not. Ed)

Back at the ship we had some quiet time before we thought we would go out again. This we did but found that the shops around the terminal were all closed as it was Sunday. It was going to be quite a trek into the main thoroughfare, where some shops may have been open, so we simply returned to the ship. I must say, (and we have since had it confirmed by those who have been to the island before) that the place must be heaving on a day when the shops are open, because there are a lot of them!! As many as nine cruise ships dock here daily. It must be chaos!

We went up to the promenade deck to watch the ship sail away from Sint Maarten and it was goodbye to the Caribbean for us. We now have six sea days before we get to The Azores, our final stop before home.

We joined the queue for the Caribbean food served around the pool on Deck 12 and we chatted to a few chums on the way. Back down to earth tomorrow – both Bridge and ukulele are back!!