MAR 04: Gustavia - St Barthélemy

With a scheduled 12:30 PM anchoring off St. Barts, we had a leisurely morning while cruising under partly cloudy skies with the temperature quickly climbing into the low 80s.

St. Barts is an island where you can't drop your anchor without fear of fouling a megayacht. Along the queue, there are lesser but still impressive ones. It is an international destination for the uber-wealthy.

Our ship needed to anchor, sending passengers ashore in tenders. We waited for the initial rush ashore to end, and the announcement was made that open tendering had replaced the need to get a ticket and wait your turn.

Our plan for the day was to wander around town and then hike to a nearby beach. However, several factors compromised our plan, not the least of which was being attacked by a sign.

We stepped off the tender into a wall of people lining both sides of the street to watch and sometimes participate in the island's Fat Tuesday parade that ends the annual carnival preceding Lent.

There were some basic costumes, but many participants had brought their A-game,

The trucks in the parade were all equipment with huge amplifiers that maintained a deafening roar of thumping music. I speculated they might be competing DJs from various dance clubs in Gustavia. 

Amplifiers on the back of the truck - the blue thing between the wheels is the generator needed to power them

While we were standing on the side of the road, a fairy came along waving a magic wand and sprinkling pixy dust. I want the recipient of 'her' attention.

Moments later, the person standing behind me put his hand on a sign pole. The sign attached to the pole dislodged and dropped like a guillotine, striking my left elbow. Painful! 

Fortunately, the sign was not solid steel. It had rounded edging. It glanced off my elbow rather than coming down directly on it. Had it fallen 3-4 inches to one side, it would have almost certainly incremented the number of times that arm had been broken from three to four.

We found a concession selling cold bottles of water, which was as close as I would get to icing it until we returned to the ship. I kept exercising it and checking for a chipped bone. 

We postponed going to the beach until the next time we were here...in two weeks. Before making our way back to the tender dock, we visited the quaint Anglican church at the head of the harbor.

Outside of it was a massive anchor from when Gustavia was a fortified harbor visited by warships of various nationalities. Gun batteries guarded the inner harbor and were still visible on both shores.

Rather than battle the crowd along the parade route, we went inland two blocks and walked parallel to it along a street of shops shuttered for the holiday.

Back aboard SIRENA, I gave the elbow some TLC. By then, the falling sign appeared to have not done significant damage. I wondered if my fairy godmother and her pixy dust had been a protective shield, like the bird that anointed me before my accident in Miami. Okay, not really, but it makes for a better story.

SIRENA was not scheduled to get underway until 2130, but with the last passengers back aboard early, the ship weighed anchor at 2015. We were having a late dinner outside on the stern of the ship and watched St. Barts fall astern.

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Although February 26 still needs some work, there is a post for every day's experiences since the beginning of the trip. I confess to backdating some of the posts to keep them in chronological order.