Sailing in today was delightful with beautiful blue skys, white billowy clouds and crystal clear water. Enjoy a few of the views that I captured.
We are docked at Havensight. Moored behind us is the MSC Seaside. I thought you might enjoy a photo of it.
As I said, we are docked at Havensight, our favorite of the two docking areas. The other is Crown Bay. Havensight is a pleasant shopping environment which in many ways seems to have, over the years, displaced the downtown shopping area. Here is a photo of this busy place and an “aerial” one taken from deck 16. The red roofs are the buildings in the mall. I’m afraid neither does the area justice.
We took our time disembarking this morning as we had nothing special in mind to do. Our plan was to stroll around the Havensight area, get a light lunch and stroll back to the ship. As we walked around I managed a few shots of the area. Seems to us that many of the shops that used to be here are gone.
I thought this building was interesting. It is just outside of the port. It’s what I think St. Thomas must have been like many years ago. Just imagine sitting on the porch drinking a Tom Collins watching a ship navigating its way into port.
Here is the mandatory flower which was growing in a little bed outside of the stores.
We walked over to Yacht Haven Grande marina for lunch. This was once a booming shopping venue with truly high-end shops, like Louis V and Gucci. No more! Everything is closed. Only the perfume shop remains. Too bad because it is a pleasant, bay front area.
Here are a couple of shots of the area.
We had lunch at Navy Blue, a busy place with really good food. We each had a baked crab cake and shared a side of roasted Brussels sprouts. Both were excellent. Here is a shot in the dinning room. It’s very inviting and is owned by people from Montauk, New York.
This shot of the marina was taken from our table. I cannot begin to imagine the millions of dollars floating in front of my eyes.
Here is another view from Navy Blue.
When lunch was finished we started back to Havensight and the Sky. I took this photo of JoAnn as we were leaving the marina.
And, I took this of the Sky as we passed by.
As we made our way back to the Sky we passed this replica of the Little Mermaid resting peacefully in a small fountain at Havensight. We’ve been fortunate to see the Little Mermaid in the water in Copenhagen. It’s quite serene and striking at the same time and really tiny. This one is 1/2 the size of the original.
Back on the Sky, I took these photos of downtown Charlotte Amalie and the mountainside beyond.
We decided to have dinner “al fresco” tonight at Sur La Mer. It is the French bistro on the Sky. We picked this because we can dine under the stars and watch the lights go on on St. Thomas. We had a terrific table outside on the port side. Here is a photo of JoAnn at our table.
And another of our dining area.
No one joined us. Too bad, that’s their loss.
I was reminded of a trip a long time ago when we were sailing on Windstar from Istanbul to Athens. That particular day we were at anchor off of Santorini. The chef’s plan that evening was to serve a buffet. I am not an admirer of buffets and told the maitre d’ that I would prefer dinner in the dinning room. He assured me that my preference would be taken into consideration.
That evening at dinner time, after returning from our day on Santorini, we were shown to a solitary table, set for two, outside on the starboard side of the ship, facing the island of Santorini, and away from all others. We were given our own waiter and served course by course. We watched the lights go on on Santorini as the stars sparkled above. It was absolutely magical and something neither of us will ever forget. It was our night in Santorini. Tonight reminded us of that evening.
Here’s one of the two of us, a selfie.
Then I snapped this one of St. Thomas under the starlit sky as we sailed away.
How about one more flower to say goodbye to St. Thomas?
Next stop, St. Maarten.