Day 5

St. Thomas, U.S. V.I.

We all met for breakfast at the Windjammer, Deck 11 (aft) at 8am, and since the ship was docked at 7:30am, we were treated tot he beautiful view of St. Thomas over breakfast.

The island is lushly green & hilly. Pastel colored homes & hotels, with massive windows to take advantage of the view, dot the hillsides. There's a sky ride, like the sky safari at the Bronx Zoo, that climbs up the largest of those mountains.

But our destination is Sapphire Beach.

OK the original destination is St. John's, another island. Beth's idea is to take a cab, a ferry, then another cab to the beach which is spectacular. But with 10 of us, the taxi being $10/person, plus who knows what for the rest of the trip, not to mention we missed the 9am ferry.

After some deliberation, we take a large taxi that fits us all-very nice-with an equally nice driver Earlin, an older lady with a 'traditional build.'

We ask Earlin to stop, so we can get the kids sunglasses, and she found us a nice pharmacy. Eli also got testing strips, at exorbitant price, and we all got bottled water.

The road snaked up and over a hill slowly to Sapphire Beach, we got out at the hotel, which had this free beach, and found a shady spot.

The sand is soft and very white, but the edge of the water is littered with bits of coral. The waves are soft, the water a gorgeous blue, and the clouds rained lightly on us for 10 minutes, then moved on. I swam out with the kids, the water was warm, but not too warm.

I swam out a little & stood on a ruond rock. David, Julia, William & Beth had snorkles & masks. The raved about the view. Mike, Larry & Hank borrowed masks and raved, too. I didn't think it could be much, but I borrowed a mask to see what there was to see.

Wow! That was a coral reef I was on. Fish swam around my feet & I didn't know it. Tiny white & blue fish swam in schools; big yellow fish rolled in the sand; pink an dgreen striped fish swam around the coral; beautiful dark blue fish, with electric blue fins; some other blue fish was flat & as large as a dinner plate. So close you could almost tough them...I tried, but they swam off, just slightly out of my reach.

I didn't stand on coral after that.

At one point William argued with David; it's a wonder it didn't happen sooner! I took Will for a walk in front of the hotel. Fragrant honey suckle lined the cobble stone path. And little lizards, not-so-little iguanas, and feral cats distracted my youngest from his grudge.

We ate the snacks we brought from the ship, feeding any bits that fell in the sand to the colorfully-billed ducks that lived on the beach as plentifully as seagulls at the Jersey shore.

We rinsed off & some of us changed into dry clothes to catch our 2pm taxi. Was is $10/rt or each way?