Wednesday, March 7


An excellent day at sea. Was invited to lunch with the Captain and was actually seated at his table. He is a very personable man with a great sense of humor. He has been with this ship since the beginning, and was her first Captain when she was the Royal Viking Sun. When she went to Seabourne, he went with her, and the same when she was transferred to Holland America in 2002=2003 to become the Prinsendam. It was also a lovely lunch.


Thursday, March 8


Today we were at St. Lucia, docked at the capital, Castries. Jill and I hired a taxi to take us on a 2 hour tour, much of which we spent at Caribelle Batik (which I knew she would enjoy, and she did). We also got as far down island as Marigot Bay which is lovely as you can see here.


St. Lucia has the highest per capita number of Nobel Laureates of any country in the world. They have two, but their population is about 160,000. Interestingly, both were born on January 23, so that day is now a national holiday!


Back on board in the afternoon, we were treated to a concert by a fabulous steel drum band. Those kids played absolutely non-stop at top speed for almost an hour! then then moed down to the dock and played about another 30-40 minutes as we prepared to sail. What energy!! And many of their numbers, at least in the concert, appeared to be original compositions, although they did play some Caribbean favorites down on the dock.


I think I mentioned that the ship has been giving us presents of one sort or another all along...tote bags, binoculars, books, a parka, etc. Today they gave each of us a great suitcase to take it all home in! It’s even got wheels and a pull-out handle. I swear that it’s big enough that with it and the matching tote bag I could probably do a one-week cruise with just those two pieces of luggage!! The sad part is that I need to start packing soon as we only have 3 days left!