Tim Holtz Caribbean Cruise - Day 4 - September 28 2011 - St. Thomas US Virgin Islands

Wednesday 9/27 we dock at St. Thomas at 11 AM. We have until 6:30 PM on shore. First picture is our pilot boat that leads the ship in to each port.

A view of Charlotte Amelie from our balcony.

Below is our ship in the process of "parallel" parking between 2 other large ships. This was Amazing to watch. It basically pull into place, then moved Sideways in between the other ships with barely Inches to spare! Quite a Job!

I agonized over RC excursions for this stop. And finally, after talking to my brother who has been here several times, took his advice to just take a cab to wherever I wanted to go. My main direction.......getting a Jetski! LOL So I got a cab to Sapphire Beach where I had read that I could rent a jetski. Quite a Beautiful beach with clear turquoise water.

I found the marina and the guy who rents jetskis!!! The cost was Ridiculously high! $120 for an hour! OUCH! It was only $65 per hour in Cabo on the Mexico cruise 2 years ago. But this was what I was heading to do, so I did it!

I went out by myself, but the guy went out of the marina with me to show me the boundries of where I could go. That was a disappointment. I planned to head over to St. John and all around the island of St. Thomas. But I had a well defined triangle where I could go. It was a large area however & Off I Went, 50 mph over waves, current and had the Time of my Life! :-)

THEN, when an hour was up, the guy came out & waved me in. He waited for me to Race up to him, then we both took off. I'm feeling Pretty Cocky now, Flying over waves at top speed. He hits the wake of a boat, which of Course, I do too. Most Air I ever caught!!! FUN!!!! Then we were back over turquoise water, nearly at the entry to the marina...........next thing I know, I'm Off the jetski and In the Water!!! First time Ever I have ended up off a jetski! I hit the water Hard, right on my right rib cage. I was hobbling around holding my side for the next coup days! It still hurts, but I wouldn't have missed that time for the World!

Afterwards, I went in the water for awhile, then grabbed a cab to Magens Beach which I have heard is one of the top 10 beaches in the world to see. I actually thought Sapphire beach was prettier, but I Had to see Magens. :-)

Below are pictures of me in the water with all of my waterproof Stuff. I had a camera stolen in Mexico a few years back, so I now leave Nothing alone on the beach other than maybe a towel! I have waterproof boxes & pouches & as silly as it probably looks......I just take everything in the water with me. I was by myself so had noone to watch my stuff. This worked Perfectly however. :-)

Downtown Charlotte Amelie is basically all duty free shops. Jewelry, alcohol, cigars, table linens.........I never did find a quaint little local art shop. They did have an open air flea market however, but I ran out of time to get to see that.

This was just a window I thought was cool.

There were no classes today. We had some time to just relax on the balcony.

Or on the bed with the monkey! ;-)

I had been to St. Thomas probably 20+ years ago when my husband had a conference in Puerto Rico. We got flights for a Great price IF we spent at least 2 nights in 3 locations. So we spend 3 days in New Orleans, then on to the conference, then spent a week on Tortola which was Wonderful. We stayed one night in Charlotte Amelie before heading to Tortola and one night when we returned. We didn't see too much, but I remembered all of the duty free shopping. If I stayed on St. Thomas sometime, I'd really want to adventure more around the island, not spend time in the downtown area.