Back to the adventure

I couldn't remember where I left off on our cruise adventure, so I had to go back and read my posts. After reading them, I wondered if anyone was really reading them or just trying to appease me. I'll try to do better, but no guarantees.

Anyway, after we left the Princess Cay, we headed for St. Thomas. We had a day at sea before we were to arrive at St Thomas, so I spent part of it just watching the ocean from our balcony. When I was at the maritime academy and on cruise, I would spend quite a bit of my free Princesstime sitting on deck watching the ocean. Of course, the school ship was not as stable as the Emerald Princess so the horizon would change as the ship rolled, unlike the Princess. It was still quite enjoyable. I did manage to get up early enough to capture the sunrise as it peeked above the ocean horizon.

It doesn't get any better than that!

As we were nearing St Thomas, we past another Princess Line ship heading into St Thomas also. As I noted previously, our itinerary had changed so that was why there was two Princes Line ships heading to St Thomas at the same time. Our ship, the Emerald Princess was the bigger of the two, so we were able to dock at the newer cruise dock and the other ship had to dock at the old docking area, which at one time was a submarine base (just a little tidbit to keep your interest up). We tied up behind a Carnival Cruise Line ship. Interesting that all the cruise ships in port that day are own by Carnival (another tidbit).


As most people know, whenever a ship comes into port it is required to have a harbor pilot on board because of all the nuances of the port. So, the port authority sends a pilot boat out with a pilot who takes over control of the docking ship. The following photos show the pilot bat as it was heading to the ship and then just after the pilot boarded. I was not able to get a photo of the pilot actually boarding but the pilot boat is along side the ship for a very short time, just long enough for the pilot to step off onto the docking ship. Of course, when a ship leave a harbor the reverse happens, the pilot takes the ship out and the pilot boat picks him up. Stick around, I amy tell you something you don't know, and then again I may not. Being that St Thomas is a US island, all of the custom limits are raised, i.e., the amount of merchandise you can bring back duty free and the amount of alcoholic beverages also.

The pilot boat heading to the Emerald Princess with pilot.

Arriving at the ship to drop off pilot.

Just pulling away from the ship after dropping pilot.

Enough of that. The following are some photos taken of St Thomas prior to our docking. As you can see it is very lush and green but it is a little crowded. I will share photos I took on our tour of the island in my next post, but I just wanted to share our first impressions with these photos.


This seaplane took off from the harbor at St Thomas and flew across our bow. I later found out it is a commercial enterprise that flies passengers between the nearby island and St Thomas. As you can see, I have varied interest when I take pictures. And aren't I just a wealth of knowlege (written tongue-in-cheek).


So until next time, have a great day.