Royal Clipper Trip Report -- Day 7

Day 7 -- Saint Barthélemy (St. Barth's)

Sunny, mid 80s

Forget wake-up time! Forget breakfast! This was one of the things that I'd been looking forward to most since we decided to take this trip. Today, they let us climb the mast up to the crow's nest! Such a fun experience. We had to wear a harness, obviously, and they clipped us to one of the guide ropes. They sent 4 or 5 of us up at a time and let us stay up there for about 10 minutes. It was a gorgeous view and so much fun. I was the first one up that morning, and Kath was right behind me.

One thing that I haven't mentioned yet is the demographics of the passengers. This is definitely an older crowd. Part of our group was a couple in their early 30s and they were clearly the youngest people on the ship, with the exception of one teenager who was with his dad as part of a Father/Son getaway. But the thing that I want to point out about this is that these older people were not just sitting around, looking for a shuffleboard game. A lot of people climbed up to the crow's nest. On our previous day at the beach BBQ, several people older that us tried the paddleboard, as well. So if you're worried about being stuck with a bunch of old fuddy-duddies for a week, you can let go of that concern. These people are on the ship for an adventure, and it was really great to be part of that crowd.

Our dinner companions had told us that yesterday's island, Antigua, is where the millionaires live; and today's island is where the billionaires live. Well, that wealth was on full display as we tendered into the marina. The mega-yachts that were moored there were unbelievable. Tens of millions of dollars in each slip. The shops in town were all high-end retail. Even the Bert's Bees lip balm we bought at the drug store was $6US.

We didn't have an excursion planned, So we decided to walk up to the island's lighthouse (about a mile from the marina) and then continue on to St. Jean's beach on the other side of the island (about another mile). It wasn't exactly an easy walk, as it was all uphill to the lighthouse and then there was no sidewalk for much of the walk down to the beach. But we didn't find it too rigorous. The lighthouse is part of a larger park that holds botanical gardens with a lot of succulents. There's also a column there that memorializes a Swedish soldier who refused to fire his cannon on civilians during an uprising during colonial rule. Here I am at the lighthouse:

Near the lighthouse there's a traffic circle (rotary or roundabout) at the top of a hill. And it's notable because it's directly in the flight path of airplanes that are making their approaches to land at the St. Barth's airport. The planes fly literally 20 feet above the cars at the roundabout. I have video from the runway, but it doesn't really give you the same feel as when you're standing at the traffic circle. You can find videos on YouTube that show how close they get.




And a couple pictures of the St. Barth's beach:

We enjoyed the beach for a couple hours and then made the trek back to the ship. We got back around 4 pm, which meant we had to wait a whole hour for the Afternoon Snack! It turned out to be "fish fingers", which were pretty good. We found a spot on the aft deck to relax, have a drink, and catch up on my notes before getting ready for dinner.

 

At dinner that night, I had the beef carpaccio with shaved parmesan appetizer, which I loved; and Kathryn had a plate of chicken livers, which I wouldn't try if you paid me -- but she said they were a little dry, but ok. The soup was pumpkin and coconut and it was really delicious. I'm not a huge fan of pumpkin-flavored things (cookies, muffins, coffee, etc), but the pumpkin was very mild and the coconut was nice and sweet, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. The lemon sorbet was a nice palate cleanser before our entrees.

Beef:

Chicken livers:

Pumpkin coconut soup

Lemon sorbet:

Kathryn had the fish, which was a grilled grouper, and it was very good; and my stir-fry pork was excellent!


Grouper:

Pork stir-fry:

There were 3 desserts on the menu and they all looked interesting, so we got all 3 and shared them. We hoped that our tablemates didn't disapprove too much! There was a coffee "parfait", which was nothing like what we normally think of as a parfait. It was more like a slice of ice cream cake, but it was delicious. There was caramel ice cream that I liked a LOT and a chocolate/ginger dessert that was more like a traditional parfait. It was ok and the chocolate was very good, but I didn't really like the combination with the ginger. They didn't really go together well.

The coffee parfait:

The caramel ice cream:

After all our walking and hill-climbing today, we decided to skip the dancing in the Tropical Bar and just relax in our room. But the next morning, we regretted that decision because we were told that when the sails were deployed to leave port, there was a special display with colored lights projected onto the sails. I really wished we had stayed up on deck to see that.  But that was the only disappointment of our day.