In each cruise, sailing east, we spring forward an hour, sometimes two, in order to be on island time. We have stopped at our last island for this tour and are cruising west towards home, so we have Fallen Back, and are back on Georgia time!
While on St. Maarten today we visited the local historical museum. Like other museums on other islands, it is small and the total number of exhibits could be observed, with careful study, in under an hour. That being true, what is important is the people of this island, and the other islands have collected items that are important to the revelation and understanding of their past. And while they cannot compare in any stretch of the imagination to the Hermitage, the Louvre, or any such big name compiler of historical artifacts, these are important sources of local information, and a source of local pride. And we enjoy visiting them (this one was tough to find, but they are working on solving that problem).
We walked out to the Salt Pond, or what used to be the Salt Pond. At one time St. Maarten was a major producer in the world’s supply of salt and the finished product from here won awards around the world. New sources of supply gradually undermined the local industry, but for a while, “White Gold” was king. The Salt Pond is but a small portion of its original size when the workers opened channels to the sea to let in salt water, let the brine collect in sections called salt pans, and then separated to dry, evaporating the water, exposing the salt. At one time there was also a monument which was dedicated to the thousands who worked in the industry, but we couldn’t find it. If we were in the right area, and I’m pretty certain we were, it has been removed. A sad omission.
We got to see six ships docked in port today – the most we’ve ever seen. When we walked off this morning, there were already 5 here (counting us, and the Celebrity Silhouette, Mein Shippe, the Silver Wind, and the Norwegian Jewel). Before we sailed a Costa ship docked. Guessing on the number of guests on board each, there were more than 20,000 of us ashore. And with the crews getting liberty, that number probably increased by 20 percent.
While we were out I scored a 6-pack of Mountain Dew. Enough to get me back to Baltimore!
We have three straight sea days and I will do my remaining two talks twice each day – at 10 and 2. Tomorrow is food, Friday is art, and Saturday is astronomy. I was talking to Katie, the entertainment director, and she said they are already getting comments back from the first half of the cruise, and they are strong for what we’ve done. Hopefully that will lead to some new assignments.
Tomorrow is laundry day, so we will be up early – Bonnie to do laundry and me to rehearse for my 10 o’clock talk. And on that note ...
TTFN
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