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| Azamara Quest (Photo:Gerry) |
Day One:
It’s the first day of our 12-night “Virgin Islands and Frenchmen Voyage” to the West Indies on Azamara Quest, departing from the Port of Miami. This voyage is our first on Azamara, and my wife and I have been eagerly anticipating cruising on a scale that is both smaller and “up.”
Day Two:
This is the first of two “at sea” days as we head to our first port of call, St. John in the Virgin Islands. Last night we experienced a lot of motion as the ship navigated stout waves and wind. By daylight it had moderated somewhat, but best to keep the Dramamine close by.
Day Three:
We are now 700 miles from Miami. As we continue on toward St. John, we can’t seem to escape the clouds. A gray overcast with temps in the 60s has been the order of the day so far. Hopefully we’ll encounter sunnier conditions once we arrive in the islands.
Day Four:
Day four in our quest for sunshine, and still hardly a ray in sight. In fact, anchored just outside Cruz Bay on the picturesque island of St. John, we awoke to rain showers, which have continued on and off throughout the day. Still, it is the tropics, and rain is a daily occurrence most of the year. Plus, a little rain wasn’t going to keep us from revisiting the place where Pam and I had our honeymoon.
Yesterday we were drenched with rain; today, drenched with sunshine! Yes, at long last the sun has made its appearance, just in time for our stop at Iles des Saintes in Guadeloupe. A grouping of eight tiny islands, with the emphasis on “tiny,” many travel guides call them the Caribbean’s hidden gem. We will anchor off the largest of them, Terre-de-Haut. Another great example of places the Azamara can take you that other ships can’t.
We awakened this morning dockside at Roseau, on the island of Dominica, “the nature island of the Caribbean.” Sandwiched between Guadeloupe and Martinique, this former British colony, independent since 1978, is almost 300 square miles in size, much of it dense rainforest.
It’s early Friday morning and we are anchored off the small island of Nevis (pronounced KNEE-vis). Nearby is its larger counterpart, St. Kitts. The waters here are very still and quiet, and of course, deeply blue. The forecast is hot and sunny; with more hot and sunny into the foreseeable future.
You don’t have to be rich and famous to come to St. Barts (or St. Barths, or Saint Barthelemy – you’ll see all variations of the name), but definitely being the former will help. This way station for the jet set features the highest of high end shopping (in the market for a Louis Vuitton hammock?) set amid its charming Swedish and French roots.
Might as well start with the news update from the Bridge: We won’t be going to Virgin Gorda, the last stop on our cruise and the one probably most anticipated by many, including myself. Sigh. Unexpectedly high waves have compromised the use of the tenders, and as we learned from the earlier mishap in Nevis, safety must come first. We will instead head to the protected harbor of St. Thomas, where Quest can dock safely.
While we still feel the disappointment of missing Virgin Gorda, it is a glorious (and calm) day dockside in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas. High swells forced a change in our final port of call, and we had evidence of those on the way over last night with some major rocking (not coming from the disco dance floor, either).
It is our next to last day at sea, and the captain has plotted us a new course. As he explained it, storm swells have caused havoc up and down the Atlantic, and affected a number of cruise ships in the region, including Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas, which was buffeted by both high winds and waves. To skirt those issues, we will be returning to Miami via the Old Bahamas Channel, which should provide a smoother ride.
And so it comes to the last full day of our “Virgins Islands and Frenchmen Voyage.” By tomorrow morning we will be back at the Port of Miami, where some of us will say goodbye and others will continue to new adventures as Quest makes sail to Europe.
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