Saint Maarten

We had two sea days on our way to Phillipsburg, St. Maarten. The ship left two hours late, because it took a long time to load all the provisions for our voyage and the ship, having just arrived in the US, had to undergo a series of inspections before the loading could commence. The captain went a little faster the first night and morning to make it up. A few small whitecaps and partly cloudy over the next two days made for a pleasant start to the trip.

We’ve been on the Volendam once before, when we went on a Panama Canal cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to San Diego. So it didn’t take us long to settle back in to shipboard life, knowing where to go.

We don’t have a problem getting enough exercise on the ship on sea days. We are six decks below the Lido cafe that we use for breakfast and lunch. Two decks up for the main dining room. The main dining room does serve breakfast and lunch, and afternoon tea on sea days, but is slow, so we don’t eat there unless it’s a lazy day. 3.5 laps of the promenade deck is one mile. There is also a nice gym near the top at the front of the ship, so you get great views from the first row of exercise machines.

The ship has a couple jigsaw puzzles set up, one in the crow nest at the top front, and one in the explorer library in the rear. They have a number of events throughout the day, including talks about upcoming ports of call.

The Volendam was used to house Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war from April to mid September. The cruises prior to this one were not full, so this is the first full cruise for this crew. They are still working out the kinks. The problem we see mostly is dinner is slow.

The Ukrainian kids that stayed on the ship made some artwork that was displayed in the Atrium.

The classical duo entertainers are two women from Ukraine.

There was a Q&A session with some of crew that worked on the Volendam while the refugees were on board. It was a lot of women and their children. One story was the kids were taking ping pong balls and flushing them in the toilets. Another time the kids made it down to the crew decks and were driving a forklift.

The first day at see just north of the Bahamas, we saw some boobies flying along with the ship. Donna spent some time to get a photo.

As we were docking in Phillipsburg, Saint Maarten, there were two pelicans circling overhead.

We pre-arranged to rent bicycles and do our own tour. That allows us to stop and take photos where we want to. Donna rented an e-bike, so she won’t worry about the hills. I chose a road bike much like what I ride at home, just a bit lower end. When we went to pick up bikes, it was the only non e-bike they had brought to the dock. I asked the rental guy if I was a fool, but he asked about my cycling experience and thought I would do fine.

We picked up our bicycles right near the dock and rode through town and over the hill to Cole Bay. Saint Maarten is a bunch of volcanic cones together, so there can be tough places to cycle.

Once over the hill, there is a nice ride around Simpson Bay lagoon. The lagoon straddles both the Dutch and French sides of the island.

We stopped for a pastry in a bakery in Marigot on the French side of the Island. It was on the edge of the local market.

Maho airport beach in Saint Maarten is famous for the big airplanes landing right over the beach. There was a small twin that landed while we were cycling by, but it touched down 1500 ft down the runway, so it wasn’t very low when it crossed the end of the runway. The beach eroded away in Hurricane Irma in 2017, and wasn’t rebuilt. Now it’s mostly boulders.

As we finished rounding the lagoon, the sky got dark and it started to pour. There was a branch of the bike shop that we rented from a block down the road, so we returned the bikes there rather than ride back in the rain or on wet roads. We were able to catch a local bus (a VW van) back to Phillipsburg and the ship. These local buses are privately operated.

In the evening the ship had the captain’s welcome event, delayed from the first day because of the late departure. He informed us that the floating dock in Manaus, our port furthest up the Amazon river, has sunk and they are scrambling with the authorities to figure out what the fallback options are if it cannot be repaired in time.