Cruising to St. Martin and St. John

[moricktowain]

I'm going on two back to back cruises on the S/S Norway on the week of Septembe 21 and 28. The ship stops in Philipsburg, St. Maartin as well as St. Thomas, and I'm wondering if anyone here may know of any locations of Piratical interest that I should try to see during the 8 hours I'm in those ports?

[On the side nite, I wanted my first cruise to be on a tallship, but a regular steamship cruise liner will suffice. LOL.]

Also, BTW, if anyone else is going on that cruise on either of the two weeks I'm going, shoot me a line, so we can meet up and share a pint of rum. LOL.

Morick Towain

[Edit: Oops. I made some errors, including spelling and what one of the ports I'm going to is. LOL]

[Bilgemunky]

We docked in St. Maartin for a week back when I was in the navy, I'd say 1997 maybe? It was pretty rough at the time, since they were still recovering from a hurricane. One beachside hotel's entire beach was taken up by an old ship that had blown ashore (the hotel's owner had spray painted "F*** you Louise!" on the side." I still have a picture somewhere.

St. Maartin has two sides - one french and the other dutch. We docked on the Dutch side, where we were greeted heartily by every merchant who dealt in alcohol, exotic dancing, or any other "product" that might be of interest to sailors. There were also so many Heineken signs that I wondered if they owned the island. Lots of fun little touristy shops, and a restraunt that sold about a billion flavors of Pina Colada - I think our entire crew spent the majority of their time in that one tiny place.

Let's see, what else can I remember through my Pina Colada-hazed memory?

Nude beaches. I didn't feel the need to bare all, but most of the other patrons had no such inhibitions. It's very odd to have a man and his wife, both naked as jaybirds, come up and have a conversation with you - I tried very hard to keep eye contact, then started wondering if I was too obvious in trying so hard to keep eye contact, so tried to let my gaze casually drift - but not there, OH GOD DON"T LOOK THERE!!!

The dutch side was very run-down, but the moment we crossed into the french side it was like stormclouds lifted, the roads became pot-hole free, and there was a sudden lack of seedy-dives to patronize (so what's a sailor to do?) I seem to recall the french businesses seeming far more cafe-ish than tropical-touristy - and they had a rather nice fort worth exploring.

I should go dig up my photos - maybe they can jog some more memories. Meantime, I hope what sketchy little I've provided is somewhat helpful.