The Big Cruise - St. Thomas

St. Thomas is my favorite location we've travelled to so far. The island was gorgeous, the weather was absolutely perfect, and the excursion we booked for the day couldn't have been better. 

The girls posed together before getting off the ship. 

Lisa, Lindsay, me, Kim:

The boys took another, more intimate approach to the group photo! 

Brad, Jared, Marc, and Scott:

Beautiful backdrop, right?

We got off the ship and caught the taxi that was waiting to take us across the island to our sailboat charter. Anyone who complains about driving in big cities such as L.A. must never have driven in another country. Every single time we've gotten in a vehicle in another place I have sweated bullets until we've arrived safely, and St. Thomas was no exception. 

We stepped out of our taxi, walked down a path to the water, and found these waiting for us, our sailboats for the day:

Each boat could only accomodate 6 guests (plus 2 crew), so we had to split up and share some time with a couple of new people, but it was no big deal. Scott and I sailed with Jared and Kim. At least this way we could get photos of each other relaxing on deck as we sailed.

We called this "extreme deck sitting".

I'd never been on a sailboat before and found it to be a completely different experience than a speed boat or larger vessel. We loved the way it tipped sideways as the wind caught the sails and hung our feet off the side so they could skim the water. 

The day was completely idyllic, gorgeous blue, calm ocean, 75 degree temps, sunny skies, nobody else out on the water, perfectly peaceful and quiet. Heaven.

We sailed to St. Johns and stopped a little way off shore. The other couple on board plus Scott and the crew stayed on the sailboat, while the rest of us jumped into the water for snorkeling. We managed to find sea turtles down there amongst the other ocean life. Once we wore ourselves out with swimming we headed for the shore where we relaxed for about an hour. The first mate had taken Scott to the shore on the motorized raft so he enjoyed the white sands with us. Once we were finished we were taken back to the boat on the raft.

Kim and Scott:

The crew prepared lunch for us, which we ate at a little table on deck. I wasn't expecting too much given that it was prepared by two guys on a boat, but lunch was really good! Marinated chicken, grilled vegetables and sourdough rolls. 

After lunch we sailed back toward St. Thomas. Partway back we reached Turtle Rock, if I remember the name correctly, a rock formation that jutted out of the bay. We jumped out and snorkeled some more, enjoying one last hurrah in the water that day. Then we climbed back in and headed for shore. The day ended too soon!

Me, Scott, the captain, and first mate, Josh. These guys made sure the day was perfect. 

Josh kept assuring us they'd have us back to our ship in plenty of time, but of all the places to be stuck I'd choose St. Thomas! Scott and I joked that we'd just call home and have my parents put the kids on a plane so we could all just stay forever. It was a nice fantasy. But that summarizes how I felt about St. Thomas: it was a place I'd love to come back to again and stay much longer next time.