After a couple days at sea we finally made landing on St Marteen or is it Maarteen? Anyway depends on whether you are on the french or dutch or mongolian side of the slab. Interesting story that a Frenchman and Dutchman stood back to back and circumnavigated the island and where they met up was where they planted their respective flags. Apparently, the Dutchman stopped for a bit of grog which allowed the french to make up a little more sand time thus netting more land. Knowing my experiences in French wine country, I am disinclined to believe that bit of forklore. My theory is the Frenchman said "Hey buddy (or the french equivalent) look at the sea monster over there and quickly skidded an oversize buccaneer boot over 20 score paces before the inebriated Dutchman turned back with a WTF?
Several of the party took a segway tour of the beach which included a 45 minute dissertation on how the drive the darned things - complete with video I believe. The result of that was one person giving up entirely and another slamming two parked cars (not our group). Though why they would have novice segwayers negotiating: 1) a parking lot; 2) the beach; 3) a crowded boardwalk. Kind of explains all the skid marks on the walkway.
Still feeling rocky from my diminishing cold I chose to come over a little later with the second wave of tourists, the Barnhouses and Blazsaks. After standing in the hot sun for 20 minutes to take the five minute water taxi over to the harbor I attempted a graceful, lady bountiful leap from the boat to the dock. Two seconds later I was sprawled all over the boat attendant who was heroically trying to keep me from falling into the beautiful turquoise Caribbean. Mark's only comment was "don't dance with the help Sheila". Ah well.
After several frantic forays through mounds of tourists and jammed stores on a route which Mark had carefully mapped out before our arrival, we slowed down a bit to look, touch and try on island garb. I left our little party and went to one of the beachfront bars to await the survivors of the segway adventure (no that's really what they called it). Finally relaxed, enjoying the view, bantering with the bartender and taking a slow sip of my margarita I reached into my pocket only to discover-money, driver's license, boat pass and........ NO CREDIT CARD! Now I travel all the time and this was a first.
Frantic I scooped up the Burt man and retraced my steps. On a whim I stopped in a store where I used the facilities while mentally going over all the actions we would now have to take to cancel the missing card and, of course, having no means of further purchasing power, when I rather forlornly asked the poker faced, giant dutch proprietor if he has perhaps found a credit card. Giving me a stern stare he asked my name. Upon my response he held out the missing card and wonder of wonders did not lecture me on my carelessness (well not much anyway)! Totally relieved and kicking myself for my mental lapse I asked very timidly if I could hug him and thanked him for his honesty. Bought something in his store this time too.
We continued with a daring lunch on the island. Lori later told me she never drinks or eats on land. No obvious effects from our adventure. Actually didn't get our food stomach upset episode until the last day at Margaritiville (but that's another story). We wandered the beach where Burt noticed the topless sunbather. Amazing how man radar works to pick out one small (well actually two) out-of-place objects on a crowded beach. Then 3 ladies too lazy to get off their park bench said I had a face that would look good with corn rows. Not sure what kind of compliment that was.
Final hilarity of the day was watching the returning boat people. We were tied up with 3 other ships and our balcony faced the dock. Some people needed quite a bit of support to make it back on board, though the singing and retching was entertaining. The best show was the 3 boaties laden down with packages who showed up oh, about an hour after their boat had sailed. Their body language was sublime. Pure disbelief. Got all the way to the point the boat was originally tied up and just stood staring. Then they took pictures. That's why you carry your driver's license and a credit card.....
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