Limping Our Way At Sea

Bear with me dear friends... we are almost done with my travel log and pictures from our 2 week cruise.  Actually, we are halfway through and today's post takes us to the marvellous island of St. Maarten, but it is at this point in our journey that the trip takes a drastic turn from what we had originally planned!

As we woke up Monday morning, having left San Juan on time the night previous, the Captain of our ship came over the loud speaker inside the room.  This is never a good thing, especially considering the morning announcements are always made in the speakers in the hallway - not in our cabins.  The Captain proceeded to tell us that unfortunately the port side propulsion motor was having issues and we would be docking in St. Maarten FOUR hours later than scheduled.  He then explained that because of this, all excursions booked would be refunded as we would miss those excursions with the delay.  Figures!  This was the one island in week 2 we had booked an excursion. We were hoping to ride these:

Rhino Riders

After Hubby's initial disappointment (I was a little less disappointed since our excursion was to end at "Happy Bay"... a clothing optional beach on the French side of St. Martin), we went up on deck and took a few pictures around the ship as we made our way into St. Maarten mid-afternoon.

Look at the wake trailing the boat... see how it is more on the left side than the right?
That's due to the propulsion problems our ship was experiencing!

Heading into St. Maarten

Once the ship was anchored and tethered to the dock we were able to get off and explore St. Maarten in  what was left of the day.  The captain had come back on the speaker before we left to inform the passengers that engineers were being flown into St. Maarten to assess the damage to the propulsion motor.  We would remained docked in St. Maarten overnight.  

Hubby, Gord, Barb and I walked along the pathway from the port to Great Bay Beach where we spent a short time walking the sandy shore and sticking our toes in the warm water.

Before we knew it, it was time to start walking back to the ship before the sun went down.  

I love me some Palm Trees!!

Where we were "stuck" for the night

One "perk" to our situation that afternoon was we got our first (and best) sunset picture as the Grand Princess set off to their next destination.  Oh to be on a ship going somewhere!

At dinner that night, our first "formal" night of the second week, we began calling our cruise the "Magical Mystery Cruise" as we knew St. Lucia was not our next port (since we'd still be in St. Maarten Tuesday)  It was anyone's guess what the engineers would find and where the ship would head next to catch up on our 5 island itinerary.

Outside our cabin ~ Aloha 725

After dinner, Hubby and I got out of our dressy clothes and put on some comfy clothes and head up on deck to watch "New Year's Eve" on the MUTS screen

Even though our cruise was "stuck" in St. Maarten, we were a-okay.  At least it was a nice place to be stuck for the night!  Tomorrow... we'll explore the island a little more!