The one that got away...

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Green and blue waters
Went fishing in St. Maarten
Caught some fish…release.

Today’s port of call is Philipsburg, St. Maarten. We started our morning by eating. Did you expect me to say that we started off the day by jogging 3 miles on the deck? Haha

So we started with a buffet breakfast at the Windjammer. Having breakfast in the Windjammer always reminds me that I love me the breakfast! They have such a wide selection starting with a bunch of different fruit like cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, grapes, apples and bananas. Then it is onto the heartier foods like the breads, buns, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, French toast, pancakes, pastries and baked goods, hash browns and the toasted bread that you can request such as bagels or toast. There is also a section where you can pick out one of your favourite cereals, muesli, yoghurt and juices. And last but not least is Laura’s favourite the made to order omelet bar! Of course it is not possible to eat it all but it doesn’t hurt to try. Haha

Okay, after describing the extensive selection of food available for breakfast you’d think we’d be there until lunch. But I’m happy to report we were probably there for less than half an hour and then back to our room to prep for our afternoon of fishing on the Caribbean Sea.

Sunblock. Check.
Towel. Check.
Water. Check.
Seapass. Check.

Okay now we’re all set to go on a fishing adventure! So we head down to the first deck and disembark and wait outside where it proceeds to rain! But that is okay. We’re in the Caribbean. It’s nice and hot and humid here. A little rain won’t hurt us. Hmm, these rain drops are getting big! Hey, is the rain falling at a 45 degree angle? Or is it just me? The rains didn’t last very long and the sun was shining full time after about 10 or 15 minutes. There were only eleven of us on tour yet we had this huge bus that could accommodate 40 or more passengers. We’re all settled into our seats and our tour guide tells us, it is quite a drive to the dock so sit back and relax and enjoy the scenery as we make our way to the dock. In less than two minutes our bus was making a left turn. Hey, we’re at the dock already. LOL

Our boat went out for about 25 minutes before we stopped so that we could drop our bait into the water. On our first stop nobody got a bite so we all pulled up our lines and floated around and moved to another area. That’s when we all started to get some bites. I ended up with three catches. Alice with two and Laura caught two as well. We couldn’t bring them back to our ship and they were kind of on the small side so we basically caught the fish. Took our pictures and then released the fish back into the water. It was pretty exhilarating when you felt a bite on your line. But there were quite a few times where you’d feel a tug and then nothing…hmm, I think my bait was just stolen!

On our third stop I didn’t get any real bites. I just had a lot of bait being stolen by those greedy fishies. Then at one point I asked Laura to hold my rod while I took a picture of someone else’s needle nose fish that they had just caught. Hey, can you take your rod back? I’ve got a bite! We were in deeper waters so Laura had a lot of line to reel back up. Oh my god! She caught a shark! It was almost at the surface (three feet in length) when the line snapped! The line we were using was not strong enough to reel in a shark. But it was all so exciting! It happened so fast I was unable to capture the moment in a picture. Oh well!

Christie acquired some tickets for us to see the Ice Skating performance. Overall it was okay. There were some pretty cheesy bits in there but some good ones as well. Oh well, all in the name of entertainment. Haha Laura said that it was pretty much the same performance that she saw when she was onboard the ship last October. I guess they don’t have the time, energy and budget to update the show.

We had dinner again at the Windjammer tonight. But it was a “lighter” dinner since we were all anticipating the poolside midnight buffet that would be happening tonight. In the end, I just walked around and look at all of the food on offer and didn’t grab anything to eat. The midnight buffet was only on for about an hour. They had a band playing and some dancing and of course a lot of food and drinks on offer. Christie said that it seemed a little quieter than other weeks. That sounded strange to me since all of the cabins on the ship are full and there are about 3400 passengers on board. Then we thought about it and realized that there are actually a lot of families on board so they were probably all sleeping! Lol

Alice had her heart set on having a drink from a pineapple so Christie got her one. Hey Christie, are you sure that drink is non-alcoholic? Alice just seemed super happy while drinking from her pineapple. It was cute.

After the buffet I pretty much went to bed while those guys stayed up to watch movies.

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