Saturday-Wednesday, 18-22 December 1999: Seabourn Sea Goddess I:
St. Barthélemy, Antilles Françaises (St. Barth, French West Indies);
Virgin Gorda and Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands
A. The Ship: Seabourn Sea Goddess I
Saturday at Havensight in St. Thomas we boarded the Seabourn Sea Goddess I to cruise 4 days to the French island of St. Barthélemy and to Virgin Gorda and Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands, and finally back to St. Thomas. Embarkation procedures in St. Thomas proceeded very smoothly. The ship collected our passports to ease immigration formalities on the cruise. We also carried photocopies of our passports to be safe. Then we walked to Havensight Mall for a few final purchases before our ship sailed.
Ship Statistics:
Completed: 1984, Wartsila Shipyard, Helsinki, Finland
Gross: 4253 tons; Net: 1277 tons; Average speed: 15 knots
Length: 107 meters (350 feet); Beam: 14.3 meters (47 feet); Draft: 4.3 meters (14 feet)
Port of Registry: Naussau; Flag: Bahamas
Crew: 89
Passenger Capacity: 116; Decks: 6; Suites: 58
Captain: Tor Muller
Chief Engineer: Frans Hansen
Chief Officer: Morten A. Hansen
Hotel Manager: Jonathan Norton
Chief Purser: Duncan Ross
Doctor: Aleksander Falinski
Maître d'Hôtel: James Lochhead
Chef de Cuisine: Peter Schlapfer
Social Director: Denise Leafe
Sea Goddess I is one of the finest cruise ships afloat, and it is more like a large luxury yacht. It epitomizes the good life people dream about on a cruise, and of course it is expensive, but well worth it for our 20th anniversary. The Sea Goddess I has a small capacity of 116 passengers, but only 71 were aboard, plus 89 crew members. The ship was luxurious and catered to our every whim. The meals were the equivalent of the finest French restaurants on land. The interiors of the ship have an understated elegance, with fine woods, fabrics, marble and brass trim.
The all-inclusive nature of the cruise -- drinks, tips and some tours -- was a great attraction. This underscores the fact that people on vacation don't like to be bothered with extra expenses, even when they can afford them. Quite simply, the Sea Goddesses I & II were intended to provide some of the most luxurious vacations at sea. About a month before our cruise, we received a box with a leather passport case, luggage tags and a personal preference request form in which we could specify our preference of 2 bottles of spirits.
All cabins on the 4 passenger decks are outside suites of identical size, although several can be joined in pairs as double suites. These cabins are most comfortable, with ample drawer space and a full-length closet. The sleeping area is next to the large picture window, and contains 1 Queen bed or 2 twin beds. This is divided by a curtain from a lounge area, which contains a sofa, chair and coffee table. The cabins have a full but small bathroom with tub and shower, and well stocked with toiletries, towels and terry-cloth robes. Our cabin stewardess, Malin from Sweden, was very friendly and efficient.
The Dining Salon on Deck 2 has one open seating each for all 3 meals of the day. Passengers may dine at different tables at every meal if they so wish. Generally breakfast was served from 7:30 to 9:30 AM, lunch from 12:30 to 2:00 PM and dinner from 8:00 to 10:00 PM. Two selections of wine are included every evening. The menu selections are outstanding, and it was difficult to decide what not to order. One evening we enjoyed the Gâteau Chaud au Chocolate dessert so much that we requested it again the next evening, even though it was not on the menu. Our waiter Zoltán was superb, and helped me practice my entire 10-word Hungarian vocabulary (köszönöm = thank you, Magyar = Hungarian, etc.). Breakfast and lunch buffets are also served at the Outdoor Café on Deck 5. Or, if one wishes, full meals can be served course by course in one's cabin at any time of the day or night. The service was incredible, and almost every request can be fulfilled. The dining and cabin staff are mostly young Europeans, all of whom speak excellent English, although it was fun to practice my French, German and Spanish with them too.
The activities and entertainment are almost nil. About the only scheduled events were morning exercises and meetings, and evening cocktails and drinks in the Main Salon on Deck 3 next to the Reception area. Deck 4 also has a Piano Bar, a small Casino (table games and slot machines only) and a small but well-stock library. Deck 5 included the Outdoor Café, Gymnasium, Beauty and Massage Salons and Doctor. In a way, we were disappointed at the lack of planned activities, which have been great ways to meet other passengers on other cruise lines. However, we found more than enough to do on our own, and many passengers prefer the lack of schedules. Another absent feature was a ship's photographer, although we certainly did not miss it.
Again we timed our cruise perfectly because their next cruise was chock full for the Millennium celebration, and we got a discount for this cruise. We also enjoyed romantic moonlit evenings at sea, with the Moon between first quarter and full, and at its brightest in years due to its orbital alignment. The Full Moon coincided with its perigee, or closest approach to Earth, on 22 December, and this nearly coincided with the Earth at its perigee, or closest approach to the Sun (late December or early January). This would culminate in supposedly the brightest full Moon in more than a century, but the combination is not as rare as some people have thought. Sky and Telescope magazine reported that approximately the same alignment happened in December 1991 and in December 1980. Nonetheless it was an extremely bright full Moon, and in the Caribbean Sea at night, the Moon suffused the clouds, islands and sea with a romantic glow all the way to the horizon.
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The small size of the ship is a great advantage. With a small number of passengers, sometimes outnumbered by the crew, highly personalized service is assured. Most passengers soon develop a natural rapport, and it is easy to meet almost everyone. About 3/4 of the passengers on this cruise were from Canada and the United States, and the rest were from France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom etc. Ages generally ranged from about the mid 30s to the mid 70s, with only a few outside this range. Most of the other passengers on our cruise were very friendly and interesting, affluent but not pretentious. About 20 of them were from a family of wealthy cattle barons in west Texas who also have some holdings in the oil industry. They were a fascinating and friendly lot, and we had great fun together. Also aboard were some wheeler-dealers from the film industry in California and some movers and shakers from the corporate world in New York. They were also interesting and friendly. It was amusing to hear some of them talk animatedly about their great business deals. When asked about my work, I replied that my boss takes care of the business aspects. I'm simply a chemical engineer and computer engineer who makes manufacturing processes run smoothly, and in return my boss takes good care of me. I must be doing something right. Several passengers were excited to learn that Denise was an author, with the first in a series of mysteries due in July 2000.
In contrast, we also encountered a couple whom we dubbed Mr. & Mrs. Snob. They would have nothing to do with us, perhaps because we were Midwesterners from Illinois, and therefore 'obviously' uncultured. A few days into the cruise it was hilarious to see Mr. & Mrs. Snobs' jaws drop and eyes open wide when I suddenly began to speak French with a family from France aboard the ship, and later German with the hoards of tourists from Germany on the British Virgin Islands. Apparently we must have risen in Mr. & Mrs. Snobs' estimation because they suddenly became very friendly to us. Très curieux. However, we emphasize that most passengers were warm and friendly.
As an amateur linguist I love to mingle with people and absorb other cultures, be it in Europe, South America, Australia or right here in North America. It's my idea of fun. I even use the correct accents when I write auf Deutsch, en français or en español. Few tourists might thoroughly immerse themselves like this, but I have always found it fun to study other histories, cultures and languages. It must be the engineer in me. I love to learn.
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St. Barthélemy, Antilles Françaises (St. Barth, French West Indies);
Virgin Gorda and Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands
Gustavia, St. Barthélemy
St. Barthélemy is a Dependency of the French Overseas Department of Guadaloupe. It has an area of 21 square kilometres (8 square miles) and a population of 5000. Gustavia is the capital of the island. St. Barthélemy was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1493 and named for his brother Bartholomeo. The island was colonized in 1656 and again in 1694 by French settlers from Brittany and Normandy. In 1784 France traded the island to King Gustav of Sweden in exchange for trading rights at Göteborg. This became the only possession Sweden ever had in the Caribbean Sea. The King named the capital Gustavia after himself, built 3 forts and developed the island into a prosperous free port. Unfortunately in the mid 19th Century a series of earthquakes, fires and hurricanes devastated the island. In 1878 France repurchased the island and it remains a free port. Unlike most other Caribbean islands, St. Barthélemy was unsuitable for plantations and thus never had a slave population. Thus the population is almost entirely of French and Swedish descent. French is the official language, although many people also speak English. Once again it was good to practice my French with some locals.
St. Barthélemy has avoided the overdevelopment found on many other Caribbean islands, and that remains its primary attraction. The general atmosphere is quiet and casual, with little of the hectic shopping and nightlife of other Caribbean islands. It is also a duty-free port, and offers good buys on many luxury items. Gustavia is a charming small city which occupies the 3 sides of its small harbour, and we simply explored the streets for most of that Sunday afternoon. The harbour was filled with many interesting yachts from other islands and the United States. This was our 2nd visit to St. Barthélemy, and we had explored most of the rest of the island on that stop.
The British Virgin Islands are a Territory of the British Commonwealth. Their area is 153 square kilometres (59 square miles) and population is 16,640. The British Virgin Islands have some of the finest resorts in the Caribbean sea, and are perhaps the most popular boating and yachting destination. Tortola is the largest of the British Virgin Islands, which we had visited in January 1996 via the Norwegian Cruise Lines ship Windward. On Monday we stopped instead at Virgin Gorda, the 2nd-largest island. The main settlement is Spanish Town, and the scenery at the South End of the island is dramatic with countless granite outcrops. |
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