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An inauspicious journey from Antigua to Sint Maarten. In bed after dinner and a show, and about 11pm the cabin tannoy comes on...that is not normal. And happened the last time we were in Antigua. This time, a 'man overboard' call was given on the starboard side. As we were on the port side, we wandered up to deck 16 to see what we could. There were four lights in the water and a flare that must've been thrown in to mark the site, as we turned in a hard circle around them with the search lights on. On the other side of deck 16, someone was led away by security whilst the tannoy asked for a passenger to make themselves known to crew. Shortly thereafter, we had the general alarm sounded - the first time we've ever heard it in anger. But we were told life jackets were not needed - we were effectively heading to the muster station for a roll call. Our Muster Station is actually the pub! It took until after midnight to account for everyone, but a big cheer went up when the captain announced all guests were accounted for and clearly the call to the bridge had been a false alarm.

Into Sint Maarten today, we explored the shore excursions but the most interesting one - a hike - we were pretty sure we could do ourselves. We docked early despite the eventful night, alongside our sister ship the Enchanted Princess. We walked through factories and houses to the trail head to hike along the eastern coast of the island. It was a beautiful walk on a reasonably clear path that we had all to ourselves for the most part. We saw lizards, goats, cacti, and lots of butterflies, as the clouds did a reasonable job of hiding us from the sun. We walked back the way we came and by 10am, the sun was scorching so we were glad to be rounding off. We did see a hermit crab just as we finished the walk too!Читать далее