The two closest beaches to the ship in St. Croix are Rainbow Beach and Sandcastle Beach. Since we went to Sandcastle last time we wanted to check out Rainbow this trip. Reviews said it gets crowded pretty early. They were right. There were shuttles to both beaches ($6 round trip) and plenty of people were lining up to take them. We were at the beach by 10:30 and it was already getting crowded. In fact, by noon there were no more chairs to be had. Glad we got there when we did.

For a Caribbean beach it was so strange to see the waves crashing on the shore. One minute it looked as flat and calm as a pool. A few minutes later a wind gust would appear out of nowhere and the waves started building. The undertow was pretty strong too. People were having all kinds of issues getting in and out of the water. Bob never did get in but I had to get my floating salt water fix so I braved the waves and bobbed for a little while. I will have to say it was pretty cool seeing people having issues getting back to shore because of the strong current and others jumping right in to assist them.

The beach was starting to clear out by 1:00ish and by the time we were leaving around 2:00 the beach guys were putting chairs away and taking down umbrellas. We were the only ship at the pier today which made the beach way less crowded than it would’ve been. I can’t imagine how much worse it would’ve been with two or three ships in port.

Back on the ship we got cleaned up and hung out on the sunset set deck, talked with other passengers, listened to some music, enjoyed the sail away and ate gyros from the buffet for dinner.

Tonight’s show was a combo of magic and comedy – Chad Chesmark. He was just okay. Not on the same level of some others we’ve seen.

Tomorrow Antigua …