Travelin' Fullers Blog: Hello St Thomas!

We docked early this morning in St. Thomas . It seems, to an inexperienced eye, that Charlotte Amalie has not changed in 50 years! It is still awash with hundreds of jewelry and watch shops -- all offerring 60% off! The question you may ask, 60% off of what, a 100% mark up? Probably....

Still there are good deals to be had, if you are a good shopper.

But the piece de resistance of the day was our BOSS underwater tour. BOSS stands for "Breathing Observation Submersible Scooter"! It was a truly wonderful experience! (Think underwater motor scooter!). While the machines have been around for about 14 years, they have been in St. Thomas for 12 years. There are only 5 places in the world where they operate these machines and we were luckly enough to be at one of them! The crew is super professional and very organized. The instructions are clear and concise.. They even had one family of 3 that said they could not swim that went on the excursion. It was a great snorkeling area so while you were waiting to do your BOSS adventure, you could snorkel. We saw a baracuda ( crew called him Fluffy), lots of parrot fish, tons of electric blue fish,spiny sea urchins, lovely corals and a group of 11 squid swimming in a line from largest to smallest. Trey and Annette saw a GIANT Puffer Fish-- the largest they have ever seen. Unfortunately, we do not have a good photo. :(.

The BOSS adventure, however, was so cool. You swim out to the submersible scooter. You have on a flotation vest. At a prearranged signal from one of the escort divers, you dive down and duck into the "helmet" on the scooter. Once inside, and seated, you are breathing air with no problem. You simply press a button that starts your propeller and off you go. You steer ( not easily, it requires some strength) by pushing handles up and down to maneuver left or right. You are following a diver who feeds the fish so there is abundant marine life viewing! The escort divers will gather your group together for an underwater photo of you if you have an underwater camera! ( and thanks to our travel agent, Arlene Feen, we have a GO PRO)! We have several neat underwater photos! Ther are no underwater photos by the excursion so if you want photos, bring your underwater camera!

On the return trip, Grant was hand feeding the sea gulls! Amazing! He would hold a piece of cookie in the air and the birds would swoop in and take it from his fingers!

Gaby and Duffy stayed aboard this morning. Gaby was supposed to go to Kids Camp but ended up staying with Diffy the whole time. We left the ship at 7:30 am but were back by 11:00 am -- in time for lunch aboard and then off to Charlotte Amalie for a nostalgic trip of shopping. We all (Grant, Trey, Bill and I spent many hours in Charlotte Amalie shopping when we would come down and stay with my parents for 2 weeks every January at Caneel Bay.) Fond memories....and little has changed....

Tonight was dinner at the Italian Restaurant and it was delicious! (How could anyone not love Italian?! ). We have custody of a sleeping Gaby while the kids are off for "Latin Night"! Tomorrow they can all sleep in for a sea day!