THE CARIBBEAN SEA

From our eighth deck balcony on the Norwegian Pearl we marvelled at the vastness of the sea, a straight uninterrupted horizon, and the colour BLUE. From the heights of the heavens to the depths of the sea, a painter's palette of blue morphs from cerulean, cobalt, azure to turquoise as over eleven days we sail into the southern Caribbean Sea.

Throughout our voyage I was often reminded of old hymns which use the metaphor of the ocean to describe attributes of God:
"There's a wideness in God's mercy like the wideness of the sea."  "Oh the deep deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless free! Rolling as a mighty ocean in it's fullness over me."
From The Love of God by Fredrick Lehmann written in 1917, " Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made. Were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade: To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry, Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky."

After two days at sea landforms appeared and we gently explored the islands of Aruba, Curacao, St Lucia, St Kitts, and St Thomas.

 Marigot Bay in St Lucia where the movie 'Dr. Dolittle' was filmed in 1967.

The Pitons, two volcanic spires that rise over 2000 feet on the shores of St. Lucia.

The island of St Kitts was well protected by the Brimstone Hill Fortress, a UNESCO World Heritage Site dating back to the 17th and 18th century, built with African slave labour.

Timothy Hill on the island of St Kitts overlooks the peninsula that divides the Atlantic ocean to the left and the Caribbean Sea to the right.

Frigate Bay on St Kitts

Megan Bay on St Thomas US Virgin Island, with claims to being one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Attractively hued and alluringly calm.

A palette of Blue

Of course the sea was not only marvelled at from a distance, but tasted and embraced in it's buoyancy as we floated, swam and snorkeled. A wonderful 25 degrees C.

Sand as fine as sugar.

At the end of each day, our minds full of the beauty of the sea, the sun would fall below the horizon turning the waters an inky black.