The big cruise lines have their own “private” islands in the Caribbean, which generally means they have a very long lease on a sparsely populated one, and have then developed it, spending lots of dollars in the community, so depending on how you see it, it’s probably a good thing. Seabourn is far too small to justify this, but instead often arrange a beach BBQ, using the Carambola Beach Club, perfectly situated a few miles away from the town of Basseterre, capital of St Kitts.
This is visit number six to the island and number three to the beach, so we know the score - whilst the crew are busy preparing the beach bar and kitchen for our arrival, we get some laps done on deck nine.
Unfortunately the heavens open, enough to stop us walking for a while. Of course this has probably caused chaos ashore but they are used to squalls. Nevertheless by about 11:00 we’re clear to go across so drop down to deck three where the tender platform is located and get transferred to the beach.
This beach club can probably cater for a thousand so we’re not really occupying each brolly / sunlounger pair. The staff are already handing out punch and coconut milk (with or without fortification) and before long the champagne is flowing, whilst the surfboard is carefully waded out into the water.
Shortly after midday a RIB comes roaring towards the beach, siren blaring. We know that it’s actually Captain De Boer driving, Cruise Director Jan is riding shotgun with the horn, whilst Chef Christophe is clutching vast quantities of caviar. They land and chef heads over to the infamous surfboard to commence service, whist Captain is left holding the baby! Swimming out to get caviar served from a surfboard is fun at the best of times, add in a bit of swell for even more!
The BBQ lunch is great, we are told they grilled 650 lobsters today, which is a lot for 200 passengers and 330 staff, but quite frankly it doesn’t surprise me, have seen several people in the queue on two or three occasions. Although it’s hard work, most of the staff get some time off today so everyone is having wonderful time, as are the pelicans who dive in for fish right between swimmers if they get in the way!
After lunch we head up the beach as far as we can go, find a few starfish, some locals and watch as Royal Clipper comes into the bay and starts tendering their guests to a different section of beach beyond the club - no jetty, loungers or BBQ for them but at least they have sun, sea and sand.
There’s not much time left for pool and jacuzzi but we manage a while before going home to change for dinner, watching as Brimstone Hill Fortress we visited last year pases by. We eat alfresco at Earth & Ocean so we can enjoy veal pasta and shrimp & pickled peppers / butter chicken curry / tart tatin.
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