Wednesday 3rd February

St Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Today we're in St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. It's a pretty enough place, but the main reason for it being a stopping point for cruise ships is its duty-free shopping. If you're not bothered about that then it's not exactly the sort of place you'd think of returning to.

Its economy is all about tourism, and its taxi drivers keep calling visitors 'VIPs' and urging you to speak well of the island when you get home. When you've become used to the incredibly cheerful and polite staff on a cruise ship that's a hard standard to match, but in general the locals here do their country proud with their friendliness.

It's an odd mixture of Britain and America. They drive on the left and there are few American accents to be heard anywhere - you'd think you were in a Commonwealth country if it wasn't for all the Stars and Stripes flying everywhere and the fact that you pay for everything in US dollars.

This morning we had a three hour trip on a 'safari bus' around the eastern end of the island. It was a good way to get a feel for the place even if it was mainly a series of photo opportunities from high ground down to sunlit bays. At the start of the tour the driver made the mistake of speaking harshly to one of the passengers who wasn't as physically able as the rest of us and who was taking, he thought, too long to board. By the first stop ten minutes later it seemed to have dawned on him that this wouldn't be good for his tips, so he started to fawn over her at each stop. To late for us, I'm afraid - resolutely no tip from us. The funny thing was that as we were queuing to get back through the fencing into the restricted area around the ship he reverted to type and started shouting at everyone to get out of the road. That's the sort of impression that gets back home quickest, I'm afraid.

After lunch back on the Constellation we set off again, by taxi, to Morningstar Bay, a beach about a ten minute drive from the ship where we spent a couple of hours reading and swimming - Gill - or paddling - me :o)

According to this afternoon's cabbie, the world's largest cruise ship, The Oasis of the Seas, was in St Thomas yesterday, so maybe we'll cross paths with her at some point in the next ten days. The Constellation's passenger capacity is about 2,000 with up to 900 people working aboard. The 'Oasis' carries over 6,000 passengers and over 2,000 crew – scarcely  comprehensible!

But even the size of even the (now) medium-sized cruise ships is remarkable. Remember The Bismarck? That was a big 'un, wasn't it? Fully laden its displacement was 51,000 tonnes. Even the Constellation displaces nearly twice as much at 91,000 tonnes! I've looked up the

'Oasis' on Wikipedia - its displacement is 225,000 tonnes! That's probably more than Germany's whole WW2 capital fleet!