We visited the island of St.Martin/St. Maarten on our third and seventh cruise to the Caribbean, which also included stops at St. Barthelemy, Guadeloupe, St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John. St. Martin/St. Maarten is jointly administered by France and the Netherlands. St. Maarten, the Southern Dutch portion of the island, is more developed than French portion, St. Martin. We took a taxi tour around the whole island. There are many beautiful and pristine beaches, including Dawn, Cupecoy, and Orient beaches. The shopping on this island is excellent. St. Maarten seems to cater to American tourists. All signs are written in English, rather than in Dutch. By contrast, in St. Martin most signs are written in French. St. Maarten/St. Martin is a lovely island, well worth a visit.

We went on our first cruise in the month of October 1990, in the aftermath of a small hurricane. St. Maarten/St. Martin was on the itinerary. However, due to rough seas and the fact that Philipsburg, St. Maarten did not have a deep-water dock, the captain decided to bypass St. Maarten/St. Martin and continue on to St. Thomas, USVI. The waters were too rough for the small ship tenders that would have had to ferry the passengers to and from the island. Four years later, we took another Caribbean cruise in the month of April. The weather and seas were relatively calm on this trip, and we were finally able to visit St. Maarten/St. Martin.

After shopping in the morning in Philipsburg, St. Maarten, we went back aboard the ship to eat lunch. We were sitting with a couple from New York state with whom we had become acquainted earlier on the trip. Knowing that we were from California, our new friends asked us what it was like to be in an earthquake. We related our experiences in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Then, suddenly, the ship shook violently. We said to our New York friends, "that's exactly what an earthquake feels like." We figured the crew had started the ship's engines momentarily, which were located directly below the dining room. After lunch, we went back ashore. We found out from the shopkeepers that the shaking we felt really was a magnitude 5.3 earthquake. Our New York friends said we brought the earthquakes with us from California.