By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises
Welcome aboard to guests joining us here in Puerto Rico. And arrivederci to those heading home.
We head out of bustling San Juan tonight for a week-long loop down to Barbados and back, down the length of the Leeward Islands of the West Indies.
The Leeward Islands (pronounced LEW-word by most mariners, and LEE-word by landlubbers) are the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles chain. The group starts east of Puerto Rico and reach south to Dominica, and also mark the arbitrary line where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean.
Below Dominica, the Lesser Antilles continue into the Windward Islands. We will dip below Dominica to call at two of these islands, St. Lucia and Antigua, before returning to San Juan.
In the West Indies, the prevailing winds–known as the trade winds–blow from the northeast to the southwest. The windward islands were those closer to the direction of the winds.
Our ship, the appropriately named Silver Wind, sets out first for Gustavia on the French island of Saint Bart’s and after then to Roseau in Dominica (not to be confused with the much-larger Dominican Republic on the island of Hispaniola.)
After then to former British colonies of St. Lucia, Antigua, and Tortola.
I’ll be posting from each of our ports of call. Here’s our plan:
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