The one coat of sunscreen we applied had no chance of protecting us on a day like today.
The crystal-clear aquamarine waters swooshing up and down Great Bay Beach here in St Maarten had us in a trance for over three hours.
Nevertheless, pink cheeks were a small price to pay for a fantastic day of fun on a beach the boys dubbed 'slide beach' for the way the waves carried and tumbled them up and down the sand.
We had disembarked our ship in Philipsburg, St Maarten (the Dutch side of this island, shared with the French) and walked around Great Bay past all of the touts renting out umbrellas and seats to a quieter section of the shoreline.
For some of the time, the boys played with two Argentinian children they had made friends with on the ship.
It was incredibly hard to tear ourselves away from here.
But the searing sun, reflecting off the white sand, eventually beat us and we retraced our steps around Great Bay to our ship.
What a gloriously beautiful place.
