Crazies on the Water

In my Caribbean Cruise guide book, St. Thomas is listed as the "busiest cruise port of call in the world" yet, during our entire cruise, I saw only one other "cruise" ship, and it wasn't even in St. Thomas.  We were the only ship in port everywhere we went, even in San Juan, except in St. Kitts.  I didn't recognize this ship or line, thinking it must be one of those small ones that is so exclusive that I couldn't afford it in two lifetimes.

Turns out it's not for rich people, it's for Scientologists:

The Church of Scientology Flag Ship Service Organization ministers the highest levels of religious services, as well as other select services to help one on his route to Operating Thetan (OT). 

The Flag Ship Service Organization (FSSO) is a unique church of Scientology which is located aboard the Motor Vessel Freewinds, a 440-foot ship based in the Caribbean, with the home port of Curaçao. The ship was acquired in the mid-1980s shortly before the release of the highest advanced auditing level currently available, New OT VIII.

Needing a safe, aesthetic, distraction-free environment appropriate for ministration of this profoundly spiritual level of auditing, this church of Scientology returned to the sea, far from the crossroads of the workaday world. And while the Flag Service Organization ministers the highest levels of training and auditing from the bottom of The Bridge up to New OT VII, the most advanced OT level—OT VIII—is entrusted exclusively to the FSSO.