7 sleeps to go

Clothes are on rails ready for packing. Or swapping out when others are thought to be better. Wide range of weather expected so lots of options needed. TSH has got the wrist bands out. Diva has found the Stugeron. Nearly good to go. Excitement mounting.

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Last few days

The last port of brief call was Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands. The authorities have created an almost Disney style secure area around the cruise pier. It has air-conditioned shops selling souvenirs and beach clothing, as well as secure beaches and many bars and restaurants. Beyond the security fence, Diva caught a glimpse of one of the island’s wild horses.  As Silver Spirit left in the early afternoon, Princess cruises ‘Royal Princess’ arrived to take its place.

One of the lecturers on board Silver Spirit is Ernie Rea, ex-Head of Religious Affairs for the BBC. He is, as would be expected, an excellent presenter, with first-class visuals. Far better than many ship lecturers. He has spoken about Rastafarianism, the Cuban crisis and the Jones cult religious suicide/massacre in Guyana (1978).

The last afternoon saw a special Trivia session for the Circlers. It was like an exam with everyone working alone. The subject matter was all connected with the cruise. TSH and Diva did not do well but the winner was given an iPad.

Arrival in Fort Lauderdale was shambolic. Disembarkation was delayed by an IT fault in immigration and queues were long and badly organised, with some guests managing to just turn up and miss the queue. It took a long time to process each person and one queue was delayed by problems in taking any fingerprints at all from one Swiss woman. Queue start to getting on the transfer vehicle was 1 hour 30 minutes for TSH and Diva.

But the Silver Spirit new propeller blade arrived for fitting by engineer-divers.

This has been an amazingly successful cruise. Highlights were scenery in Peru and Chile (especially the extreme south), pre-Columbian museum in Lima, king penguins in the Falklands and both the sail-in and Carnival in Rio.

TSH and Diva could do this length (or more) again if the itinerary was right. They are currently in the Pullman Hotel waiting to go to Miami airport for the 22:00 flight. So this blog sector ends. To the next!!

To sea in a flat-bottomed boat

On the day at sea, the Circlers were treated to a French-style meal by the French chefs on board. The food was excellent – pate de fois gras with a kind of gingerbread, fish cooked simply in butter, duck with mixed mushrooms and potatoes cooked in duck fat, St Honore dessert. Everything was excellent but Diva likes her duck well-cooked rather than pink. The Captain attended and gave a speech and the Circlers toasted the crew.

On arrival at Samana, the substitute port in Dominican Republic (the original was said to be too difficult for the tender as there is often a bad swell), TSH and Diva stepped directly from Silver Spirit onto the whale-watching boat. They found out later that it was a catamaran and in the light of what they saw later it was the safest option in the area for whale-watching. It did not seem very safe to Diva, who set an early objective of the two of them returning to Silver Spirit alive.

The guide was very proud that this was ‘a local boat’ – it was flat inside and low in the water so that swell and waves often drenched the passengers. Early in the voyage, life jackets were taken out of store and when they had eventually been disentangled, they were handed out ‘for safety’. So this was officially an exciting and risky adventure. The nature of the ride can be best demonstrated by the fact that a number of people were sea sick – not Diva and TSH.

It was a long time before any whales were spotted and seeing them was quite difficult. They appeared briefly and then swam underwater to somewhere else. So all the boats in the area racing towards the spot seemed not to be a sensible thing to do. The other boats were less stable, less substantial and one of them almost collided with the Silver Spirit expedition. There were, however, some good sightings and some passengers (including TSH) saw a number of whales almost completely out of the water. Eventually most people saw whales but this was only after they had been chased by the whale watching boats (not really allowed), the outing had overrun by more than an hour and most guests were more than ready for the stability and comfort of the cruise ship.

Readers will be happy that the objective was met and TSH and Diva both returned alive.

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Besquia

Lizard at Besquia

Besquia

Silver Spirit, a large cruise ship and bananas

Booby

Flying fish

Curacao

Aloe vera at Aruba

Butterfly in Aruba

Dutch Antilles

Willemstead, Curacao is the most prosperous place visited for many days. There are large offices for companies like PWC and Deloittes and the town centre is mostly renovated. Many of the buildings are brightly painted, giving the town the atmosphere of a Scandinavian port.

TSH and Diva did an early morning trolley train tour, leaving Silver Spirit at 7:30. This early start was because the trolley was booked for the rest of the day by a large cruise ship – Caribbean Princess (Princess cruises). When the tour finished in the middle of the morning, they walked around the town and then back across the pontoon bridge to the ship for brunch. This was easily the biggest breakfast-time meal either of them had eaten during the entire voyage. Crisps (Diva) and ice-cream (TSH) for lunch.

In Oranjestad, Aruba, TSH and Diva went to an Aloe Vera factory (harvesting, manufacture and packing), a butterfly farm (many large butterflies and a knowledgeable person to explain the life cycle), followed by some rock formations, the most dramatic (and heavily advertised) of which collapsed a few years ago. They saw some of the island, which normally has little rainfall and is desert-like in some places. Diva saw a large lizard on the driveway of a house.

However, this was an interesting tour on another island which looks quite prosperous and is very welcoming to tourists. But the guide, who was otherwise quite competent, acted as though she was organising a primary school outing. She tried hard to get the (oh so bored, sophisticated and wordly) Silversea guests to chant local phrases one syllable at a time. This attempt was a total failure. When it was time to get off the bus at any time, she announced that either right of left side had priority and could get off first. Normally, Silversea guests manage to exit a bus one row at a time from the front, alternating right and left with no apparent trouble.

TSH and Diva took a short walk in the afternoon but it was so hot that it was impossible to get beyond the shops just outside the port. These were either international designer brands or very cheap souvenir shops, with hardly anything in between.

There is an interesting feature on the tourist map of Aruba. The crashed plane in the sea at the end of the runway is prominently marked.

Other cruise ships in Aruba: Caribbean Princess (Princess cruises) and Adventure of the Seas (Royal Caribbean).

Diva denied

On the morning of the problems with Invader, TSH and Diva met Captain Arma and thanked him for keeping everybody safe and well informed. He looked pleased but proceeded to give them both a telling off because they were going ashore without hats. He expects his guests to look after themselves as well as he does. But they both have thick hair and he is almost bald!!

Grenada is a port well geared to tourists. An air-conditioned mall with shops just by the port with prices in USD. No need to take a tour, as TSH and Diva have been on a previous occasion to the waterfalls and the nutmeg factory. Diva decided to buy some jewellery and as the USD supply is running low, offered her credit card at the till. ‘Please input your PIN’. ‘PIN? I need a PIN?’ Diva has not needed to use a card for almost two months and has forgotten her PIN or even that she has one. Is this a sign of the regular humiliations to come when she returns to the UK and has forgotten everything about normal life? And this day of reckoning looms ever closer. TSH came to the rescue with his card, feeling smug because he knows his PIN. But he had to return to the Silver Spirit for his card, as Diva’s card was to be used that day. And now her card is useless for the rest of the journey!

Tomorrow is the day when Bonaire has been cancelled because of the Silver Spirit propeller problem. So another restful sea day.

Other cruise ships in Grenada: Royal Caribbean Splendour of the Seas. And a Geest banana boat set sail for the UK.