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.