Our taxis to the cruise terminal arrived early and indeed the
5 of us – Sue and me, Alison and Derek from Ontario, and Don from California – would
indeed need to pile everyone and everything into two Priuses. We piled luggage
in the backs then Don, Alison and Sue got into one vehicle leaving the other
for Derek and me. He immediately moved the front seat forward as far as it
could go then folded himself into the right back seat, though not nearly as
humorously as a previous “fold Derek into a car” episode that Rick tells better
than anyone else. There was a momentary scare when we learned that each
passenger needed to present either a passport or a driver’s license to enter
the cruise port because Alison had Derek’s passport, but the Canadian presented
his license and the American presented her passport and we were quickly waved
through. We arrived within minutes of each other at the port.
The boarding process went well and was impressively efficient. It turned out that Roy and
Wendy were slightly in front of us, so we got to see them several times as the line
snaked like a Disleyland queue. It would be gloating to say that the look on
Roy’s face was priceless when I hugged Wendy before I hugged him, so I will do
my best to resist the urge.
After boarding, Sue and I
quickly found our room then headed to lunch where we bumped into our friends
from North Carolina who joined us and then we all explored the ship. By the
time we returned to our stateroom our luggage was there. There was a slight
snafu with dinner seating which we resolved for Monday.
Monday was our first “port of call” which was Half Moon Cay
(“key”), the island in the Bahamas that the cruise line owns so it was, as Roy
described it, rather “sanitized” though quite pleasant. Sue and I took the
first tinder, found two geocaches, then returned to the staging area for our scheduled
snorkeling trip. We learned that it had been cancelled so we purchased lockers
to stow our snorkeling gear, then realized we should see if there was another excursion
worth doing. Ah, what about the 10am swim with the sting rays?! At this point
Alison and Derek who had planned on the same snorkeling trip and the North Carolinians
who’d intended to do the 11am swim with the sting rays all decided to join us at
10 and it turned out that we were 6 of the 8 participants.
The sting rays were quite velvety, and there was a small
coral reef in the area so we got to see angelfish, butterfly fish, sergeant
majors, conch (the first time I’d seen them in the wild), sea cucumbers, and a
few other things in addition to the sting rays. Eventually we were called together
and provided 2 pieces of squid to feed to the sting rays. Their “mouths” are essentially
suctions on their bottom side and it was a very interesting sensation to have
the sting ray slurp the squid from our hands. Alas, Sue lost her squid to some zealous
and enterprising fish.
After feeding the sting rays the other women decided to hang
out at the beach while the two men and I walked to the remaining 5 caches on
the island. Since most of the 70 or so people with our group were wearing the
light blue lanyards (ie, ship room key holders), it was easy to recognize our
fellow travelers and fun to greet other cachers, many of whom who we hadn’t yet
met. Half Moon Cay was indeed an enjoyable and successful visit, even though it
feels like we didn’t really see or experience any of the Bahamas while we were
there.
Tuesday morning Don called to invite Sue and me to join him
in the dining room for breakfast before our scheduled visit to Grand Turk
Island in Turks and Caicos. Alas, toward the end of the meal the ship’s captain
came on and let us know that the winds had been sustained at over 30 knots with
gusts to 45 knots….the writing was on the wall that we would not be going and
indeed the rest of the announcement confirmed this and announced we had an
unscheduled extra day at sea. Then the captain turned over the mike to the
cruise director who, as anticipated, informed us of the “extra” activities that
would be added to the schedule for the day.
I decided to make use of the "moving resort" and enjoy any interesting-sounding activities. In that spirit, I joined in the morning trivia game and
invited myself into a group of 6 Canadian geocachers (all from Ontario, I think). I was
fortunate to be sitting with the other major contributors and between us we
made a fine showing. On Wednesday one of the team members asked me why I hadn’t
joined them for a later trivia activity, thus confirming that I had indeed been
welcome and a contributor, and they weren’t just being polite.
Following a quick lunch I meandered over to the party bridge
session and played for the first time in about 20 years (no, that’s not an
exaggeration). There was 1 person waiting when I arrived and we ended up being
partners, playing against a woman who I later learned was a bridge instructor
and she had less critical to say of my bidding and play than she did of her
partners (she had 2 during our game). I was rusty and noticed some of my
errors, though pleased that apparently my bridge “muscle memory” still mostly
works. After bridge I was going to get some exercise but Sue and I decided walking on the wet deck while it was raining wasn't entirely necessary so I went to plan B which was to go from deck 3 to deck 14 by taking a flight of stairs, walking around a bit, taking the next flight of stairs, repeat when I heard Don's voice, thus creating (and enacting) plan C which was a delightful discussion on a covered section by the pool which sounded like a beach as the boat continued to rock a bit causing the pool to make waves that lapped against the sides.
After a tasty dinner I attended a talk about Caribbean beach and sea life which, alas, was not the highlight of the day. On the plus side I know not to waste more time listening to that particular speaker.
All in all a fine way to "make lemonade" with the lemon of not getting to experience Grand Turk.
Today’s visit to Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic (which
did indeed happen as scheduled) will need to wait for another entry.
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