Last Full Day on the Princess

We really slept late today. We didn’t even get upstairs for breakfast until 10:30.

After breakfast, we decided to do the bingo thing again. We bought our cards, joined a very nice lady named Pat from Ohio, and played. No, we still didn’t win anything. Oh, Well.

Rob went back up on the top deck to see if he could get pictures of Cuba. He managed to get a little bit of low mountains on the horizon, smokestacks, some kind of tower, and a container ship. He noted the coordinates to look them up late on Google Earth. (21 deg. 53.70’ N, 77 deg. 8.05’ W) We were somewhere between Cayo Cabinal and Puerto Manati, Cuba. (Rob: Ha! Ha! Fidel! We spy on you and get pictures of your country. We just humble citizens -- not even CIA. Bwahahaha!)

Afterwards, we did the evening Bingo again and Rob got within one number of the $2250.00 prize! The game was blackout, where one has to fill an entire card. After waiting through four balls for I-17, someone else won. Oh, well!

We went back to the cabin again, got some sun before it set, went to dinner, and then went to bed.

Tomorrow we leave the boat for Miami and maybe home. Northwest, our return airline, has a history of delaying Rob's return trip. With "luck" we will be able to turn it into a few more days in Miami before returning. If not, we'll be home by Tuesday evening.

At Sea, Last Formal Night

We slept late and didn’t have breakfast until almost 10 am.

We strolled down to the Fusion Lounge and picked up some bingo card sets. I (Connie) haven’t played since I can’t remember when. Rob had to remind me of the different kinds of games. They don’t just play a line of five anymore. We did several different patterns and then finished with a “cover all”. Interesting. No, we didn’t win anything. But we had a lot of fun.

We decided that if we wanted to get in a pool or see any sun time we would have to go aft to the adults-only Terrace Pool. There was room on the bleacher-like benches next to the pool for me to sun and Rob was in the pool with only two other people. It’s much nicer than trying to fight your way into the big pool and much easier to find a place to sit and sun.

We eventually had lunch around 3:00 pm, and went to the cabin to enjoy the patio for a while. We later went down to deck 7 and watched the flying fish scatter from the bow of the ship.

At 3:15, we went to the Wheelhouse Lounge to hear a lecture from the ship’s navigator. He spoke of all the different control surfaces of the ship, the instruments they use to steer a course, and the engines and thrusters that move it sideways, backwards and forwards. I was a little tired by this time and fell asleep. Rob was asking some technical questions. He got answers for them too, but then was asked to keep it simpler for the benefit of the rest of the passengers. I expect that if they had let him, he would have been up on the bridge checking out everything. Sadly, this is not allowed.

Once back in our room, Suriyan (our cabin steward) had done his usual good job of turning down the sheets, leaving the chocolate, and dumping a bunch of forms for us to fill out. He said that if he got all 18 of his cabins to fill out the survey by dinnertime he would get New Year’s Day off. We filled them out right away.

We also started sorting out the debarkation papers he had left, and came across a problem with the airport transfers. It looks like we might have missed getting our shuttle boarding passes, although the luggage tag colors clearly indicate that we should have seats on the shuttle.

Well, we will have to wait until tomorrow to check with the tour desk. They’re closed until 10:00 am.

We finally had to get ready for the last formal night. I will be sad not seeing the same people for dinner tomorrow. They managed to get reservations in the Crown Grill (difficult to do) and won’t be joining us for the last night. We did take pictures of everyone, exchanged addresses, hassled Anatolyi (sp?), our waiter, and generally did our best to get ready for the inevitable….debarkation.

We stopped in the casino on the way back to the cabin. I won about as much as I lost. Rob was playing blackjack. ‘Nough said?

Rob went out on the upper decks to watch Guantanamo Bay go by. It was all lit up like daylight. The rest of the island was darker than night. He couldn’t see a whole lot. He thought maybe no one wanted us to. After watching it drift behind it, a storm started coming in so he came back to the cabin to turn in.

Well, tomorrow is another day at sea. We will “sea” everyone soon!

Curacao, Dutch Antilles

We saw Curacao today. Our ship came in at about 8:00 in the morning and we took a stroll around Willemstad. The town is really beautiful. All the houses are painted in pastel colors. This is the first stop where Rob didn't dive. He tried, but the dive shop kept coming up with excuses not to commit to the booking. Oh well, at 6:00 a.m., when Rob discovered he had a bit of an ear infection (ouch), he finally surrendered and sent them an e-mail stopping the whole procedure. That was that.

The walk around town alternated between 85 degree heat and cold soaking rain. At first, refreshing but then just wet, wet, wet. I managed to find a replacement UV filter for my camera that I broke in Grenada. Rob finally managed to mail a letter we had been carrying since before we left from Madison. It was a thank you note for an elementary teacher who had done an interview for one of Rob's assignments. She teaches fifth grade at Kennedy Elementary in Janesville. Rob will be her Junior Achievement volunteer come March. It will be interesting to find out her response to getting a letter with both US and Dutch stamps on it, mailed from Curacao.

We also picked up some postcards to mail home. This led to a series of phone calls and some missed opportunities resulting in a mad dash to a post box before they hauled up the gang plank on the Princess. Cora and Josie's card got the wrong house number (sorry) even though Rob's dad gave him the right one. Unfortunately, Rob left it on the ship just before we went on the afternoon tour and there was no time to go back aboard to get it.

The tour was to the local Seaquarium and other sights. We went over a bridge that would have scared anyone who has both acrophobia and fear of bridges. Wait, that's me, aaaaaaaaah! It was really high, thin and windy. But I...no, I had my eyes closed...Rob could see Venezuela from the top. After crossing the bridge, we went on to the Seaquarium. We were just in time to become drenched running to the building. The dolphin show was due to start a few minutes after we arrived. Fortunately(?), the sun came out for the show. That 30 minutes was enough to toast my legs and arms to a rather crisp red. It was worth it; the dolphins were great. We sat so close that we could see just how big they were when they slid up onto the platform the trainers were standing on. They did all kinds of spins and flips. They even balanced the head trainer on their noses and tossed him in the air. All this time, in a little side corner, there were children playing with one of the younger dolphins. She was the daughter of the other two and not fully trained. The commands were for her elders only, since she was having more fun playing with the little snorklers at the shallow end of the pool.

After that we got back on the bus and went to a souvenir store up on top of a hill. The view was great and we got some cold sodas and more of the local coinage in change. The coins here are really cool. Two of them are square.

Last, we went to the ruins of a fort up on top of another hill. It was one of the few made of brick. Rob and I opted to stay on the bus for this one since everyone only had 15 minutes to climb up to it and be back on the bus. The air conditioning felt good. We got back to the Emerald Princess at 4:15 pm and the last boarding was at 4:30. Rob guessed at the house numbers for Dave and Cassie's cards hoping that they would get to their destination anyway. We got close for Cassie's (602 instead of 601), but botched Dave's (1560 instead of 2051). Fortunately, Glacier Circle isn't that long. The postman must know the Thomas household. Yes?

We just finished eating dinner and are going to check e-mails before heading to bed.

Merry Christmas again to everyone!

Boxing Day in Bonaire

Connie took it easy. A short stroll through downtown Kralendijk and then back for a little sunning. No we don’t know how to pronounce it.

I (Rob) on the other hand, went for a dive. According to rules here in Bonaire, there is an additional charge to dive in the “wildlife refuge” which is essentially all the water around the island. This is in addition to the fees already paid. Next, they also require a check-out dive for everybody -- again, supposedly according to regulations. The check-out dive turned out to be fairly nice. The location is known as The Cliff. The Cliff is a 70 foot vertical wall dive with a lot of sand mixed in with the coral. There were lots and lots of fish and they weren’t shy. The bigger ones probably could have been touched, but they would probably have “touched” back. The coral and other fixed life were covered with sand from the beach above. Also, there was some kind of pipe running from the shore down to the deep below. Despite this, it was a fairly nice dive.

My dive partner, a lawyer named Bob had some problems with his ears. I stayed underneath and behind him. I also stayed away from the crowd to see undisturbed sights. Bob stayed away from the reef, but several others were only too happy to bang into it every step along the way. I think that’s why on our second dive, we ended up at a site that, although the divemaster said it was more typical of Bonaire, it wasn’t as good as I was expecting. I don’t really blame them. Who would take divers that clumsy and destructive to a pristine location?

The second dive site was just off Klein Bonaire (Little Bonaire). There were a lot more fish and more varieties of other forms of life. I saw sea horses, cleaner shrimp, and huge numbers of other types of life including tarpon. The tarpon jetted by so quickly, good pictures were almost impossible. After almost an hour underwater with visibility well over 100 feet, I finally had to surface and come back to the dive boat. Along the way back to the Princess, we stopped at the dive shop and everyone was urged to buy stuff as well while returning the rental gear. I set my bag to one side to go to the bathroom. When I came out, I found it tipped over and cast outside on the grass. A gentleman who was not one of our party, but seemed to work for the place, said it was in the way and so he tossed it outside. The dive boat was just about to leave for the Princess, so I grabbed my bag without checking it and headed to the little boat. Back at the Princess, as I cleaned my gear, I discovered that my wetsuit, which had been on top in the bag, was missing. All the other people at Sunshine Scuba were really nice, except this one guy. They really need to replace him and I need to figure out how to get my wetsuit back. It’s a shame such a great dive had to end on such a lousy note.

So ended day six of our cruise. We had a good dinner and now we are going to bed. Yawn.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

What a day. I slept late and Rob had an early dive. I had a facial scheduled this morning and stayed in bed as long as I could before I had to go up to the spa. It took almost an hour. Of course, at the end, she had a whole bunch of bottles and jars lined up for me to buy. I didn’t. They are really hard-sell at that place. The one I went to in Hawaii only had a “recommended” list at the end. These people sit with you and try to convince you that you are intent on being unhealthy by not buying their wonderful, overpriced products. That’s the last time I intend to go there.

After that I had a late breakfast and changed into a swimsuit to float around the pool before Rob got back. I was just leaving the room when he came down the hall with all his stuff in a very heavy bag. He dropped it all on the floor, showered and changed and had a nap before we went to lunch.

Rob’s day began at 8:00 a.m. The boat met the divers just outside the security checkpoint. It was a 15 foot boat with no covering, no bathroom and stacked to the gills with air tanks. They packed everyone on board (20 in all) and water started coming in at the back through the seep holes. They had two massive Mercury motors that powered them through the water. They took us to their dive shop on the beach and we had to wade into the surf to get ashore to pick up our weights and stuff. Then they waded back out to the little boat, all with their id cards and wallets and stuff.

Once back on board and rather soaked, it was clear nothing would stay dry on this trip. The captain put a few things up forward, wallets and other paper work. Unfortunately, once in the water, the visibility was down to about 30 feet as there was a lot of wind and wave action. They didn’t see as much as they could have. This particular group of divers seemed to be an aggressive lot. Rob accepted a spot at the back of the pack where it was more stirred up than ever, but at least he didn’t have someone banging him into the reef on a regular basis.

The name of the first dive was Boss Reef. It was actually a drift dive where they slipped down into this little canyon looking at the side along the way and then around the edge until they were low on air. There were two dive masters, one at the front and one at the back. The one at the front did a good job pointing stuff out, the one at the back was mostly a shepherd keeping everyone from going too far astray. Rob got lots of neat pictures, including another couple of eels. Unfortunately, by the time he came to them, they were frightened by the herd and hard to coax out for a pic. Once he actually had someone shove him out the way to get between him and the reef. He wasn’t too happy with this aggressive group of divers.

The second dive as a wreck that had been accidently deposited on a reef. It was the Veronica Ale. She was a boat from Trinidad hauling food that went down in the harbor. They re-floated her part way and got hung up on the reef trying to get her over to a sandy location. The old hulk was mostly intact, but the upper deck was completely gone. Rob swam around it along with everyone else. They said as long as the divers stayed near the wreck they would be fine. Rob swam around to the other side of the ship to avoid the pushy divers and he missed his chance to see a barracuda swim into the area.

He did find two tube worms about ten feet from the wreck which he didn’t bother to point out. The worms looked just like the varieties seen at great depths, but these were very shallow. They were red and white. When they were all low on air, they got the signal to surface. That was the end of the dive.

Once again, he had less than 30 minutes to get on the Princess before it left. He did finally get a chance to look at a bookstore (open on Christmas Day) before returning. There was nothing on astronomy, however.

When he got back to the Princess, he slept. We left port about 2:00 p.m. after waiting for five people who were late getting back.

We are going to take a few pictures of the big Christmas display in the Piazza before we go to dinner. They are planning a special turkey dinner tonight. Should be fun. Santa supposedly came on board today just after we left port. Good trick, eh? The kids all lined up for a chat with the big guy.

Dominica, Named after the Lord

This was our wildest and best day yet.

We started early with a rushed breakfast and a very wet walk to the whale-watching tour just down the pier. The tour ship was fairly large and comfortable, but the rain came sweeping down the mountains around Roseau time after time.

We had barely made it into the harbor and listened to the captain talking about a 95% possibility of seeing a whale when one of the crew shouted “Whale on the surface!” We saw our first sperm whale about 15 minutes into the tour. It was followed by at least eight more sightings. Some of the sightings were of the same whale which they have named Sophocles. They know the whales and the four or five families that they tend to hang out in. We had a great, terribly wet time and came back before Rob had to go on his dive. Before we got to the pier, the captain had told us about the volcanic activity under the sea off Dominica (Do-ma-NEE-ka). Rob was hoping he might get to see one of the seeps that was mentioned. Turns out he did.

Rob:
The first dive was down to a ledge over the l’Abym, (the abyss). It is a 1,000 foot cliff from the top to its base. It has a thin ledge about 15 feet underwater. This was my first dive. Life was everywhere! There were multiple kinds of fish, crustaceans, and corals. The kind of abundance I had expected to see in the Caribbean and hadn’t up until now. They covered every surface extending as far as the eye could see. We were told we could go anywhere along the wall down to a depth of 70 feet and to enjoy the ledge as a safety stop before ascending. There were divemasters pointing out items at various depths as well as leading and trailing the party. And it WAS a party!! We saw frogfish, blennies, and other fish with some as big as your head. Some were two feet long.

The second dive was the “Champagne Seeps”. So named because when you are in it, you feel you are in bottle of just-opened hot champagne. We were actually over a submerged ACTIVE volcanic caldera. The bubbles are methane and other gases seeping up to the surface. The water doesn’t taste like champagne. Trust me on this.

The life here was distinctly different. Although there were several types of bright yellow fish that shared the two environments. As we reached the bottom (30 feet or so), there was a flounder that wound its way through our party. Just over the lip we entered the champagne. There were a few hot areas. We were warned that if the water was too disturbed, not to fight our way into it. The disturbed areas were especially hot vents rising from the bottom. Most turned back before approaching any too closely.

The caldera bottom was brown with some kind of algae, but there was lots of life. Wherever there was a rocky outcrop, one would see various forms of creatures that weren’t coral. Most likely fungal mats. Small fish would dart into the “champagne” to nibble. Amongst the creatures were lobsters, sea horses, and very plain-colored fish. At the edge of the caldera, I found an eel everyone else had missed. I was at the back of the pack and the others were looking at a lobster. I couldn’t get their attention. Everyone ran their air as close to the limit as they could. The divemasters were prodding us back to the boat at the end. When I surfaced, my dive watch switched back to timepiece mode and I realized it was 4:55 p.m. The Emerald Princess was due to leave Dominica at 5:30 p.m. We were supposed to be aboard in 5 minutes! (Yes, Connie was pacing the cabin.)

The return trip was a mad scramble to strip, pack and boogie while the dive boat was cranked up as high as it could go. While still tying off the dive boat, we were jumping onto the dock and high-tailing it for the Princess. Lucky it’s a short pier. The security people gave everyone a dirty look. Like we cared after that experience!!!

Oddly enough the local divemasters on the dive boat were complaining that today was some of the worst diving they had experienced. No big fish, lousy visibility (only 75 feet), and no whales. Can you imagine that?

Well, we are exhausted and we’re going to go to dinner. Whew!

The Virgin Islands

We arrived early at St. Thomas, 7:15 a.m. instead of 8:00 and were cleared early to debark. We tied up to the pier this time instead of offshore and didn’t have to use the tenders.

Rob had a dive at 8:30. I had shopping to do. I had made a plan and was going to stick to it.

Rob’s dive started out with a little bit of a delay. The trip number happened to be 930A which looked like they were starting at 9:30 in the morning instead of 8:30. Oops. Fifteen of the twenty divers figured that out but five didn’t. Once that was straightened out, they boarded a vessel run by Underwater Safaris. They took them out to Buck Island National Wildlife Refuge. They dove Wye Reef and Cartanza Senora.

Unfortunately both of these site are in less than ideal shape. The Cartanza dive was a Colombian agricultural transport that the U. S. Coast Guard caught trying to transport “creamer” mixed in with the coffee. Rather than get caught, the crew scuttled the ship. A hurricane washed it up into shallower waters and broke it into three parts. The aft end sitting more or less upright in the water with the top completely ripped away. You could see two old diesel engines rusted beyond any possible usefulness inside the hulk. There was a fair amount of coral and many different varieties of fish around. damsel fish liked to lay their eggs on this part of the hull and they were aggressively protecting their clutches from each other and from the divers. A few people who got too closed had their suits nipped.

The mid section supposedly contained a large moray eel, but Rob never saw it. It had the infamous name of Elvis because one individual would see it and then when others looked it would have hidden deep in the wreck. This section was also upright and had a convenient hole to practice diving through. There were more blue tangs than damsel fish here.

The bow of the ship was sitting nose-up in the water as if the rest of the ship were buried beneath it rather than being spread out behind it. It had some anemones or gorgons on it. By that time the 2800 pounds Rob had was pretty much gone. He signaled and surfaced with several others right behind him. The gentleman leading this dive had 16,000 dives on his record, but he had only been leading tours for a short time. He was not yet dive master rated. On the second dive, he was a lot more careful about the other diver’s air supply.

Wye Reef is actually in the refuge. You could tell the difference. The reef was named after an old wooden ship that had sunk there 80 some years ago. It had no significant presence left except for the reef in the shape of a ship’s hull. This dive went down to 59 feet. It was actually deeper than the Senora dive of only 44 feet. It was an interesting dive and Rob hasn’t suffered any ill effects from this reverse profile.

He saw many varieties of fish and the further they got into the actual refuge, the more coral and fish they saw. There was lots of soft coral and some fire coral. Rob took photos of this to recognize it in the future. Getting too close to fire coral can result in severe pain that lasts several days. Hence the name. He also saw an octopus (video footage, yay!) and a small foot-long sea turtle swimming alone. Unfortunately, the camera started to fog up and the image quality is not the best.

At 1,600 pounds (of air) Todd turned them around and they headed back to the ship. It was definitely the better of the two dives. Rob wished they could have gone further into the refuge.

Meanwhile, Connie had been shopping her little heart out and came away with lots of booty. Also, Belgian chocolates that are to die for. They won’t make it home. This is guaranteed.

Signing off for now. We have to go to dinner.

PS: Rob went looking for a bookstore. Found only one of such poor quality, it had less than 100 books in it. None of which would interest any but the most desperate of readers. Apparently, they don't read much in St. Thomas.

A Day Relaxing at Sea

Connie:
Today we sailed from Princess Cays on our way to St. Thomas. It will take us two days so we didn’t make landfall today.

Rob took some down time, I did a few activities around the ship. He actually went with me to the shopping seminar but bailed after the first hour. Guys and shopping don’t always mix. Maybe the handbag quality lecture did him in. Anyway, I stayed long enough to get the discount book and some additional coupons. Looks like I might have a really good time shopping in St. Thomas.

After lunch, Rob relaxed again and I went to a seminar on diamonds. That lasted all of fifteen minutes for me because I had heard it all before. That left me with time to go to the scrapbooking talk in the Crown Grill. I got a free night photo of the Emerald Princess and some embellishments to go with it. It was fun.

All this time Rob had been treading water (literally) in the main pool which has a Jumbotron above it that they use for movies under the stars. They were playing Iron Man and he had fun watching it.

At 3:00 p.m. I went to a wine tasting. They had lots of canapés as well, but I’m not a caviar, lobster, crab or steak tartar fan. I gave mine away. Had a good talk about wine though. I did learn a few things.

After that we both had some relaxation before the formal night dinner. Rob looked great in a tux and we had our picture taken. It took so long because of the line and the photographer’s French attitude that we were half an hour late for dinner. We still got food and our waiter forgave us. The people we have been dining with are from Maryland and really nice. We also discovered that the people at the next table are from Wisconsin (Polk County). What are the odds?

We wrapped up the day and hit the hay. Rocked by the slight swells.

Princess Cays

Rob got up this morning and watched the sunrise. Other than the odd power-walker who hadn’t yet figured out how to relax, he was alone (Connie: Or so he says.) Afterwards he came back and we watched the boat pull into Princess Cays.

Connie stayed on board and started her suntan and Rob went ashore to go diving. He got to try out his new Data Mask which turned out to be really, really cool. He also took the underwater video camera but kept it in single shot mode. Not a lot of cool movement to film. He saw mostly purple and blue soft corals surrounded by dead, white coral. Most of the fish were small except for that large barracuda that investigated the group.

The site of the dive was called Borrin’hole and is about five minutes west of the dock. A small boat took everyone over. Before diving, the dive master told all of five of us that if he caught anyone heading down a hole or going through a low arch he would immediately escort them back to the boat. They are trying to encourage recovery in this area after many years of damage. Also, many of the holes were emitting fresh water and were tunnels that would lead back to the shore or into deep water complete with treacherous currents that would guarantee no exit.

Rob’s dive partner ended up being a guy named Dave from Australia who had brought a brand new camera with him. He was a little awkward with it. Rob burned up a lot of air on the surface getting Dave organized.

Once finally under the water Rob got a lot of cool pictures. Down in one of the really large holes, you could see (from a distance of course) larger fish circling. All in all, it was a great dive. Unfortunately, one of the filters Rob was experimenting with caused him to lose all of the red colors. He did get a bunch of great pics of a lionfish that worked well in black and white.

Connie: I got a great almost sunburn, just enough glow to know I had been in the sun. Rob and I both had massages in the afternoon with hot stones. Different. Bottom line was relaxation for me. Oh, and a Mai Tai. Or two.

Ten Days in the Caribbean

Today is the first day of our cruise. We left Fort around 4:00am. Connie had slept the night (till 3:00am anyway), I spent the dark hours sorting out my dive gear and packing. Unfortunately, my nice mesh dive bag was still out at the hangar, which was inaccessible due to the 14+ inches of snow we had gotten earlier Friday. It took until the afternoon to dig out far enough to escape the house; there just was no time to dig out to the hangar. Fortunately, most of the rest of my gear was in the back of the truck. On top of that, Connie bought me an Oceanic Datamask for Christmas. It is a dive mask with a built in heads-up display for its depth gauge, air (tank) gauge, and dive computer! Buoy! Does it save on set up time!

Madison airport has made great strides in improving their operations. We got to skip the “usual” search for the one everyone else endures. Nevertheless, the local TSA did hiccup at the underwater camera, but just passed it through the machine a second time.

We changed planes in Detroit, where we were delayed for an hour, not by the weather, but by an impatient ground crewman (and it was a guy) who damaged the seal on the wing tank trying to refuel. I actually watched the guy first fumble, then angrily ram the nozzle up into the wing and get cooled down with a shower of fuel. Not that he should have been hot in the sub-zero weather outside. They had just closed the doors on the plane. The pilot’s voice on the intercom had the distinct tone of, “you’re not going to believe me for a minute when I say this, but it IS the truth,” when he said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we have just closed the doors on the plane, but we have a delay due to a bad fuel gasket and we’ll be delayed about an hour while it is replaced.” I felt sorry for him.

The flight down was uneventful and relaxing. We had an extra seat between us. Room to stretch. (Connie: Even though Rob had a window seat, he slept most of the way.) Once in Florida, we transferred to the boat and then rushed around filing forms and confirming reservations. THEN we had a safety drill and all tried on our life jackets. Rob noted that it wasn’t a very realistic drill because there was no screaming, trampling, or panic. The officers didn’t even dress up as women to get a seat in the lifeboat. We though at least Leonardo DiCaprio would be there. No luck.

When we got back to the room we had most of our bags. Rob discovered that not only had TSA searched his diving gear (tearing a compartment in the suitcase) but his wetsuit had been drenched in jet fuel. I wonder where his bag was in Detroit? The last two bags showed up that night. Don’t want to rush things, do we?

After three or four trips through the washing machine, we were able to tolerate the suit in the same room as us.

At that point we collapsed. The boat was well on its way to Princess Cays.