Doug and Annette

Well, we have reached our final port before Fort Lauderdale! We arrived at our Grand Turk dock about 1:00 this afternoon and are scheduled to sail toward Fort Lauderdale at 6:45. Grand Turk is only 7 miles long and just over 1 mile wide and is the capital and seat of the Turks and Caicos government. It has been a longtime favorite destination for divers to explore the 7,000 foot-deep pristine coral walls that drop down only 300 yards out to sea. On shore, the tiny, quiet island is home to white-sand beaches, the National Museum, and a small population of wild horses and donkeys, which leisurely meander past the white-walled courtyards, cute churches, and bougainvillea-covered colonial inns. Although it has the 2nd largest population of all the Turks and Caicos, Grand Tusk’s permanent population is ... read more

We arrived in St. John’s about 1:00 this afternoon. Another short stay as we sail this evening at 7:00. We were signed up to for the Kayak and Snorkel Adventure. Annette decided to hang out on the ship. Doug was able to hook up with Andy as a kayak mate. We went to a place called Great Bird Island, had a lot of fun kayaking and saw some great birds too. Annette and I have been to Antigua in the past while on a Windjammer cruise. We were there shortly after a huge hurricane that was devastating to the island. Some say that Antigua has so many beaches that you could visit a different one every day for a year. Most have snow-white sand, many with lavish resorts that offer great water sports. The largest of ... read more

The night before our arrival at Cape Verde, we enjoyed a wonderful evening with our Cruise Specialists group, starting with a fun cocktail party on the back deck of La Veranda Restaurant. Folks were encouraged to wear something that represented one of the countries along the cruise. We then enjoyed a great dinner together in La Veranda, followed a fun evening of karaoke led by Jamie and Kevin. Doug even joined in the fun by doing the Beatles ‘Let It Be’. Not bad for the first time! We arrived at our Cape Verde dock at about 8:00am on the 2nd. We were signed up for the Mindelo City Walking Tour at 9:00. Unfortunately, it was early on Sunday morning and town was almost deserted, plus nothing was open. The tour involved being led by a college ... read more

We arrived about 8:00 this morning at another port on our visit to Africa, the twin city of Sekondi-Takoradi, capital of the Western Region of Ghana. It is Ghana’s fourth largest city and an industrial and commercial center. The chief industries are timber, cigarettes, shipbuilding and railroad repair. Takoradi is the largest city closest to the Equator and the Prime Meridian, making the city the most central location on the world map! The closest land to the Equator, Prime Meridian and Sea Level is Cape Three Points, about 60 miles west of Takoradi. Takoradi is the home to Ghana’s first and important deepwater seaport built in 1928. Both Takoradi and Sekondi stemmed from 17th Century Dutch, Swedish and English forts. The two cities combined in 1946. During World War II, the Takoradi Air Base was an ... read more

The Namib Desert is said to be the world’s oldest living desert and is what a real desert should look like. Some of the dunes rise over 1,000 feet above the surrounding desert plains. There are crescent shaped dunes that migrate up to 2 or 3 yards a year, covering and uncovering whatever crosses its path. There are fossil dunes that consist of ancient sand that solidified millions of years ago. Then there are the star-shaped dunes, formed by the multi-directional winds that tumble the sand back and forth. Today we chose the Swakopmund Sightseeing tour that left the ship at 8:30am. We drove along the coastal road and stopped for some fabulous flamingo photos. We then headed inland into the Namib Desert and stopped at Dune 7, the highest sand dune in the Walvis Bay ... read more