Blogs from Oceans and Seas - page 76

Hello from somewhere in the Tasman Sea. Actually the navigational report at noon had us at 36 degrees south latitude (forgot the longitude), with a 12 knot breeze, 74 degrees, and sunny with mostly clear skies. It is back to being very pleasant weather again. Tonight will be another “first experience” for us. Almost everyone else will be leaving the ship tomorrow so they have to pack their bags and prepare to leave tonight. Although this cruise is almost over, we will be staying aboard (even in the same cabin) for the next cruise beginning tomorrow afternoon. So if you were worrying that the story was coming to an end, then don’t fret mate as our adventure will be continuing. But that is getting the story out of sequence again. We began by sleeping in this ... read more

Geo: 18.3389, -64.9663Tuesday, March 18thPrincess CayPrincess Cay is, as I mentioned earlier in this blog, owned by Princess Cruises - it is actually part of Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. We are looking forward to a fun day and have rented a little pop-up cabana to shade us when we're done snorkeling. We had decided last night to sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast and then catch the tender to shore. We were awakened at 7 by an announcement from the bridge. The captain said because of high surf, the tenders would not be running so we're going to have an unexpected sea day. Jeff said "He woke us up to tell us there's no reason to wake up early!" Bummer! We were looking forward to snorkeling again. We check the "Princess Patter" which is the ... read more

Geo: 18.3389, -64.9663Monday, March 17thAt SeaAfter leaving St. Thomas, Emerald Princess went through the Virgin Passage, passing Island Culebrita, then northwest throughout the Nares Abyssal Plain (North Atlantic Ocean) passed Puerto Rico.Hmmm...not sure what I've done; maybe struggled against the current pool too much yesterday but today I have a very stiff, sore neck. The kind of stiff neck where you have to turn your whole upper body instead of just your head to look sideways. It's St. Patrick's Day! I get out the big shamrock I bought at the dollar store and (duct) tape it to our cabin door. I'm wearing shorts, a long sleeved white oxford shirt - shirt sleeves rolled up and a pair of bright green suspenders and socks. Jeff has on the St. Patrick's shirt he picked up at Goodwill before ... read more

Geo: 18.3389, -64.9663Sunday, March 16thLast night we sailed through the Caribbean Sea, passed St. Croix to St. Thomas. This is the only port on which Jeff and I have arranged an excursion with Princess. We've been to St. Thomas before and that time we took a cab to a ferry, took a ferry over to St. John's and snorkeled - then reversed the process to get back to the ship. This time though, we are not in port as long and thought we'd use some of our free cabin credit and go to Trunk Bay on a Princess excursion. We're so happy that we had decided earlier to do this because if we had to wait to be tendered in there would not be enough time for us to do much of anything on our own.We ... read more

Geo: 17.31, -62.73Saturday, March 15thSt KittsJeff and I have been to St. Kitts before; in fact, one of my favorite vacation photos of us (my profile photo on Facebook) is us at Brimstone Hill Fortress.Early this morning we were awakened by the Captain making an announcement from the bridge which is unusual. He announced that only one of the ships six thrusters were working. Thrusters are the things that move the ship sideways and are important for moving to and away from the dock. As a result, we would not be tying up at the port in St. Kitts, but would be tendered in.This wasn't a problem for us as we hadn't made any plans except just wandering around town, but there was lots of hubbub as the lifeboats were lowered. To get to shore you ... read more