Cape Canaveral 22nd April Port Canaveral One of the highlights of our trip this time was to be a the visit to the Kennedy Space Centre. Port Canaveral is located along North America's 'Space Coast' and is surrounded by beaches where people flock to see space launches. Our main aim today was to get as much from this visit as possible, so we had booked for a visit to Kennedy Space Centre with an extra 'Up close and Personal' tagged on. Kennedy Space Centre is huge, occupying some 144,000 acres of land. It is also a wildlife reserve so there were some sightings of alligators and birdlife as we drove the 20 miles to the Centre. Where to start, it was good to have a guide to steer us through, from the Rocket Garden we passed ... read more

Puerto Quetzal 12th April Puerto Quetzal Another staging post for trips into the interior of Guatemala. The trips were long so we made do with a quiet ship, actually not so quiet as a lot of passengers thought the same. There was a small tourist area selling local products, Internet cafe and some bars.... read more

Panama Canal 15th April Transit Panama Canal Another transit of the Panama Canal, this time West to East. Arriving early morning we got a great view of the Bridge of Americas and the new lock system for the larger ships. Getting into the channel we were paired with a huge container ship into the Miraflores Locks, the onto the Pedro Miguel Locks which raise us to the level of the Gatun Lake. After crossing the lake and the Continental divide its into the Gatun Locks to be lowered 26 metres to complete the transit of the Canal. Some facts: Every time the Canal has to fill a lock it takes 52 million gallons in 15 minute. The length of the Canal is 51 miles and is 10 miles wide The most expensive toll was 375,600 US ... read more

20th March At Sea between Wellington and Apia, Samoa I don't normally publish blogs whilst we are at sea. However a strange phenomenon occurred on the morning of the 20th March On sea days to get our brains working by trying to do a quiz i.e Trivia Now, you may remember if you follow this blog that, there were we thought 'Tears in Akaroa. You may recall that we left our friends J & J on the quayside waving us goodbye. The picture shows Mr & Mrs Smith. The natural habitat at this time of year we thought was the suburbs of Christchurch. But it seems they are a migratory family, Smithus Frederickus Jonus is led to flights of fancy and with a whim takes the female of the species Smithus Jackius on journeys around the ... read more

San Francisco 3rd April San Francisco Our second visit this trip to 'everybody's favourite city', spending an overnight here we had lots more to see. Day one, we had berthed nearer to Pier 39, there was a Princess ship berthed at Pier 27. So a ferry ride on a glorious day out to Sausalito. Across the bay fro San Francisco, you get great views of the City and the infamous Alcatraz Island. Sausalito is a picturesque Mediterranean style community and was once a fishing village. Sausalito is full of boutiques cafes and restaurants, the boardwalk looks back to San Francisco. There was a quirky Christmas shop, we saw a couple of years ago, doing brisk trade. Couldn't resist, so an extra trinket for the mantelpiece. Back on the ferry passed Alcatraz, and a welcome lunch of ... read more