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Published: December 1st 2008
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And so we are off on another worldly adventure. On May 16 we sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge signaling the end of our 2008 world cruising. Six months later on November 16 we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge on our way to Los Angeles to begin our next round of cruising. We certainly enjoyed our time on terra firma and made several trips in the United States. We visited family and friends in South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Arizona, Nevada and California. When we were in Sausalito we enjoyed numerous boating trips around San Francisco Bay. It was nice to reconnect with our friends both in our marina and at our swim club. We were kept busy attending to our yearly medical appointments, tax reports, visa applications, boat maintenance and all the other day to day business of being home. But come November, with the end of the baseball season and daylight saving time, the election finally done, and a farewell birthday lunch at Auberge du Soleil with friends Rick and Kathy, we were ready to pack up and head out to see the world again. We stuffed our rented van with six months supply of clothes and cruise
essentials, stowed our row boat and bikes and away we went.
We boarded the Silversea Shadow for a fifteen day cruise from Los Angeles to Ft Lauderdale via the Panama Canal. The Shadow is a smaller, yacht-like six star ship which carries about 350 passengers in fine style. We are hosting a small group of passengers all of whom we know from previous cruises. In addition, John and Jeannie are very good friends who have joined us for their first cruise. Jeannie and I were flight attendants with Braniff Airlines and Kevin and John are graduates of the US Naval Academy. We have met up over the years in different parts of the world and now see each other frequently since they also live in northern California.
We sailed out of the port of Los Angeles on an unusually warm November evening and turned south towards Mexico. The ride down the coast was gorgeous and we encountered a plethora of sea life. We have already seen whales, dolphins, sea turtles, huge schools of flying fish, rays and flocks of ocean going birds. It is a real life aquarium.
We made an unscheduled call at Cabo San Lucas
due to a medical emergency. It was quite a beautiful sight to watch the sunset behind the fabled arch at the very tip of Cabo. We crossed the Sea of Cortez to Puerto Vallerta. We haven’t been there is a few years so it was a surprise to pull into port and see a Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and a modern shopping center just across a busy street. There have been some changes going on in ol’ Mexico. We were treated to a lovely fireworks display before we sailed off down the coast.
Acapulco is a pretty port to cruise in to and so we made it a point to be out on our balcony for our arrival. As soon as we entered the bay we saw the Maltese Falcon. This is the largest privately owned sailing yacht in the world. The owner is zillionaire Tom Perkins whose main claim to fame is that he was once married to Danielle Steele. When I was working for a Norwegian tour company, we attended a dinner for the King and Queen of Norway when they were visiting San Francisco. Tom and Danielle were at that dinner. The King appeared to be captivated
by Danielle and her prominently displayed cleavage.
The Maltese Falcon is 289’ long and is something to behold when she is flying her 15 sails. We had seen her in San Francisco Bay in October when she had to wait for low tide in order to clear her three tall masts under the Golden Gate Bridge. We have read that the boat is for sale for a cool $190 million if you happen to be in the market for a new toy.
We were lucky to be in Acapulco on a Sunday when traffic is a mere shadow of its weekday chaos. There is a wonderful 18th century Spanish fort located just across from the port. Within the fortress walls is housed a museum detailing the Chinese and Filipino trade with Mexico over the last three hundred years. The Chinese silks and teas were highly prized items in Mexico as were the porcelain vases and dishes imported from Asia.
Leo, a local tour guide, offered to take us on a tour for $5 per person for several hours. That sounded like a pretty good deal to us. John, Jeannie, Elsie, Kevin and I piled into a very
nice van and off we went to see the sights of Acapulco. There happened to be an international competition of cliff divers that day and so we got to see some spectacular dives. We visited the famed Flamingo Hotel which used to be the stomping grounds of the Hollywood set and then Leo took us to his wife’s shop in the flea market. When we returned to the pier a Carnival ship was just docking and it looked jam-packed with its 1900 passengers. We had a sail away birthday party for Nancy as we watched the twinkling lights of Acapulco fade into the distance.
We arrived in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala just in time to see one of its many volcanoes erupt. The ash cloud was quite large and filled the sky to the east. We hired a van again and went to the small farming village of San Jose. Guatemala is the poorest and most populated of the Central America countries. We saw several industrious workers. One young girl would cover the motorcycle seats with cardboard and then collect a few quetzals (pennies). An older gentleman carried a bathroom scale around so that people could check their weight for
a small fee. I was surprised to see so many children on the streets. Luis, our guide, said that education is not free in Guatemala and many families cannot afford to send their children to school. Luis lived in Oregon for a number of years seeking asylum. But after 9/11 he was sent back to Guatemala. His Mormon girlfriend is working to get papers for him to come back to the U.S. so that they can get married. For the time being he is living with his mother and they are trying to find a turkey so that they can celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday.
We are shocked and saddened by the attack in Bombay. We were in Mumbai in March and spent time at both of the hotels that are now under siege. The Taj Mahal Hotel is the symbol of Bombay and the meeting place for Westerners and Indians alike. We can only hope for a quick end to this terrible act of terror.
We are having our group to Thanksgiving dinner in the main dining room here on board ship. It will be interesting to see how the Italian kitchen prepares this most American of meals.
Next stop will be the Panama Canal for our full day passage from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.
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