Our First Stop - Grand Turk

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Geo: 21.462, -71.1365

It's 6am when our wake up call comes in. I'm up but Mom needs more time. Our room service is scheduled for 6:30 so we need to be ready. Karen finally climbs out of bed and makes it to the bathroom just before our breakfast arrives. Ahhh. A continental breakfast with coffee, fruit and milk. I figured we'd never get out here on time if we went to breakfast in the Lido so the breakfast came to us and we were off the ship by 8:15am. It's a short day as we must be back on board by 2:30pm.

We have a busy day planned on Grand Turk in the BWI starting with a golf cart rental. I made arrangements a couple of months ago to rent a golf cart so we could cruise around the island on our own. The whole island is only seven square miles and, while not the fastest mode, it gets us everywhere, including beach areas off limits to cars. We walk through the cruise port complex and just outside the gate we meet Boogie. He takes us to our cart, gives us a rundown on its operation along with a map highlighting points of interest and we're off. Since we're in the British West Indies, traffic drives on the left side of the street and I found it relatively easy to adapt to driving in this manner except in the roundabouts of which we only found one.  I clamp my GoPro to our golf cart to record our adventure but the whole cart shakes and bounces as we roll down the street so I forgo the movie and just take a few still shots.

We stop first at Governor's Beach to see a rusted old hulk sitting on the shore. According to Boogie, it's a must see although we couldn't figure out why. The beach is empty and very beautiful.  We record this amazing site with a photo.  After that exciting find, we continued on through the town passing lots of inland ponds. Sea salt production is what initially put Grand Turk on the map. Many islands in the Turks and Caicos have shallow salt water ponds, and these ponds, occasionally replenished by abnormally high tides, would naturally produce sea salt due to evaporation. Sometime near the end of the 1600s, British colonials from Bermuda saw the potential of the ponds and the salt industry began. The ponds were developed into “salinas” with low stone walls splitting the brine into different stages of salinity. Windmill pumps and gates controlled ocean water input and movement.

We continue all the way to the opposite end of the island where we stop to see the lighthouse. The Grand Turk Lighthouse is the most famous landmark in the Turks and Caicos The only lighthouse in the country, it was prefabricated in England and built in 1852. It was initially set up to burn whale oil for light, but over time was converted to kerosene, and finally, electricity in 1971. The lighthouse is no longer operational, although the surrounding grounds are open to the public.It's inaccessible to us but, like the rust pile on the beach, when all you have is a small island with a few salt ponds on it and 2500 tourists here to visit, you have to come up with some stuff for people to see and this lighthouse is it. We watched a girl zip lining nearby. Woo hoo.

Now we drive back toward the ship a different way through the island, checking out the houses along the way. From the roadway along the ridge we can see the cruise port and the Koningsdam, our final destination, in the distance. I try to get Mom to drive but she won't.  We drop of the cart with Boogie and head over to the cruise port for some food and swimming.

A relatively recent addition to Grand Turk is the Grand Turk Cruise Center on the southern end of the island. This facility was opened in 2006 by Carnival Cruise Lines as a mooring site for ocean liners and as a base of operations for cruise ship visitors. Many small jewelry and gift shops, restaurants, bars and attractions are located here, along with swimming pools for cruise ship guests and are open only when cruise ships are in port. Grand Turk's shopping is mostly limited to tourist-oriented souvenirs and trinkets. Although there are a few stores that sell locally produced wares, the majority of stuff for sale is imported souvenirs that are common across Caribbean tourist destinations. Mom checked out this stuff when we were here in 2012 and expresses no interest. Today we're heading to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, a restaurant and bar complex complete with a huge pool, wave rider, dancing with a DJ and more shopping.

We find some nice lounge chairs in the shade and I order buffalo wings and two Margaritas. The mango is the best. Total $38 + $5 tip. Karen is content to relax on the lounger while I check out the Surf Rider action. Just a couple of young guys trying it out. While I take a picture of them, I restrict my action to the swimming pool. With only one ship in port, this whole place is not as crowded as it was on our last trip here and I have the pool to myself. I get her to shoot some pictures of me in the pool and underwater and, as always, most of the pics are of me minus my head.  Now Karen is bugging me about the time.

"Hurry up. Let's go. We need to get back"' she says, packing stuff up while pointing at my watch. We have 2 1/2 hours to return to the ship and I could almost throw a rock at it. We're in a resort at the pier! I convince her to stay a little longer but, under constant pressure to return, I finally concede and pack up, taking a few last pictures on the way back. We board with only 1 1/2 hours to spare. Close call! OK. Now we're back What now? Oh, I see. We sit on our balcony of the ship and watch all the other people hanging out in Margaritaville. Oh boy.

It's Valentines Day and I have reservations at 5:30pm at the Pinnacle Restaurant, a swanky place that Mom likes, although I do have to pay for it. Tonight is a Gala Night, where people dress up, I forgo my tux and opt for a more casual look, dress pants and an aloha shirt, while Karen picks a fancy sundress. She orders tuna tartar and halibut. I had the tuna with a 7oz filet. We shared Brussels sprouts, mushrooms and baked potato. I splurged and ordered a bottle of wine, a merlot. For desert I had the berry cheesecake and Karen, berries with some fancy sauce. All was excellent. The partially full wine bottle was sent to the dining room for us to finish on another night

Now we're off to the Queen's Lounge on deck 2 to watch Battle of the Sexes, where the host asks three guys a series of questions women would be more likely to know and asks 3 gals questions about guy stuff, you know, cars, sports, etc. It was fun. Next the World Stage for the singers & dancers and we arrive late. There's no seats so we stood and watched for 10 minutes. Now back to the Queen's Lounge for the B B King Blues Valentines Dance Bash. Great music. We are definitely "party animals".   We wrap up around 11pm, returning to our stateroom.

I set up a wake up call for tomorrow 7:30am and call it a night. Tomorrow we visit Puerto Rico.

Note: BWI = British West Indies

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Photos

Diving 300' Down in Grand Turk. Very Dangerous.
Especially in a pool while under the influence.