Blogs from Atlantic, Oceans and Seas - page 20

We continue to experience gale force wind and 15' swells. Two more sea days until our first landfall, Horta in the Azores. This is a tender port and we may cruise past it if the seas continue rough. Did I mention I love it? Played my second Hold'em tournament and finished second. Now ahead $8 for the voyage. MaryLu is attending cooking demonstrations, slots tournaments and bingo, followed by Mass. I sit on the veranda and listen to the seas as the swells bounce off the ship, read and relax and ponder. There is a new chef on board and the meals are excellent. They were always good but I find myself torn between entrees at every meal. There have been changes that seem to go along with any new management. HAL always had mats in ... read more

Day four dawns to, another cobalt sea with white caps. We have been rocking and rolling since we left Fort Lauderdale and it looks like we have a day or two more. I love being rocked to sleep by Neptune. We were late leaving Ft. Lauderdale as many passengers were delayed in Houston or Dallas due to the weather. After two 1/2 hours we cleared the breakwater leaving many passengers still in Texas. Those who had booked through HAL will be flown to Florida and then on the the Azores, one week of their vacation gone. I don't have a head count of the CruiseCritic members who showed up at the Meet and Greet but it had to be close to 150 of the 180 that signed up. I'm glad that is over. Now I can ... read more

Dateline: April 4, At Sea, Mid Atlantic 15,000 Feet Deep Good Morning Everyone, we are 800 miles east of Ft. Lauderdale in 15,000 feet of the Atlantic Ocean. We haven’t seen much of the sun since leaving the states but it has been warm in the 70’s. Since it will take us 7 days to cross to Madeira (Funchal), Portugal, an island off of Africa, our days are pretty peaceful. We have spent time making new friendships. Unlike our last long cruise we have not had any misadventures… yea!!! The worst that has happened is that on our first stop, Phoenix, Cope got a call that one of his credit cards had been compromised ;-) Ah my, so we are already down a credit card… but we are prepared so no big problem. After a night ... read more

Geo: 17.15, -62.63After departing St. Kitts the winds picked up to 30 knot gusts so we unexpectedly turned into the Pinney Beach mooring field in Nevis, checked in and stayed for seven days. This is a gorgeous, lush island with THOUSANDS of goats, donkeys and monkeys! Even better, was that it was Easter weekend and Pinney Beach was the place to be! https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Travel-g147377-c52861/Nevis:Caribbean:Wild.Monkeys.htmlWe met an incredibly generous Canadian couple who invited us to their home, insisted that we bring our laundry, and then took us to The Hermitage for lunch. Thank you so much, Linda and Otta for your kindness, generosity and our new friendship. My whites haven't been this white in a long time!!! ;) http://www.hermitagenevis.com March 29th, 2016 - St.Barth, St.Kitts & NevisHello All,With several days of good sail... read more

Day two at sea coincided with St Patrick's Day so overnight the whole ship had been decked out with green decorations. Crew members were sporting silly St Patrick's Day hats and even some passengers had entered into the spirit and were parading around the ship in green clothing and/or silly hats. Yesterday we had a glut of activities to keep us amused while the m.s. Zaandam sailed towards our next port of call, Montevideo. Today we slept in, had a late breakfast, walked a few laps of he deck, blogged, ate again, enjoyed mid-afternoon nana naps (this doing nothing really makes you tired!!) and Bernie caught up with his photo processing. When we boarded nearly two weeks ago, we found a voucher for dinner in the Pinnacle Grill compliments of Bunnick Tours. With our voucher we ... read more