Day 18 Tortola Re-Visited

We arrived in Road Town, Tortola around 08.00 this morning, with the weather looking a little uncertain.  Although the sun was shining through the broken cloud, there was a high hazy cloud that just took the heat out of the sun.

After a light version of a full English, we decided to take a walk into Road Town as we only drove through it last week when we were here.  It’s not a sprawling town and does not give an appearance of being overly wealthy, although more so than places like Dominica.  In contrast, one of the many marinas we walked through was packed with very expensive yachts and motor cruisers highlighting the opinion that the islands future lies in boat charter/tourism.

We returned to the ship around 11.00 and retired to the Costa Coffee shop for a sit down before a lie down on the sun deck.  By this time the sun was showing its face less frequently as the cloud had gathered throughout the morning.  The temperature was down a couple of degrees as a result of the gathering cloud, but that was no real problem as a day of hazy sun was quite welcoming.

Shock of the day came as I was lying on my back watching the frigate birds circling overhead on the thermals and the pelicans that were flying at low levels before plummeting into the sea to get a mouthful of fish.  As one of the pelicans was flying over the ship at low level I suddenly thought of the devastation that would occur if it were to relieve itself over the sun deck!  Judging by the mess on the quayside I reckon a single pelican could take out about 6 sun beds in one dump.  I made sure I kept my mouth firmly closed whilst napping on the sun deck  after that thought.

No lunch today as we were still feeling the after effects of our fantastic dinner in the White Room last night.  Well just a small ice cream to cool us down mid afternoon.

We slipped away from the quayside around 5.40 with the clouds looking blacker and rain almost inevitable overnight.  We are now en route to St Kitts, an island we have never visited, so we hope that any rain will cease by the morning.

At 6.45pm we have covered 9 nm since leaving Road Town Tortola and have122 nm to go before arriving in Basseterre, St Kitts. We are currently enjoying a cooler temperature of just 26 deg C whilst cruising at 11 knots with a wind speed of 19 knots.  The sea state is pretty much flat calm as it has been for days.

It’s Tropical dress code this evening, so an opportunity to show off the new shirt.  I think that the Welsh eating machine has regained his place in the Olympic team tonight by managing two main courses; one roast lamb and another of sirloin steak.  Joanna had ordered the steak, but it did come with a most peculiar curry butter sauce, not what you would expect with a steak.  Joanna doesn’t do spicy so her plate was pushed to one side. The hawkeyed waiters almost take it personally if you don’t eat your dinner as they think they must have got something wrong with the order.  Our waiter immediately pounced to find out what was wrong and offered a fresh steak with no sauce.  I thought that Vincent the waiter was going to have his hand pinned to the table with a fork as he attempted to remove Joanna’s original plate of food from under Glyn’s nose.  That steak was going nowhere!  The head waiter also walked into the trap of trying to remove the offending plate of food.  Once Glyn had finished his Roast lamb with all the trimmings, he promptly devoured the sirloin steak with all the trimmings.  I could understand why he declined the cheese and biscuits this evening.

After a few photographs of the new shirt we decided to pass on the evening entertainment which was a choice between an after dinner speech by Lembit Cheeky Girl or a song and comedy act by Linda Lucardi’s husband, Sam Kane . Pity I thought she was on board for a bit of page 3 work in the photographic dept.  I must remember to cancel the courses with Fifi le Snapper tomorrow.

Day 17 My Birthday at Sea

Tea in bed – what better way to start your birthday?   I opened my birthday cards and set them out on the windowsill before stumbling down to the FE club for breakfast.

We made a quick dash for the sun beds as this is the first sea day for the poor, unsuspecting, first timers who boarded at Barbados.  They will have no idea what a shortage of beds there will be by 09.30.  We were in luck and found two beds on the upper sundeck, which is where the unofficial topless sun bathing appears to happen.  No sign of Linda yet, but it early days and the camera is ready for action.  The weather remained fine with the occasional fluff of cloud giving a welcome break from the blazing sun.  Temperature today was a cool 28 deg C, but the sun still felt absolutely intense even through the partial cloud. 

Maureen slipped away at lunchtime to watch the film being shown in the theatre, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, whilst I continued to worship the sun god.  Definitely getting worried about you know who from Wigan as one minute the sun was on the right (starboard) and I must have just dozed off for a few minutes and it was on the left (Port).  That meant we were going in the opposite direction!!

Later on it reversed again.  What on earth was the skipper up to??  The problem for professional sunbathers, is that you have to continually relocate the sun bed to face the right direction.  There were bodies and beds all over the place today, trying to keep up with the direction of the ship.

Around 3.30 a shower of rain appeared from nowhere and cleared all but the pros from the sundecks.  It had turned very humid and the wind had dropped after last night’s chicken Madras, so I decided to retire from the sundeck, take back my library book and get another.  I don’t ever remember reading so much as I have on this trip – I’m on book number 6 - That’s Janet and John go sailing.

It was now late afternoon and time for afternoon tea, so we decided to have it in the self service restaurant.  The problem with self serve is it’s easy to have eyes bigger that your tum.  Our eyes are really huge at present.

Maureen enjoyed a cat nap whilst I went to the promenade deck to start book 6.  No disrespect to the author, but I only managed 3 pages before nodding off and not waking up until after the sun had gone down and the army of ants had materialised to secure all the chairs back to the bulkhead.

Time to dress for dinner, as it’s a formal evening and we were having drinks in the Metropolis bar with our Welsh companions again.  Whilst in the bar we sailed past St Maarten on our way to Tortola.  Glyn and Joanna had bought me a birthday card, which was really kind of them, but it was time to eat and we were dining in the White Room this evening, which is Marco Pierre White’s restaurant on board.  Unfortunately they were not joining us, but we agreed to meet up for the show later.

The food in the White Room was absolutely fantastic and by the time we were on desserts – Créme Brulé to die for, it was past 10.00pm and we still had coffee and Rennies to go.  By the time we finished, not only were we too late to meet Glyn and Joanna, we were absolutely pigged out and had to get back to the cabin for a lie down. Well- it is my birthday!

Day 17 Dominica

Dominica sits midway between Guadeloupe at the tail end of the Leeward Islands and Martinique at the head of the Windward Islands.  Dominica is roughly 29 miles long, 16 miles wide and has a population of around 80,000.  Again, like most islands, the economy is becoming more dependent on tourism, although they still export bananas, coconut oil, cocoa and limes.  In 1930, the principal export was coffee, but diseases in the coffee trees all but finished off the crops.  Dominica was the principal supplier of limes to the Royal Navy, which gave rise to ending scurvy on HM ships.  As a result, it became the world’s largest producer of lime concentrates. This place is like one giant rain forest.  Very fertile and has the highest rainfall of any Caribbean Island.

We were alongside just before 08.00 this morning and the sun was blazing.  After breakfast, we decided not to take a tour as we have been here before and we think we have seen all the major attractions that are available in a tour lasting 3-4 hours.  Instead, we went ashore fairly early, before the sun got too hot and had a look round the relatively small capital town of Roseau as well as the dockside market stalls that popped up whilst we were at breakfast.

Dominica comes across as one of the poorer Caribbean islands and as a consequence, the goods on sale in the market were considerably cheaper than any of the other islands we have been to.  Buying in the dockside market was the only option today as all the shops were closed as it’s Sunday!  It was an opportunity to get a new sundress for Maureen and a new shirt for me, in anticipation of the forthcoming Caribbean dress code for dinner.  

After the shopping expedition, we returned to the ship and retired to the sundeck for the rest of the day, until we sailed for a return to Tortola, just after 5.00pm.

At 6.30pm we have travelled 9nm from Roseau, Dominica and have some 256 nm before arriving in Road Town Tortola.  The current air temperature is 29 deg C and the wind is a gentle 5 knots.  We will have a day at sea tomorrow so we are currently cruising at 10 knots arriving in Road Town on Tuesday.

We’re deeply concerned about Glyn, this is the second night running that he has missed the cheese course and if he doesn’t watch out he’ll be dropped from the Welsh Olympic eating team.  It could be that he’s passed the worms now and it’s just himself to feed.

After dinner we went to the Havana bar to watch a brilliant Freddie Mercury tribute act complete with moustache and protruding teeth.  He was a superb singer and piano player as well as being very witty.

Stop Press – It’s been reported that we have Linda Lucardi on board - not sure why, but I’ll be down to see FiFi le Snapper tomorrow and get signed up for whatever photographic courses are coming up, just in case Linda is featuring in any of them.  Apparently Lembit whatsit, the ex MP and he of Cheeky Girls fame is also on board.  Must remember to lookup what he’s on here for and avoid it.  We also think there is a secret film crew on board as a large number of stars from My Big Fat Gypsy wedding seem to have boarded in Barbados. 

Day 16 Back to St Lucia

It’s Saturday, so apart from the fact there was corned beef hash on the breakfast menu, not a lot has changed since we were here a couple of days ago.  We had planned to take a trip with the same party of people with whom we were with here last time, but allegedly, the fun older lady seems to like a few sherberts, and we’re not talking the ones that come in a yellow tube with liquorice in, so everyone dropped out prior to our meeting up. 

We decided to take a taxi ride up to Pigeon Point, which is towards the north end of the island.  We shared a minibus with a group of people who were going to Rodney Bay beach and another couple who were going on the segway vehicles.  Once the driver had dropped them all off we continued for another 15 mins or so until we reached Pigeon Point.  We hadn’t planned to stay that long, so the taxi driver said he would wait and take us back. Pigeon Point is a local National Trust site and had we realised what a stunning place it was, we would have spent much longer there looking around and taking pictures.  The beach was empty and it looked out over Rodney Bay a beautiful long sandy beach, which is apparently one of the best on the island.

Heading North from Castries is completely different to going the other way, in that the northern route is much more developed with beachfront hotels and shops, whereas southbound is mountainous and lush rain forests.  We’re beginning to like this island and I could see us returning here one day for a holiday.

We spent the afternoon back on board ship doing a bit of sun worshipping on the top sun deck but around 4.00pm a gaggle of gobby people arrived to break the happy quietness.  Sad thing is they looked as though they didn’t have twopence between them, so we were wondering if this was some new government initiative to get rid of the great unwashed.  Give them some extra benefit and send them to sea. 

We departed St Lucia just after 5pm and at 6.15pm we have travelled just 9 nm with 74nm to go before we arrive at Roseau, Dominica and we are currently cruising at 10 knots.  The temperature is a balmy 28 deg C and the wind is 17knots.

Anyway, it’s Glyn, the Welsh eating machine’s birthday today, so we’re meeting for pre dinner drinks in the cocktail bar on deck 18 at the top of the ship.   But before that we had to call for emergency rations to be delivered to the cabin – we ran out of tonics this evening!!

Glyn’s wife Joanna surprised us tonight by wearing a dress that she had on before.  Up until now she has worn a different outfit every night.  We were wondering if she had 21 outfits in her suitcase!  In fairness they have all been very glamorous and helped her to look the consummate professional cruiser.

Yet another superb dinner menu with 5 courses to delight our taste buds and to make things worse for the waistline, our waiter has taken to giving us all Devonshire clotted cream ice cream with whatever we have for dessert.  It tastes absolutely delicious, but we dread to think of the calories – so we don’t!!  I’ll probably have to wear the new trousers every night until we finish the cruise now as some of the other slacks are getting uncomfortable.  Slack they are not!

Dominica tomorrow, arriving around 08.00, but I suspect we may be alongside somewhat earlier.

Day 15 Barbados

Barbados is the most Easterly Island of the Leeward and Windward islands.  It is roughly 21miles by 14 miles, covering an area just a smidging larger than the Isle of Wight.  The temperature experiences a slight variation throughout the year usually between 24 -27 deg C, although today has topped 30 degrees.  During the afternoon a pleasant north easterly breeze had made it feel quite comfortable.  Barbados claimed full independence from the UK in 1966, but remains a member of the Commonwealth.   Barbados is an almost flat island compared to its neighbours of St Lucia, Grenada and Antigua, with the highest point, Mt Hillaby, some 1089 feet above sea level. The capital of Bridgetown accounts for 95,000 of the 250,000 inhabitants.

By the time we woke up this morning, the ship was already alongside and had been so for some hours.  After breakfast, which was packed due to the fact that disembarking passengers had to be out of their cabins by 08.00, so breakfast was a good way of wasting time before they were called for their flights.  We decided to take a walk into Bridgetown before the temperature became too unbearable for walking.  Sticking to the waterfront, we survived the initial wave of taxi drivers wanting to relieve us of some dollars in return for a trip around this beautiful island, then the second wave of taxis, who want to whisk you downtown. 

After about 20 minutes and a quick nose into the fish market we arrived at a trendy marina, which housed proof that pirates are still active in this area.  We have photographic proof that the Jolly Roger actually exists.  They we recruiting crew members, by promising them rum rations in return for sailing with the ship.  No sign of Jack Sparrow, we suspect he was below with some wench.

We mooched around some of the backstreets, taking in some of the plethora of churches that abound here and some of the local culture in the street markets, before making our way back to the ship.  The temperature was rising as we walked back along the seafront, then into the dock area to make our way back aboard.  By the time we were back in our cabin we were in need of putting some water back into our bodies.

We had decided not to do a tour of Barbados, so it was up to the sundeck for a few hours of tan boosting.  Throughout the afternoon people were being shipped off to the airport and a little later the coaches would return with fresh inmates.  Although the temperature had topped 30 degrees C, there was a pleasant breeze blowing across the top sundeck, making it more than bearable.  We opted for a pizza for lunch, which was freshly cooked in Frankies Grill & Pizzaria.  It’s a joint venture between Frankie Detori & Marco Pierre White – Strange combination!  Anyway it tasted great and filled a gap formed by our walk into town.

Sunset this evening was pretty spectacular, but we are not sailing for St Lucia until 8.30 this evening, so plenty of time for the new intake to familiarise themselves with the ship.

Not sure if we will get two new people on our table this evening, as we have established that the young couple who were with us to start with have requested a table for two.  Their loss!!

The place settings had been removed from our table when we went in to dinner, so no new passengers for us.  Glyn was slowing up this evening, but then it came to light that he had been up to the BBQ at around 6.00pm and tucked into kebabs and chicken, before coming into dinner.  Only the one sirloin steak this evening and no cheese.  I bet his Olympic eating trainer will have words to say about that.

I had to pay an unscheduled visit to the menswear department yesterday evening, as with still best part of a week to go my chinos will no longer meet round my waist, let alone do up, so a purchase was required.  I’m hoping to last out with the remaining pairs of trousers.

We were all feeling somewhat cream crackered after dinner, so we decided to have an early night and forego the evening’s entertainment. 

We have only just departed our moorings in Bridgetown, which is some two hours behind schedule and are now en route back to St Lucia some 115nm away.  The temperature at 10.30pm is 27deg C and the wind is a mere 10 knots.

Day 14 Grenada

Grenada – known as the Spice Island - is the southernmost of the Windward Islands and is located 90 miles north of Trinidad and 68 miles south west of St Vincent.  It covers an area just 4/5 the size of the Isle of Wight, measuring 21miles long and 12 miles wide.  Its main industry like many other islands is tourism, but bananas, coconut, mangos, cocoa beans and of course various spices such as nutmeg, cinnamon etc are important exports for the economy.

By the time we woke and got out on deck it was around 7.30 and the ship was pretty much alongside the new jetty that has been built to accommodate cruise ships in St Georges.  Previously passengers would have to go ashore in tenders, making it a long a tedious process to get everyone off and back on the ship. 

It’s been a few years since we were last here, so we thought we’d do a short trip round just to see what has changed and whether there was any aftermath of hurricane Ivan, which devastated the island in 2004.  After the statutory full English, we were away early and into a minibus just after 09.00.  Driving through St Georges, the capital of Grenada, it was clear that some houses have simply been left to go to rack and ruin after the hurricane but most show signs of having been repaired or rebuilt.  Lots of buildings have clearly had new roofs.  St Georges itself has had some major building work done, mostly by some extensive land reclamation to build a new dock are for cruise liners and duty free shopping areas.  Having said that, the area around the old harbour, the Carenage, looks just like it used to, but with new shiny roofs on many of the old buildings. 

Our tour took us through dense forests, which have clearly re-grown after Ivan ripped many trees and shrubs out of the ground and up to Annandale Falls.  Strangely enough, we have never been here before.  Whist this is the rainy season in the Caribbean, Grenada has not had too much rain recently, so the waterfall, whilst impressive, was not at its best.  What was impressive was the young guys who climb to the top of the waterfall, probably 50-60 feet up then jump into the pool at the bottom.  Complete nutcases!

From the falls we went back into the rainforest to Grand Etang, where a green lake has formed in the crater of the volcano that once formed the island.  Again, there had been a lot of damage done by Ivan, but there was little or no sign of it as the forest had rejuvenated itself.

We headed back to St Georges then drove down to Grand Anse beach, which is about 2.5 miles of light golden sand.  Along the length of the beach are housed some of the premier hotels on the island, which according to the driver have been very under occupied this year.  He also reckons that La Source hotel, where we used to stay, is going to be sold out to Sandels Group.  We would have liked to go back to La Source, but the prices have been ridiculously high this year.  Perhaps that’s why occupancy has been low. Perhaps also, we should have done what we have done in the past and dealt directly with the hotel.  Too late now, we’re cruising, but Grenada is still remains our favourite Caribbean island.

We arrived back on the ship around 1.15pm and after cooling off we decided to do a bit of afternoon sun worshipping.  The temperature today has been just over 32 deg C (90F in old money), so it was bordering uncomfortable on the sun deck, but hey – we’re British, we can lay there and suffer in silence.

Captain Carr from Wigan’s words must have worked as all passengers were on board by 5.30 pm and we were soon casting off and heading into the sunset bound for Barbados.  This is the last port of call for the cheapskates who are only on board for two weeks.  It also means there will be a fresh intake of anaemic, pasty bodies wondering around the ship trying to work out where the hell the dining room is.  Then, after dinner, making the lifts work overtime trying to find the appropriate club or theatre for their evening’s entertainment.  However, it does seem strange getting to the end of two weeks, then finding you have another one to go – great.

At 7.20pm we have travelled 42 nm from St Georges, Grenada and have 133 nm left before arriving at Bridgetown Barbados at around 08.00 tomorrow.  We’re cruising at 12 knots and have just a 14 knot wind and 28 deg C.  The sea is pretty much flat calm.

After another sumptuous 5 courses, we headed off to the theatre for another dazzling display by the ships song and dance troupe, The Headliners.  The alternative entertainment this evening was the final of the passenger talent contest, Simply Red tribute act, which we were none too enamoured with earlier in the week or Karaoke in the pub.  Bit of a no brainer really.  The only problem with the show this evening was that the temperature in the theatre was rather warm and all 4 of us were imitating nodding dogs at various times throughout the performance.

Day 13 St Lucia

St Lucia is the second largest of the Windward Islands with a population of some 170,000 with 30,000 of them living  in Castries, the main town, it is one of the more populated islands that we have visited.  Although independent since 1979, St Lucia remains a member of the British Commonwealth.   Like many other islands, tourism has taken over from sugar production as the islands main source of income. However, bananas are still an important export.  When we were last here in Nov 2010, just after the last major hurricane had swept through, the banana plantations were decimated, but they have now returned to full production. 

 We were awake around 7.20 this morning, but there was little to see of the ship entering St Lucia as the rain was sheeting down making for very poor visibility, so we stayed in bed until the ship had berthed, just before 08.00.

After the customary breakfast we were unsure as to what to do as we had done island tours before on our previous visit.  However, by the time breakfast was over the sun was shining and as we departed from the ship we decided to take a tour.  As luck would have it, the lady and her friend from Scunthorpe were on our tour, so we knew it would be fun.  The other 6 passengers were also full of beans, not the baked variety I’m pleased to say.  We couldn’t have had a better driver either and this was surely one, if not, the best tour we’ve done from the ship.  Our driver was an ex St Lucian policeman and had also been a policeman in America.  Better still, his minibus worked properly, was very clean and best of all the air conditioning worked.  Unlike yesterdays where the a/c was an open window and not all those functioned.

After leaving Castries, we followed the coast along past the new oil terminal and across the first of many banana plantations, which was just a pile of fallen plants and leaves on our last visit.  We stopped and the driver gave us a crash course on how bananas are grown. We knew that banana plants only bear one lot of fruit, but were not aware that a single plant can bear 150 or more bananas.  No wonder the poor plant only gives one lot of fruit.

From the plantation we carried on down the west side of the island and through the fishing village of Anse La Raye.  The island is like Antigua in that it is volcanic, so there are lots of steep mountainous roads, with continuous hairpin bends.  The vegetation is very lush and as we pass through Canaries, on the coast, we head inland and through the rainforests, gaining our first views of the tip of one of the famous Pitons.  As we dropped down into Soufriére we got a spectacular view of the town and the two pitons.  Our driver, Jean Baptiste, knew his stuff and stopped at every Kodak spot on the tour.  Just the other side of Soufriére we stopped at the botanical gardens and Diamond Falls.  On our last visit, the gardens and falls were closed, so this was our first chance to look around.  Fortunately at this time of the year the flowers are all in bloom, so the gardens were quite beautiful.  Unlike in Madeira, where the gardens were drab, as the flowers were not in bloom.  We had a guide to take us around and again he was pretty knowledgeable, but his Caribbean accent took some understanding.  Back in the minibus, it was not long before we stopped at some roadside vendor for local made biscuits which the driver paid for.  Then just a short hop back to the beachfront at Soufriére for a glass of rum punch dispensed from the back of a friends minibus. 

Because of the geography of the island we pretty much retraced our steps from this morning except we stopped at a lookout point over Marigot Bay, a stunning little inlet on the coast, made famous in Dr Doolittle.  From then on it was downhill and back along the coast before entering Castries and returning to the ship around 3pm.  Definitely one of our better trips, especially as we had pretty much decided not to bother, having done it before.

Back on board it was time for afternoon tea before popping up to the sundeck for a quick read before setting sail just about 5.45.  Captain Carr from Wigan was seen without his satisfaction beads today as there were a few passengers who tested his patience by not arriving back on board by 5.30.  It’s only a short hop to Grenada, our next stop, so I doubt that he was pushed for time as he would be on other occasions.  However, lateness on board  did feature in his pre-departure speech and his tone was definitely frosty.

It’s Caribbean evening dress code this evening, so time to break out the shirt I bought in St Marten last time round. Maureen will be in the designer number she picked up in Tortola.  Only problem is we don’t know who designed it!

At 7.30pm we have travelled some 15nm from Castries in St Lucia and just 116nm to go before arriving in St Georges, Grenada.  We are currently cruising at just 10.5 knots with a temperature of  27 Deg C.  The wind is a respectable 12  knots.

Another fantastic dinner this evening, but we’re convinced that Glyn is sickening for something as he only ordered one lamb shank for dinner and no ice cream on the golden syrup & lemon pudding!  We were again serenaded by our waiter Vincent from Goa.  Both he and his assistant have been fantastic and their attention to detail has made dinner most enjoyable and no doubt will continue to do so.

Entertainment in the main theatre was supplied by a singing, impersonating, comedian, who’s best talent was impersonations and in particular; Billy Connolly. There was also a party up on the sun deck this evening, but we decided that bed was beckoning.