Wednesday 27th March – Alter do Chao,
Brazil.
Both tenders were working
today! (Although as we were not sure how well tender 2 could reverse, we made
sure we were in tender 1).
Alter do Chao is a lovely
upmarket beach resort but because it is the rainy season most of the white sand
depicted on the postcards is under water! Nesta did find a small beach,
however, and went for a paddle…
Later on in the evening, we
managed both sessions of the Captain’s welcome party again!!
Thursday 28th March – supposed to be
Macapa, Brazil.
Well – this was supposed to
be a full day stop, the highlight of which was a trip to the equator where we
can stand with one foot in each hemisphere but: the harbour master refused us
permission to dock and also refused the request to use the tenders… so… we didn’t
actually go there!
Eventually the ship managed
to arrange for us to dock for an extra day in Trinidad so we set sail for Devil’s
Island (again) earlier than planned.
Lots of rumours around the
ship as to why permission was refused – the most likely being either that there
was a fatal accident on the quayside earlier in the week and no ships were
allowed in or the authorities realised that the six containers of food and
supplies waiting for us were from Germany and contained nothing from Brazil so
they refused us permission as a penalty.
Either way our food etc.
cannot now reach us, apparently, until we get to Aruba!
We have noticed a decline in
the quality and variety of meals on board. We dined in the Explorer tonight and
had the Oriental menu which was ok but the service was not as good as on
previous occasions.
We have spoken to Vladimir
and Raffi about our concerns and they have said they will escalate them.
Later that evening, there was
a Latino Party on the outside deck which was really good. Weather warm with a
fresh breeze and we danced the night away!
Friday 29th March – Day at Sea.
Nesta slept until 2-15am
which was when we left the Amazon and turned north. There was a force 6 wind
with a 5 metre swell from the side of the ship. Consequently on this ship
(which, as you will remember “would roll on a damp lawn”) the movement was such
that she spent the rest of the night in the library playing on her DS as she
couldn’t sleep.
As we are now out of the
Amazon, the lecture programme recommenced but there was nothing of interest for
us. We have decided to make the Bridge Room on 8 our new lounge, so we spend
time in their now when there is no bridge being played!
Unfortunately the evening
meal in the Veranda was not great. It was almost cold as there is a problem
with the hot-plates and there was little choice… oh well, only another eight
days until we restock!
Saturday 30th March – Devil’s Island,
French Guiana.
These are a little group of
three islands (Iles du Salut) of which Devil’s Island is the smallest.
Difficult to land there (I suppose that was the point!) so the one we tendered
to is called Ile Royale. There were prisons on all three islands so we visited
the remains on the biggest island.
There was a big swell and it
was windy so there was a bit of a delay getting passengers ashore - because the
captain had to manoeuvre the ship as best he could.
Eventually we got on the
second tender of the day but got held up for thirty minutes whilst two catamarans
(the local ferries to the mainland) unloaded and picked up passengers…You can
imagine how happy Nesta was bobbing around in a small boat for ages!
The island was interesting,
once we got there, and we saw what were the cells, governor’s office, church
and slaughterhouse… it was here that guard used to slaughter animals and pour
their blood into the sea in order to attract sharks to discourage prisoners
from attempting to escape by swimming!!
Despite the really strong
currents, there were holiday makers (there is a small hotel on the island)
swimming within sight of the “no swimming” notices – but not us, though!
We did, however, spot one of
our passengers (Lenny) sunbathing naked… oh dear…
Had a drink in the hotel and
returned to the ship for a shower and lunch.
Watched the port lecture on
Port of Spain and then sat on deck 7 talking to Rich and Lin until it was time to
get ready for our evening meal. The “twisted team trivia” starts again tonight
so the usual team of Wes, Austin, Sue, Wally, Nesta and Ian (all “lifers”) will
once again take on the brains of the rest of the passengers! We’ll let you know
how we get on!
Below are the old cell blocks
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