Tuesday 9th April – Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Went for a walk round to the
yacht club this morning, just for some exercise… Later on in the terminal
building we found a present suitable for Graeme’s 60th!!
Back on board for lunch and
then attended our last lifeboat drill.
Nesta has started on the wine
– well it is doctor’s orders!!
Wednesday 10th April – George Town, Cayman
Islands.
We were supposed to anchor in
the bay but there were two large cruise ships already there when we arrived, so
in order for us to be near enough to the shore for our tenders to work easily
the Captain opted to potter around (i.e. drift) all day as near to the quay as
he could. Good on him! The other remarkable thing was that both lifeboats are
now working…
George Town is full of shops
calling themselves “duty free” – but cheap, they are not! $40 for a bottle of
gin, whiskey etc. We declined their kind offer!
We walked the two to three
miles around the coast to Seven Mile Beach (so called because it lasts for…)
and spent a lovely three hours swimming in beautiful blue water and sitting on
glorious white sand watching all of life go by. At last… a Caribbean beach that
lived up to the picture postcard image.
We got a taxi back though!
Thursday 11th April – Day at Sea.
Today Nesta signed up for (and
attended) Art Class, Choir and Genealogy… well, she’s got to keep busy on the
many sea days there are on this cruise!
We went to our obligatory two
sessions of what was our last Captain’s Welcome Party L and as a result, didn’t bother with the evening meal.
We can definitely report deterioration in both the quality and variety of food
since bill got off and the service is poorer since Goran left… We won’t starve
though!
Friday 12th April – Havana, Cuba.
We were a little disappointed
with Havana. There were people begging in the streets and hassling us to buy
newspapers, swap money etc. neither of which we expected. The old part of
Havana is being renovated but that meant that when we got off the ship to
explore - lots of men were digging up the streets, using pneumatic drills and
generally making a lot of noise and dust.
We managed to get a last
minute booking on the rum distillery and cigar factory tour… another Voyages of
Discovery special… both are closed on a Friday afternoon - so we went to a rum
museum and cigar shop instead! At least they threw in a panoramic city tour as
well, which we enjoyed, and we’re pleased we managed to do the tour. The old
buildings are “distressed chic” and the old American cars are everywhere. Our
guide was very good – really proud of her country - but was a little worried
about the future. On the good side, people are now allowed to buy cars, houses
and even run their own businesses (they’ve only been allowed to do any of these
things for the last two years!) She puts this down to the fact that Raoul
Castro (Fidel’s youngest brother) is now the President… but the not so good
side is that visitors are still not coming to Cuba in big enough numbers… our
ship is the only cruise ship that has visited Havana this year!
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