20 January 2008 Transit Panama Canal

20th January 2008 - Transit Panama Canal

This transition was pretty much like the previous one - except, of course, in reverse.
It took the whole day from our start on the Caribbean side at Cristobel through to Balboa on the Pacific side next to the capital Panama City. There were some differences, like 3 cruise ships coming through with us including Island Princess which was behind us for starters but we overtook. Otherwise, things were pretty much as before.

19 January 2008 Ikotpu Island, San Blas Islands, Panama

19 January 2008 - Ikotpu Island, San Blas Islands, Panama

Pretty much as expected on the basis of Rangiroa; this was to be our desert island dream and bbq. A very small island with only 2 buildings where we arrived about 8 in the morning. However, we were preceded by the local Canu Indians with their assorted wears, so the commercials were set up prior to our arrival.

We spent a pleasant few hours on a hired deck chair - a dollar apiece - in the breeze and under the shade of palms, taking care to avoid any coconut drops. In fact, one weighing about 5 kilos dropped about 10 metres from us, so it was a smart precaution. The weather was hot, the swimming was great and the bbq was fine. However, we could only do this once in a while. In some ways, negotiating the tiny San Blas archipelago was as interesting as any specific islands.

17 January 2008 - Kralendijke, Bonaire, Dutch Antilles

17th January 2008 - Kralendijke, Bonaire

After a day at sea Bonaire was welcome, but we had no particular high expectations of an island we were told was just salt pans and flamingos. In the event, it was to prove one of the better stops, at least in relation to expectation. The pseudo Dutch architecture in Kralendijk was not quite as phoney as it had been in Aruba and we had all the morning and much of the afternoon to explore. This time, we were able to rent a car - $US60 - for an off road jeep style car which was a good deal between four of us. The tourist office manager tried to talk us out of doing the national park as he said it would take too long. He was right, and we didn't see the salt pans in the south, but figured it was worth it.

We motored up the coast towards the north of the island and licked off with a sea water lagoon which was riddled with flamingos. We stopped off at a designated area and saw lots more birds and trillions of lizards amongst the cacti and scrub. It was not dissimilar to the Nevada desert and obviously very dry. We continued on to a small town, Rincon, and then drove about 5 miles to the Washington Slaagbi national park which cost us $US10 apiece to go into the park. We were given tags with emergency phone numbers and times when we had to be away from specific destinations if were not to be caught overnight in the park - no chance. We elected to do the short circuit, about 25kms, on the very rough dirt roads, said to take an hour and a half if we didn't stop. Whilst, for the most part these tracks were ok, in parts, they were so rutted we had to be careful to avoid taking the sump out, even with a high clearance vehicle. The drive was fine, starting off inland in dry hilly terrain. Again, trillions of lizards and lots of interesting birds.

After about 45 minutes, we arrived at the coast.

15 January 2008 Pointe-a- Pitre, Guadeloupe

15th January 2008 - Pointe-a- Pitre, Guadeloupe

Arrived early Tuesday to this French department in the Caribbean with a clear plan as to what to do, i.e. post blogs first, stock up on supplies and see what we could with the rest of the day, given we were leaving early evening.

The run in to Pa P was pleasant enough but we found one cruise ship already moored, but with sufficient area in the Cruise terminal to cause no bother. As in all the French territories, this was clean efficient and modern and gave straight out on to the compact central area. Found a cyber cafe quickly enough but although we knew there were different, additional letters on a French keyboard did not realise it was not 'qwerty', with 'a' on the top line and 'm' on the middle line plus a few more differences, including numerics and full stops in upper case. Slowed considerably the cyber work and we needed an hour but M managed to lock herself out of bank account!

After, went for an amble round town and thought about lunch out, but it was not cheap so we went back to the boat. On the way back discovered a joke shop (good for theme nights) and later a number of others. Tried to rent a car - they were remarkably cheap to rent - but there were none left. With another couple we took a cab for a tour - they all seem to be standard itineraries - which took us to a waterfall on Basses Terre and a beach on Grand Terre over a two and a half hour period, The waterfall was ok but nothing special, although the rain forest was. We went up a fairly high hill for good views of P a P and onwards along excellent dual carriageway roads we have probably paid for to a flash hotel complex - rooms over £100 per night - where we had a swim on a clean and pleasant beach before returning to town. More shopping at the joke shop and a couple of star buys for M - a linen dress for under a tenner and two black dresses for £2 apiece. Unfortunately, one will have to await some slimming before it can be worn. Finally, a quick shop at the supermarket for French wine at French prices and back to the boat.

The evening was spent at the regulation Caribbean Deck Party.

14 January 2008 St John's and English Harbour, Antigua

14th January 2008, St John's and English Harbour - Antigua

We had mixed feelings as we approached Antigua since we had not particularly enjoyed our visit there five years ago. However, it was New Year's Day on that visit and everything was closed and M was hoping to look up her friend Sprout with no locational information other than 'just ask for me in any bar, they all know me'.

D had been assisting in a navigation course delivered by a qualified yacht skipper and so was called to get up at 5.45am as we approached Antigua to shadow that navigation into port, a potentially tricky route with sandbanks, oil berths and a narrow channel to content with. M, of course, did not see the light of day until about 8.45am as we were docking. First we did a quick visit to the Cyber cafe (no time for blogs) to do some business and check emails before we started on the illusive search for Sprout. Having no success other than being told that if he fixed boats he'd be at Falmouth/English Harbour we had to find a way of getting there. Around the Cruise Terminal, we were hassled with lots of offers of very expensive cabs and tours (Nelsons Dockyard at English Harbour being US$80 - officially approved government rate). This was looking like the only port we had visited where 'do-it-yourself' tours were threatening to be more expensive that those laid on by the ship. Then we found a man who offered us an island tour for US$20 each which we said we'd take as it included English Harbour. We did a quick shop for the mandatory T shirt and bits for the Caribbean night which we took to the ship before reporting back for our 10.30 tour.

The first hour was excellent with a driver and tour guide as we wound our way across Antigua towards Falmouth/English harbour. The guide then said we'd climb a hill for a view of English harbour as it wasn't really worth the US$5 entrance fee to which our 4 fellow passengers readily agreed as this would 'give us more time at the rain forest and beach'. M complained she was being bounced into this as we really did want to see the dockyard and English harbour as well as try to find Sprout. To cut a long story short, and to keep M happy, the guide said he'd find Sprout. We called in 2 shipwrights premises before we found his workshop - which gave our fellow passengers a bit of a feel about how the other, top 2%, live. Unfortunately, it transpired Sprout had severely dislocated his ankle in a New Year's Eve yacht race and was signed off for a month. However, his staff agreed to take us to his home. So, we abandoned the tour, paid off the driver and thanked the guide and went our separate way. Mike phoned Sprout and said he had a 'special delivery' which would be arriving in 10 minutes and drove us up in what we later learned was Sprouts 4 wheel people carrier.

The rest of the day we spent at English Harbour, first at Cloggies Cafe - a rather flash eatery and then the Drop In, where the local In-Crowd hang out. We also learned much about Nelson's Dockyard - he was sent there for 2 years for being a naughty boy - which is no longer a naval dockyard but a museum and tourist attraction. As it so happens, the main part of Cloggies was a building from the dockyard complex, originally built in 16xx. Mike drove us down for a pre-prandial drink and Sprout joined us for lunch (after getting himself sorted) which M said was her best meal of the trip. It was certainly very nice and the owners a Dutch guy and his Nouvelle Caledonie/French wife - who speaks English with a slight Aussie accent were a focus of the local yacht set who passed through over lunch. A good meal, two bottles of wine and much conversation later, it appeared to be 4 o'clock, the time when the Drop Inn opens. Run by a gong time resident Austrian lady called Manni, and just 25m from Cloggies, we were the first customers, waiting for Sprout's partner, Anita - an Aussie - to arrive from work -she owns and runs a nursery school. By about 5pm the locals and local resident tourists were all calling in and the place became very busy. Anita arrived some time after 5pm and the place was animated in conversation as everybody knew everybody. Even we lost track of time and it was after 7 before we realised we needed to get sorted for crossing the island. Sprout ordered a cab for 8 when, unfortunately, we had to leave. It was a great 'catch-up' for Sprout and M and the only really boozy day we have done so far. Sprout had entertained us all day, despite being in a plaster and on crutches and insisted we accept his hospitality. He also ensured we paid the local's rate for the cab back to town which was only a third the tourist rate. A great day - Thanks Sprout.

8 January 2008 Ponta Delgada, Azores

8th January 2008, Ponta Delgada - Azores

Our first port of call on the second leg and a real delight. We didn't really understand why our Spanish neighbour, Maria, was eulogising about the Azores which we thought of as another collections volcanic rock in the Atlantic, but it's really quite amazing and in some ways similar to Madeira.

We went to Ponta Delgada on Sao Miguel, the largest island. Clearly volcanic, we could see the various cones, all at relatively low level from our approach. PD is a long settled town going back to the 1500s and characterised like many places in volcanic areas with much 'black and white' architecture, particularly for the volcanoes.

After docking, we took a tour (no Portuguese, relatively short stay) to the Ribeira Grande and the fire lake which, as it happened, was a wise decision. We first went around Ponta Delgarda on the dual carriageway by-pass (no doubt EU funded) and turned off to a small village where there was a pineapple plantation under glass. Given that the islands have an equitable climate, rather like the Canaries - but for all that, definitely not sub-tropical, it seemed strange given they could grow many crops that they were 'going Dutch' and growing hot weather fruit under glass. There were about a dozen or so huge green houses all with pineapples at various stages of development. The other disadvantage of growing pineapple is that even in the Caribbean its a twelve month hall for a single fruit which is followed by a need to propagate for the next crop. In the Azores it takes 24 months, so when you next purchase a £1 pineapple, think of all the effort that goes into it. Needless to say, though, there was a motive in taking us to this place which was to flog pineapple liqueur which M found too sweet and D found too early in the morning.

Afterwards we crossed the island at its narrowest point (about 12 kms) to the north coast. The scenery was most unusual and, perhaps, more like rural Britain than anywhere we have previously been to. The most British features were very green grassy fields, narrow, windy roads, dry stone walls enclosing smallish fields and many rural buildings and small settlements which could easily have been Cornwall or Wales. Quite odd. Over the ridge, we then went down to the only other town on Sao Miguel, Ribeira Grande (Big River). This was situated just inland from the mouth of the river and a steepish, incised valley and again was of a certain vintage with three or four old churches, an eight arch high road viaduct over the river and a neat municipal park and Tourist Information office down the sides of the valley. It was neatly clipped and manicured in the public areas but a little more sleazy in the back streets, but nonetheless authentic in a Portuguese sort of way. We liked the town and needless to say the man in the Tourist Office spoke perfect English. We Brits really are pathetic in our attempts to speak to any foreigner in their own language. We walked down the valley and under the arches to a very wild Atlantic Ocean with breakers about two metres high and much detritus washed up on the beach - most of it plastic these days. (Even between Phuket and Pinang on the last leg, twenty kms out to sea we were amazed at the incidence of plastic/polystyrene crap in the water even though it's illegal to dump plastic at sea).

After a half hour in Ribeira Grande was proceeded to climb one of the volcanoes in our small bus. Initially, it was still very British like. We wound our way up a wooded valley and the clue, as we passed a small car park, was the comment from our guide that at the end of a ten minute forest walk was a small waterfall and a pool with warm water that many visitors bathe in. Ten minutes up the valley all became apparent as the mountain positively steamed. There were geysers etc and a number of industrial establishments. These turned out to be the Azores thermal electricity company. We understand bores are made hundreds of metres into the mountain and the volcanic heat is used to generate electricity. About 40% of the islands requirement comes from this source. Most interesting. As we approached to top of the climb - and as we aid, not particularly high - we passed over the crater lip and got a magnificent view of the caldera and crater lake. The sun was shining strongly at an acute angle and the declination back to the south of the island was such that it appeared the water just ran over the crater lake and straight into the sea which was about 600 m below. This was an illusion as it was about 6 kms away. The cloud was closing in and as we climbed higher up the rim unfortunately we passed straight into the cloud and lost all views until we hit the top and came down the other side. This was scenically even more British, unbelievably green and small scale.

We returned to the ship via the suburbs of PG some of which had nice smallish beaches and hotels. The sand, though, was black. We got back and left early afternoon.

4 January 2008 Falmouth, England

4th January 2008, Falmouth, England

Today was the culmination of the first part of the trip - we had circumnavigated the globe in the east to west direction arriving at Falmouth at 7.00 am. We had to say goodbye to all our friends from this leg of our journey. If any of you read this blog we will really miss you all. We are hoping to meet up with Stewart and Pam again when we get to Cape Town.

We also moved cabins from Deck 5 to Deck 7. More about this in a later blog.

We met up with Mopsy and Popsy (M's parents) at about 10.00 am. Mopsy had done brilliantly and managed to get most of M's shopping list. First stop was Azda for a runny egg for breakfast and some new clothes (M had gone up a size and D needed some new ones). This was a fairly efficient exercise with not too much time wasted. Next we returned to the ship where we took our goodies on board and returned with xmas presents that we had purchased for family and things that we did not require (clothes too small etc) for collection when we return. We were hoping that M & P would be able to come on board and have a tour of the van Gogh but this was not permitted because of the press presence on the quay (due to Travelscope going into Administration). Instead they M & P had to settle with viewing the ship from the shore and they said that the ship was bigger than expected.

We then went into town where we purchased some sweets and the few missing things from the list. We then HAD to go on the internet to perform some housekeeping functions which we achieved in the library in Falmouth. Incidentally, this was the most expensive internet access we had in our whole trip around the globe. Next a new fleece for M who lost hers on New Years Eve and is a must for watching movies in the cinema as the AC is very cold. By now it was around 2.30 and was raining. All aboard was 3.30 so this did not leave much time for us to spend with M& P who had got a 6 hour drive back to Southend to look forward to in the rain and dark. We suggested a coffee/beer in a pub but Mopsy understandably wanted to get away with as much daylight as possible as the rain was making driving conditions worse. M & Popsy drove us back to the port where we chatted for 15 minutes or so before re-embarking in the rain.
It was really lovely to see M and P but the time went much too quickly. We had forgotten how early it gets dark in England in January having spent most of the past 3 months in the southern hemisphere where it is summer. We could never have managed to get all the things that we needed if M and P hadn't purchased most of the shopping for us. THANKYOU very much Mopsy and Popsy. We will make it up to you when we get back - promise!

We made a few phone calls and spoke to friends and family (you know who you are - it was really nice to talk to you). Congratulations Marc and Julie - we will be at the wedding (take this as the RSVP).

Lastly M would like to thank her parents for the lovely presents that they bought her. We wish we had more time to spend actually catching up but time in port goes far to quickly.

31 December 2007 New Years Eve Party & Fireworks Display, Madeira

31st December 2007, New Years Eve Party & Fireworks Display, Funchal, Madeira

New Years Eve on board was celebrated with a Formal dinner. The menu was excellent and, as is the tradition on cruise ships on New Years Eve, the desert was Baked Alaska. This is paraded into the restaurant with sparklers to much cheering and applause by the galley staff (see pics).
After dinner we went up to deck 9 to take our positions for the Firework Display. Madeira holds the world record for the largest ever firework display on New Years Eve 2006. This year proved to be no exception with 27 tons of fireworks set off from 40 fireworks stations.
This year's theme was "Legend of the Ocean" and the colours of the fireworks depicted the colours of the sea. Based on the Legend of Atlantida - the land which joined the Island of Madeira with the Azores but allegedly fell into the sea. It is considered legend but recent studies by oceanographers could prove that there is truth in the legend.

The display was absolutely fantastic with the extent of the fireworks covering a stretch of the coastline for about two or more kilometres and stretching up to the mountain peaks. The high expectation was well met and all cruise ships took a considered position out in the bay. For us, possibly a one off, but we are really pleased to have seen it. Most displays will have sequences of high break outs; Funchal has sequences of half a dozen plus at the same time. Eat your hearts out Sidney and London; you're not in the same league as Madeira, which is why over a dozen cruise ships with probably 10,000 passengers line up to see it.

31 December 2007 New Years Eve Funchal, Madeira

31st December 2007 - Funchal, Madeira

We arrived at Madeira at our due time, but had been advised by fellow passengers as to what to expect and they were correct. We did not dock at Funchal but tendered in. Why? Because there was a cruise ship traffic jam with, seemingly, half the cruise ships in Europe trying to dock at once. There were two or three super cruisers and all the big companies were there, including Black Watch from Fred Olsen. We eventually anchored about 3 kms to the east of the main harbour about half a kilometre out and following clearance were on the second tender. However, when we arrived in the harbour - which only had three slots for landing tenders - we were in a line of boats sent from about nine other cruise ships. It took until 5pm to get off - and our last tender back was 6.45 because they won't tender in the dark.
However, this was enough time to quickly check out Funchal as we will be back in early April. The place was fab with cute narrow lanes, mostly pedestrianised, a beautiful cathedral, nice restaurants and an excellent prom. However, we had to search down a cash machine, post our blogs and acquire some liquid refreshment for the remainder of the cruise. However, we did all this this fairly efficiently in about 45 minutes and spent the rest of the time sauntering around before lining up for the last tender. Inevitably, there were still guests coming in to port on the last boat who were given a whole half hour to look around. We were lucky, but Funchal on New Year's Eve is a busy place!