When Mother Nature Speaks, Captains Listen

The first formal night

As I woke up on the morning of our first sea day, I really had to think hard about how long we have already been away and exactly where we have been!  Contrary to our plans of taking it easy and making this  a relaxing and restful trip, we have hit the floor running.  But this is our usual mode when on holiday, so we should have known better!  

Thanks to Freedom Dining, we met a couple at our first dinner and that chance meeting has made this cruise incredible!  Since Alan and I had decided we have been to all these islands before, with the exception of Dominica, we had agreed to just hang around the ports, the pool and treat the ship as a moving beach.  If you have read any of our adventures so far, you will know this totally did not happen! 

At Annandale Falls, Grenada

Unfortunately, I have been battling a sore throat for a few days and even considered making my first ever trip to the ship doctor.  I stopped enjoying myself and even the act of speaking to people was difficult.  However, I have tried as many natural cures as I could get ahold of - lemon, honey, salt, ginger, chocolate and even brandy!  And I am beginning to think that ship doctor will not be meeting me!  

Going a few days ahead - at St Maarten’s, I was able to go to a drug store and talk to the pharmacist, asking for the strongest cough suppressant she could provide. After a lengthy discussion of Codeine and how I could not drink alcohol and would be very sleepy, we agreed on the third best cough suppressant.  It is not wonderful yet, but I was able to sit through dinner without too many interruptions.  

I have just left this and come back to it a few times, so it will be choppy and cover more than the original sea day it was supposed to cover!  

We had a lazy day, a few hours at the pool, a great nap for me, buffet lunch, a tea time snack, more pool time and just going to meet friends for a Mexican buffet night.  It is formal again tonight, but we have all decided not to do it this time around.  I could have insisted and Alan would have been ok doing the dress up thing and long formal dinner.  But it will definitely be more fun doing our own thing tonight.

And as I was writing this, I realised I had not taken one photo the entire day! So I am going to share a few of Alan and I and also the lovely flowers I have seen along the way!

Another cruise ship heading for St Kitts that also
was unable to dock there.

And even later - no need to post about St Kitts because we were unable to dock due to high winds.   I did feel a bit sorry for the Captain having to make the call to abort landing at St Kitts.  He was very apologetic, but when he came on a few hours after that decision with yet another apology, I began to believe some passengers might have been complaining a bit too much.  As it happened, all the other cruise ships there also aborted that day too due to the high winds, so the islanders would have suffered alot more than we passengers.  We only had to spend the day finding spare sun beds and deciding when to eat! They lost valuable tourism activity.

 Oh well, we have been before and it is a lovely island.  We had planned to just hang around the ship and the port shops and bars with free wifi.  I was really looking forward to catching up with my family and friends, but this was not meant to be and we are now on our way to St Maarten’s, a day early!  By the time we get there, the cruise ships spending the day will have left and we will have a berth.  

Our late evening arrival at St Maarten

Overnight in St Maarten’s…….does it get any better than that?

“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.” 
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emerson's Essays