Hi!
I know I haven’t written in a while so what have I been doing? Well....getting used to the new ship, settling into our schedule, and relaxing. Yes, relaxing!
The seas have been uncommonly rough for the last couple of cruises. I guess this might be due to the fact that we’re at the tail end of hurricane season or maybe the fish are revolting or maybe Neptune is angry....anyway the nights have been super rocky. I don’t know if it’s because this an older ship or because the seas are so rough but this is a creaky ship. We’re living on deck 4 again and at night I just listen to the ship creak and waves crash on the hull and our porthole. A couple of times I’ve been awoken by a big crash....I think it might be being woken up, but, those times feel like the ship is being tossed about by the ocean. Okay, ocean, we get it! You’re mighty!
On this ship they have chairs on deck 7, my favorite deck, so I’ve spent a lot of time out there reading and watching the flying fish and the moody waves. It’s so nice....lots of people nap out there which I find weird. I don’t mean they fall asleep in their chairs overcome with sleep as they’re reading - no - they take a chair and get some towels and make a bed and go to sleep. I feel like telling them they should go back to their rooms to get some rest but I refrain and let them slumber. So you can nap in a chair but let’s not make a bed, okay? Okay.
We’ve had some great snorkeling adventures. On the last five day cruise, we all went to West Cemetery Beach on Grand Cayman. It’s called Cementery Beach because it’s behind a cementery complete with graves! The snorkelling was crazy! Grand Cayman has a fringe reef meaning that it surrounds the island and is accessible directly off the beach. We walked in and about 5 feet out there were FISH! All kinds - I’m strarting to learn some of their names - Goat fish, Red Squirrel fish, Solider fish, Blue Tang, Yellow Tang, Grey Tang(?), Nassau Grouper, Grand Cayman Gamma and a huge lobster/crab thing.
While the snorkeling was great, the fish were super aggressive. They followed us or swam up to us..I got nipped at one point but no blood was drawn. I think that people might feed the fish and so to them we looked like a bunch of floating lunch ladies. Larrrance and I swam out to the larger reef that was waaaaay out - I’m getting to be a much stronger swimmer, I can keep up with L - and out there were some huge fish. The biggest was a like a 3 or 4 foot silver fish....which was great until it decided that I was a lunch lady....I can swim fast...away from overly friendly fish. Next time we’re going to bring our fins and go out a bit further and bring some fish mace.
We also went to Long Bay on Tortola. This was not a snorkel day. Nope. This was a play in the huge crashing surf day. I didn’t go out far at all - it was so rough and the undertow was powerful. I practiced a bit of body surfing - which really means I got myself unafraid of the huge waves. This loss of fear was based on my feet being firmly on the ground at all times...so it wasn’t body surfing so much as bobbing...but that’s a step in the right direction.
We also went to Pigeon Point on St. Lucia. Pigeon Point is lovely because on one side is the Carribean Sea and on the other is Atlantic Ocean. The Carribean is calm and lovely while the Atlantic is violent and dramatic. Last time we went there, the snorkeling was disappointing because it was so murky. This time was sooo different. The reef was small but filled with anenomes, coral and tons of fish. I saw a butterfly fish, rock fish, angel fish, parrot fish, damsel fish, yellow tang, and so much more. The whole cast went together and we were joined by Roman & Svetlana and Sasha. Roman and Svetlana are married and usually they are the ballroom couple in the JAR shows on the ship. Right now Svetlana is pregnant so Roman has a new temp partner, Sasha. They’re all from Belarus and lots of fun. We all spent some time together and some time apart. Larrance and I ended up on the Atlantic side to have lentil soup and cheese toasties and a Piton beer...it was a great day.
We’re looking forward to Christmas on the ship. We’re all doing a Secret Santa gift exchange and planning a little celebration in one of our rooms. We’ll all miss our families but overall I couldn’t be more grateful to have such a wonderful group of people with me on the ship!
More soon.....
xoxo,
Jen & Larrance
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