Over the Hill and through the Palm Trees

We’re just finishing up a nine day cruise. This has been a great cruise - Good weather, lots of snorkeling and fantastic shows.

Our Stardust show was changed to earlier in the cruise, we performed on Monday night this time. Our show fell on Tortola day so we just had a short day at Cane Garden Bay. The water was perfect and we played a bit of frisbee and then had some Ting’s at a waterfront bar. On our way back to the boat, we had a cab driver named Bozo. Bozo told us a lot about the surrounding islands. There’s one island that’s about 45 miles away called Anegada. It’s a coral atoll island circled by the third largest reef in the world as well as several shipwrecks. Larrance and I have put it on the list of places to visit. He also reccommended a beach for our next trip to Tortola - Long Bay on Beef Island. Beef Island is connected to Tortola by a causeway. We might go there or to a secret destination!

Our shows went great this week. We’ve really been working on the improvised musical that closes our show and I think we’ve got it! I probably shouldn’t say that but....we’ve figured out that we just have to make sure all of our characters are “of the same world.” It sounds so obvious but as improvisers we’re always trying to create something new. So we learned to just watch the first scene and pull our characters for scene two right from there. It works! We got lots of nice feedback from the passengers this week.

On Antigua, we took a tour of the island. We went to Nelson’s Dockyard, Devil’s Bridge and Long Bay Beach. Yes, they have a Long Bay too. Nelson’s Dockyard was very interesting and we wished we had more time there. We’re talking about going back on one of our future visits. Devil’s Bridge is a natural limestone bridge between two rocks - the bridge was formed by the pounding of the ocean. It was very dramatic. Long Bay Beach was a gorgeous beach in possesion of some of the softest sand I’ve ever felt. Walking on it was like having your feet on suede - it was great. The snorkeling there was pretty fine. You had to swim out a long way but there were lots of fishes out there. I spotted a Tiger Grouper which is a first this year.

In Barbados we had big plans to go and party at the Boatyard but we awoke to stormy skies and rain. So we just took an aimless stroll around town....Larrance and I went to the Bajan Cigar Factory and learned how they make cigars. Then he bought two cigars for him and Mike.

On St. Lucia we went to Marigot Bay. We’d tried to go to Marigot Bay a few weeks ago but the cab driver talked us out of it. This time we would not be swayed and I’m glad we stuck to our guns! It was fantastic. The cab dropped us off at a little pier and you have to take a tiny ferry over to Marigot. It’s a spit of land with a hotel, restaurant, beach, some jewelry stands and a bunch of rastafarians. The beach was dotted with incredibly tall palm trees and very few people. When I first got in the water, I was concerned because it was so murky. Andy, Larrance and I swam a good ways out and we got to a big wall made of rocks, coral and metal mesh wire. Andy found a way around the wall. On the other side of the wall, were hundreds of French Grunts, Damsel Fish, Brain and Fan Coral. It was fascinating just to watch all the fish swim in and out of the rock wall. But I’m glad I moved on....out beyond the wall was some great snorkeling. Huge brain coral, trunk fish, yellow tube coral, a little blue fish with teal to electric blue spots! It was great. Oh, and another Tiger Grouper. I guess that’s the fish of the cruise.

After we snorkeled for about an hour we decided to have lunch. We joined the non-snorkelers, Rance, Deanna & Mike, at the restaurant. On many of the Caribbean islands they have a local dish called Roti. Roti is a curried mixture wrapped in lentil flour bread. We had fish roti that was great. We added to it’s greatness by dousing it in scotch bonnet hot sauce. So first we looked at fish and then we ate them....seemed right at the time.

After St. Lucia we have two sea days back to Miami. Our improv shows are on the evening of the first sea day. Our improv shows also went great. This is such a fun group to work with!

Tonight we’re going to play Settlers of Catan - a game so geeky even my D & D loving brother won’t touch it. It’s perfect for the ship as it eats up like 2 to 3 hours every time we play it.

This last cruise my Mom and her husband were onboard. We all went to Tulum in Mexico. In Grand Cayman, Ray went golfing with Mike and my Mom went snorkeling with Larrance and me. I'll write a more comprehensive blog and post it in about a week with photos! Happy Fun Fun!

More to come...

xoxo,
Jen