Today we start our 14 day Caribbean cruise aboard the Seabourn Legend.
Before we get on the ship though we have to get from Costa Rica to Aruba. What a wasted day...get up at 5 AM to catch the plane to Atlanta, Georgia...you think you'd be able to fly direct but that is not the case. We finally get to Aruba around 8 PM that same day. Could be worse I guess.
The beautiful countryside of Costa Rica.
We're booked into the Holiday Inn for one night in Aruba. Hardly seems like a destination you'd wish for but that's all there is for those who leave things too late. I won't tell you what the room cost but it wasn't the cheapest room we've ever stayed at that's for sure.
A artsy fartsy shot of the Gulf Of Mexico.
We did have a reasonably nice view of the beach though.
So we get on the ship by 2:00 PM. The room is decent - much bigger than the room on the river cruise this past summer.
Before we set sail we have to all go to a safety lesson. What a fugly bunch.
First night at dinner. They have great food on this ship and a couple different restaurants for dinner. We're in the main one the first night. You can go to eat any time you like between 7:00 and 9:00 and you can eat alone or at a table with others.
Our first stop after leaving Aruba is Curacao. This is one of the ABC islands - Aruba, Bonaire and Curacoa which are all part of the Netherlands. The people here travel on Dutch passports.
Here's our ship.
Our second full day on board is AT SEA day whch means we're sailing all day. Our next stop is Mayreau Island which is part of the Grenadines.
Not much to do on a small ship such as this except hang out by the pool or hit the gym - I had great intentions of hitting the gym each and every day but I have to admit I never made it once.
Another thing about this cruise is that it's "all inclusive" - the booze too. They even ask you before you board what kind of liquor you would like in your cabin.
So we get to Mayreau Island on December 31st. Mayreau Island has an area of 1.5 square miles, about 300 people live there and they all live in a village that they haven't even bothered to name. There's absolutely nothing to do here except go to the beach and that's why we're here. Once a week Seabourn puts on a beach party. They lug all the cooking gear, booze, food, tables - everything to shore and have a barbeque on the beach.
A shot of Mayreau Island from the boat. The no-name village is on the top of the hill.
Beach bums.
A local dog has come to the party in hopes of a dropped morsel.
Looking out at sailboats - that's our ship at the far right of the photo. Everything and everyone was brought to shore and will be returned to the ship on small boats called tenders. Quite a lot of work.
This YouTube video shows a tender from the very same ship we were on trying to get passengers back to the ship aftter a shore excursion. You can see from its size that it would be a lot of work taking everything to shore and then bringing it back again.
New Years Eve they put on a big show in the open area on deck but as luck would have it it pissed down like crazy. The band and everyone had to move inside. We stayed outside with our new friends Robert and Rosa from Austria.
New Years Day we're in a town called Soufriere on the island of St. Lucia.
Here's a shot from thee ship.
Here's a more accurate shot.
Actually the town wasn't that bad - just someplace you'd never want to return to. We saw numerous people sleeping on the steets (it might be due to the fact that last night was New Years Eve) and there just wasn't a warm and fuzzy vibe about this town. The only reason the ship stops here is to avoid the large crowds at the main port and for the excursions.
We went on an excursion to a botanical garden and then to an active volcano (right!).
This was an interesting bit of info:
The tree
The active volcanoe.
Our ship way out in the harbour waiting for everyone to return.
The two famous mountains of St. Lucia - Petit Piton and Gros Piton. More shots.
January 2nd and we're on the island of Dominica. Christopher Columbus discovered this island in 1493.
We're out on a whale watching tour and that's a shot looking back at the island with our ship dead centre.
The tour was advertised as a catamaran - does this look like we're sailing on a catamaran? Not quite! The two guys at the left of the pic were turd tampers - lots of them on the cruise. I saw a movie once called Cruising with Al Pacino about this same subject. (TT's not whales) Scared the sh!t outta me I'll tell ya
We saw some whales but not a lot.
We also saw a pile of dolphins racing the boat. No pics.
Another ramshackle kind of town.
One thing that always amazes me is that no matter how far you get away from home you always see familiar things.
They have fantastic sunsets here in the Caribbean.
January 3rd and we're in Nevis. Not much to report about this island. We walked around a bit and then took cab to the Four Seasons Resort where we paid an outrageous amount for a lunch that we could have had for free back on our ship.
January 4th we stopped in St. Maarten. This is an interesting island in that it is half Dutch and half French The people on the Dutch side are citizens of the Netherlands and the people on the French side are French citizens.
It is possibly the first island we might go back to someday.
When we arrived this beautiful tall ship was moored beside us.
This is a shot of Philipsburg - the main city of the Dutch side.
Some more friends we met on the boat - Mel and Judi.
And this is the main city of the French side.
When we arrived back at our ship we see a huge cruiser has docked beside us.
The ship is freaking huge but it is slightly smaller than the Costa Concordia which hit a rock and capsized in 2012.
Jauary 5 is another beach barbeque day on Prickly Pear Island.
Prickly Pear Island from the ship. Look at that blue water!
Another fantastic sunset after a great day at the beach.
Tuesday January 6 we were supposed to stop at the island of Anguilla but the weather was not suitable for tendering everyone to shore so the captain decided to go to St. Barts instead. There was a rumour going round that he has a girlfriend there and that was the real reason for the detour.
At any rate it was another island that may require a return trip.
The rich and famous like this island. The yacht shown below, The Eclipse, is owned by Roman Abramovich. It's close to 600 feet long and cost over $400 million. He has a total of five yachts totalling over $1.5 billion. See them here.
There's plenty of other yachts in the harbour too.
I checked out the one shown below. It's a rental and it goes for $750,000 per week.
A shot of the harbour from up the hill.
What is shown below is the St. Barts airport. Just above and a bit to the left of centre is the single runway. The planes must come over the hill in the distance and then immediately drop down to the runway and then put the brakes on big time. We were on a taxi tour and our driver stopped so we could see a plane coming in and landing. You would need to be a good pilot I'm sure.
I found a couple YouTube videos of planes landing at this airport
[Vid 1](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PTzJE8l9BE
Another very ritzy beach below. A lot of famous people vacation here apparently. Our taxi driver told us he was Selma Hayek's personal driver this past Xmas season. Big hairy deal!
January 7 and we're in St. Johns, Antigua.
Looking out our window this morning and it's like looking in a mirror - the spitting image of our ship is docked beside us - its the Seabourn Spirit - a sister ship of the Legend. Both of these ships - the Spirit and the Legend - have been sold to the Windstar Cruises company. No more small ships for Seabourn.
Also in port today are a couple of giants. The Carnival Breeze and the Costa Mediteranea
We went on a snorkelling trip today and we could see all four ships docked side-by-side on our return.
Unreal size.
The Seabourn ships carry about 208 passengers. The larger ships carry about 3,500 or more. I can't imagine what it would be like and I can't imagine ever wanting to find out.
The next cruise we're taking is on the Seabourn Quest which carries about twice as many pasengers as the Legend. Just over 400.
Anyway, apart from the ships not much else to say about Antigua.
January 8th finds us on the island of Martinique. It appears to be a very popular harbour for the sailboat crowd.
Like all good tourists we went on a bus tour.
Today tyhe first stop was at the birthplace of Josephine, First Empress of France. You remember her don't you? Married Napoleon?
This is a picture of the ruins of the sugar refinery which still exists on the plantation where she was born and raised.
Then we went to a rum distillery. Yummy.
A couple more strangler trees at the distillery.
A shot of the grounds. Martinique is a very green island and may be worth a return sometime.
After the rum distillery we stopped to look at a banana plantation.
The next shot and the one following are young bananas. When they are young they grow downward.
Then as they mature they start growing upward. At this point they put a plastic gab over the entire bunch to prevent insects from having their way with them.
Each banana tree produces only one bunch.
January 9th was another day at sea. We're heading to Bonaire the last island on our trip.
January 10 and cruise is just about over. We're on Bonaire today and its the B in the ABC islands. Another very flat island.
Another snorkelling trip today but nothing very exciting happened. The bums didn't even bring any beer. We'll have to be more careful on future cruises about the excursions we purchase.
Tomorrow we're back to Aruba where we started from two weeks ago. We're going to stay an additional 4 nights at a Marriot hotel right on the beach. Stay tuned.