Barbados
The trip from Trinidad to Barbados took us into the Atlantic again and the swells were noticeable but not severe. We were able to dance for most of the evening, most of the time to our private four piece orchestra. In the morning I was up at 0600 and watched as we approached the port then assisted the Captain to dock the ship. Another passenger considered the docking to be quite miraculous considering he had only limited success parallel parking his car.
The day was rather overcast but quite warm. We took the $2 shuttle into Bridgetown and navigated the tour sellers on the street. We really found nothing of interest from the shopping perspective so we walked along the boardwalk beside the old port. Again there were an abundance of street vendors. We had been watching one fellow introduce himself to as many as would stop to talk. I overheard his name several times so when he approached me I said: “hello Andrew,” before he had time to make his introduction. Well, he was speechless and the look on his face was priceless. I suppose he was trying, unsuccessfully, to recollect our last meeting. I finally confessed but he was too rattled to actually continue his sales pitch.
As we returned to the shuttle pickup location a taxi driver approached with an offer to take us to the port for the $2 shuttle fee. It was quite apparent that he was operating as a wildcat and he scrupulously avoided any close contact with police. He finally found a drop location, accepted his fee and departed, quickly. As we walked into the port we caught this view of a little cruise ship.
All efforts to find a reliable, free WIFI service failed. I had hoped to be able to download software for my new GoPro but that will have to wait. Even though I have considerable free internet time on the ship it is too slow and unreliable to consider a significant download.
Martinique (cover photo)
Since Martinique is French and it is a Sunday we are taking a snorkelling tour. Although nobody is certain, the general opinion is that there will be few, if any, stores open. Perhaps if we were a large ship they would use one of their five Sundays per year to open the shops. We did share the port with an Oceania ship, the Riviera which appeared to be about twice our size or a bit more.
After breakfast we put together the rest of our snorkelling kit in the bag and were among the first to disembark to meet our tour. Our snorkelling boat was moored very near our berth and soon the 40 or so brave souls were on route to the first of two locations. The boat moored along a rock face about 500 metres from where a bat colony lived in a cave.
Most of us swam to the cave entrance quite easily. There was some activity in the water as we approached the cave but the water was rather deep. It was a unique if unspectacular location. Returning to the boat was an ordeal for everyone. The swells were about one to two metres and there was a moderate tidal current which made the swim feel more like 1500 metres. Two guests required an assist returning the final few metres.
Our second site was an anchorage a few hundred metres off a small beach. There was a small reef in shallow water near the beach and it offered some marine life to view. Fewer guests entered the water here, I suppose the initial experience was quite enough. When I returned to the Ocean Princess I was quite pleased with the performance of my new GoPro camera. It offers a rather different approach to photography but the image quality is rather impressive.
We took a brief walk into the port area after lunch. As expected, there were no shops open except for a few temporary tents near the port entrance and a small flea-market area further along the waterfront. It was a beautiful day and as soon as we walked far enough from the water to lose the sea breeze we realized how hot it actually was so after returning to the ship we again went for the water, partly to cool off and partly to nurse muscles taxed by the morning swim.
We have been fortunate to have four fantastic companions at the dinner table. The table was set for eight but we have never seen the fourth couple. Margaret and Gunnar, a mother and son from Arizona, and Tony and Sue from the UK have been with us for every dinner and we never seem to lack for conversation topics or reasons to laugh.