On The Sea

We are on the sea to see what we can see.

It’s an easy life on board the Royal Princess. The ship is grand. Leaving ports the captain sounds the horn and if other ships are present he plays a tune. I think it is the theme song from the Godfather films, but I could be mistaken.  The food is good, and the ships company is pleasant and accommodating. At the premium coffee bar, the espresso is even tasty, and I didn’t even have to tell them to put the water in the cup first, until today.

We sailed south out of Fort Lauderdale Florida for three days over choppy seas and wind that made walking on the upper deck interesting, and added some challenging wind resistance.

We were almost to South America before we made our first port stop at Antigua, the port city of Johnskiak.

Chicken Shack

We walked from the port through the busy town, up one bustling street then down the other, and back to the port, where we waited for our bus to take us across the island where we were to paddle Kayaks and snorkel in the ocean.

Our bus was small; the driver sat up front on the right and drove on the left hand side of the road. So did all the other cars, and we discovered that driving on the left makes going through round aboots appear fatal, but soon in parking lot  traffic our bus moved  just as slow as in Florida where everyone drives on the right, and the driver sits on the left.

On the other side of the island we boarded small speed boats driven by our guides, young men that sailed at full throttle through the remaining mangroves of the island.  If we had encountered another boat going in the other direction I doubt the outcome would have been good.

Our Kayaks were plastic and we sat in the middle. They were not very comfortable, and needed a back rest, or an outboard motor.

After the kayaks we again boarded the speedboats for a run out to Bird Island. Nesting brown pelicans watched us as we cruised slowly past. White tailed tropic birds soared in the wind on the sea side of the island.

White Tailed Tropic Bird

Taking that photo I discovered that my underwater camera takes lousy photos in the air, but not so bad in the water if you can point it at what you want to shoot.

On The Reef

 

We anchored off the island and snorkeled in the current. It was a good swim going against the current away from the boat and with it going back.

After the swim they served us rum punch and banana bread. I gave my share to fellow passengers as I would not want to disappoint the culinary crew back on the ship….