A Captain's Log

            Today's destination is Amber Cove in the Domican Republic, we had booked to go diving down some waterfalls, however my knee has been playing up for the last  couple of days and although the first part of the trip was by coach, the last 40 minutes involve quite a severe up hill climb, so I reluctantly gave in to Perdita's sensible side, and we changed our trip to a more sedate Flavours of Puerta Plata (meaning silver port) tour. The tour started at 12.30 pm and 1st stage involved a coach trip to a local farm,out in the sticks, where we were treated to a taster of 3 rums, all from the same company(Brugal), one a young dark rum, another aged in American whiskey casks and a white rum, the aged one had been aged for 10 years and was obviously the  best and being a rum drinker I bought a bottle to enjoy once I got back home with friends. Whilst at the farm,we were provided with our lunch which was a buffet if rice and a beef and chicken stew...

          After another sea day we hit Charleston in South Carolina and as most of the trips seemed overpriced for trips to gardens and plantation related houses we decided to do our own thing, especially as the town itself was so close to the dock anyway.          For an hour is so before we docked the rain had absolutely hammered it down, but stopped just as the last couple of ropes were being secured from the ship to the harbour. When we were given permission by the captain we set off on the 10 minute walk along the jetty to the port terminal and beyond onto the main road which seperated the port from the town. The roads were basically shallow canals seperating the sidewalks, so we headed left along the sidewalk in the direction of a Pineapple waterfall we had seen advertised next to a small public park both of which we fancied seeing, aparenty the pineapple is a symbol of good fortune in this neck of the woods. ...

          The next day was the half way point of our adventure, so dictated we were back at Port Canaveral for the swap over of new passengers and crew, it also meant that everyone on board had to get off the ship to go through the American immigration checks, this included all the crew members as well. Some of the life boat had been lowered, though I am not sure if that was for planned maintenance or do the immigration officers could do spot checks for stowaways or maybe a bit of both.           We had booked ourselves on a full day excursion to  Cape Canaveral Space Center, which was the most expensive trip we had booked at over £100 each, so we had high expectations. I deliberately left out one thing in earlier blogs, thinking it would fit into this nicely. On our 1st day whilst we were leaving Port Canaveral we were lucky enough to witness a space launch, which was amazing and probably the highlite of the holida...

So after 30 hours at sea we met the pilot at 6.30 am to take us into the Hudson river and to pier 90 of New York harbour, which is to be our home for the next two days of of our US trip. This week's itenary should have been the other way round and we should have gone New York and then the Bahamas, but because of the slight change in the route of the Gulf Stream we can spend less time at sea and more time in New York. By following the Gulf Stream the Captain explain that the ship could travel an extra 4 knots per hour, which doesn't sound a lot, but when you are only doing 22 knots its nearly 20% quicker and over 30 hours means an extra 120 knots in the same time, which in real terms means we have an extra 4 hours in New York.             Before you get a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty and New York, the pilot has to negotiate ''the Narrows''which is spannd by the road bridge connecting Brooklyn, the most densely populated borough of New York to...

            Today we have a short stay in Freeport on Grand Bahamas, and I mean short, just 3 hours, so Perdita and I decided to wing it, it seemed pointless paying the £45 for the ships excursion, for such a short time, so we just got of the ship and had a walk around the small market area on the dockside, there was a taxi rank there hoping to take cruisers to the market in town, which was a lot cheaper than the ships version at $14 each, but we opted to stay local, which was sufficient for Perdita to find the tatt, she collects(another shot glass and post card to find a home for). I also allowed her to visit Dick and Willy's,  for a cool cocktail, whilst I tried a couple of Sand beers, LP which is the local brew.             Now I can see all the cogs turning, wondering what Jones has to do with todays blog? Well according to the Jones Law all cruise ships have to leave US waters for at least one ...

Having to rely on free wi-fi for the next 2 weeks so the blogs could be a bit hit and miss, but here goes with the first one.          An early start on our first day, needing to be at the airport 3 hours before the flight, which was supposed to leave at 8.30 am, which soon turned into 9.30 am so the plane could be cleaned after last night late arrival. Its the 1st time Perdita and myself have flown for as long as 8 hours, our past longest being 4 hours to Zante, some 30 years ago.         But doing 8 hours to the Uther Side of Adlington would be a good tester if we wanted to go over to the middle and far east on future holidays.         With the time difference we were due to land around 1 pm US time (2pm) after our delayed take off, an hour in the port to collect our bags and negotiate  the US customs  system, then had an hours coach transfer to our home for the next 2 weeks and our 2nd stay on the Marella Disc...