Mariner Friends and Crew Members

Cut & paste the link below on another browser tab to see some great photos.  Then click on first photo to enlarge it.  Captions will be in upper right corner.  Mid photo there is an arrow to go through rest of photos.

https://goo.gl/photos/Ds4bDUJcVhYdWjJo8

Post Cruise Wrap Up

     This is probably more for me but I have posted more than 2800 photos that I took on this glorious cruise.  The blog was viewed 4563 times by you which is 450 times more than my world cruise blog.  I find that amazing and shows me that you are enjoying the time I spend working on blogs.
     We have booked another long cruise on Regent.  The cruise starts on January 9, 2013, and is from Auckland, New Zealand, to Beijing, China for a total of 66 days.  Yes, there will be a blog!
     Thanks for spending time with me and my blogs.
Rick

Saturday, March 17th--At Sea

     Well, all good things must end.  Tomorrow morning we will be back at the port in Ft Lauderdale to end our 72 day cruise.  In ways it has been better than our world cruise mainly because we have made many great friends from Australia, Canada, and Europe plus even some Americans.
     We have been packing all day long.  We have 9 suitcases weighing over 400 pounds total.  Over half is being shipped home via FedEx.  We have to have the luggage sitting outside our suite by 11pm tonight.  I printed our American flight boarding passes for our 1:10pm departure tomorrow.
     We are meeting 3 other couples for drinks in the Observation Lounge at 6:15.  Then we have a 7pm reservation for dinner in Signatures, the French restaurant.  We are not fond of French food but that is where we could get a table for 8.  I call dinner the last night of a cruise, "The Last Supper"!  It will be fun tonight but at same time really sad.
     We tried to book another Regent cruise this afternoon.  It would be on Jan 9, 2013 and is a segment of the 2013 world cruise.  It is a 66 night cruise from Auckland, New Zealand to Beijing, China.  We are on the waitlist for it so not definite.
     It has been another fabulous day at sea.  This has been one of the over all smoothest cruises to date.  Today we have enjoyed smooth seas, deep blue Caribbean water, just some scattered clouds, and temp in the 70's.
     Hope you all have enjoyed my blog.  It takes a lot of time to do but I really enjoy doing it.  The number of "hits" on this blog was 4172.  It exceeded my world cruise blog as it had 4085 views.  Thanks!!
     Next week will be very busy opening mail, preparing income taxes, and seeing podiatrist to fix my ingrown big toe nail.  On that note, I better bring this to an end.  We have traveled over 25,000 miles in the past 72 glorious days.

Friday, March 16th--Cruising in Caribbean Sea

     Wish you could see what we are looking at out our balcony today.  I few scattered clouds, beautiful deep blue ocean water, and another larger cruise ship in the distance.  I was up on deck this morning walking and was very pleasant 77F with fresh air breeze.  There are some little flying fish at times which is typical down here.
     At 11:15am there is a party for all the full 72 day cruisers.  They call us "the rounders" as we circled South America.  Kind of a strange time for a party but think the ship's management wants to thank us.  I'm hoping we will also get a CD with highlights of this cruise.  They have a camera man who has been documenting it.  Tonight is formal optional dress so will be wearing the tux.  We will be dining with Dave & Marge from CA.
     I think we will enjoy the day and wait to pack bags until tomorrow.  Will be a disaster in the suite when packing.

St Bart's photos

ST BART'S PHOTOS

                                                   Right outside our balcony today

                                                          Gustavia, the capitol of St Bart's

                                                                  Beautiful water

                                                   My Yellow Submarine tour

                                                             Getting safety instructions

 Inside of sub.  Windows are below water.  The boat stays above water.  Very cramped quarters.

                                                            Three "nurse sharks"

                                         Forgot what she said this fish was but photogenic.

                                                  Wrecked fishing boat from hurricane

                                                                   nurse shark

                                                         The coral is alive

               Green sea turtle.  They can stay submerged 30 minutes before going up for air.

                                                                      Sea turtle

                                              The Yellow Submarine I was on earlier.

                                                                     Nice ride!!

Thursday, March 15th--St Barts

   DINNER WITH 4 CREW MEMBERS
          Seated is Faye--a bartender
          Standing on left is Sally--a wine sommelier in dining room
          Center is George--Our waiter in the Compass Rose dining room
          On right is Putu--a bartender
  Let me start today talking about our dinner last night with the four crew members.  They were all very punctual in meeting us at 7pm.  We were not use to seeing them out of uniforms and looked very nice.  We were seated in the central part of the Compass Rose, main dining room.  I requested that location so the other passengers could see them enjoying themselves.  After a group photo we started the evening with me making a champagne toast to them.  The General Manager, Franck, came by our table to say hi to them (I ask him to do that).  Donald, the new asst Food & Beverage Mgr, also came by to say hi.  We had a wonderful dinner and lively conversation.  We ALL had a wonderful evening.  One that they will not soon forget, nor us.  I have had several passengers approach me today telling me how great it was that Rebecca and I did that for them.
     Today we are anchored off the coast of the French island of St Bart's which is 125 miles east of San Juan and we can see the island of St Maarten 15 miles from here.  It rarely rains here and year round temperatures range from 72 to 86F.  There are 20 white sand beaches on the island which is arid so everything must be shipped to the island, including food.  The bay is full of some VERY nice yachts and big sail boats.
     I went on a hour trip in a Yellow Submarine.  Rebecca stayed in the suite again today.  The sub went over a ship wreck and along a coral reef to see fish, some sharks, and green sea turtles.  I did see fish but expected to see a lot more species.
     The Caribbean ocean is such a pretty deep blue and very relaxing as we look out at it from our balcony.  We will sail at 4:30pm and next stop is Ft Lauderdale on Sunday morning.  Double YUK!

St Lucia photos

                                         ST LUCIA PHOTOS

                                                Night photo leaving Bridgetown, Barbados

                                                               My tour group

                                               Some photos of the not so nice housing

                                                  Entrance to La Toc gun battery

                                                   This is the gun emplacement

 The 10 inch (bore) cannon was found down the hill and a bulldozer pushed it back up.  The dozer broke down before the cannon could be turned and placed back on gun mounting.

          The 10 incher had a range of 3 miles and looked out at entrance to the harbor.

                                 Looking down at where ammo was stored and gun crew lived.

                                                                   Shell lift

 The shells for the newer and smaller guns that replaced the 10 inch gun in earlier photo.  The new guns had over twice the range of old one.

                                                Old beer and wine bottles from then

                                              Shells were lifted to this door for use

                                             Shopping stop and demo of batik making

                                                        Example of batik

                                                    Views from back of the shop

                                                 This use to be used to store gun powder.

                                    The US oil company, Hess, had a huge oil storage facility.

 Not a good shot but in distance there are 14 huge oil storage tanks.  Each can hold 9 million barrels of oil.  The oil comes from Venezuela to be stored then is taken on smaller tanker ships to refinery on St Croix.

                                Looking down on the largest banana plantation on St Lucia

                                   Marigot Bay--Several movies made here including "Jaws".

 We tasted "banana ketsup".  Ok, but I did not buy a bottle.  Made with bananas instead of tomatoes.

                                                   Banana plantation during rain shower

                               Blue bags to protect banana bunches from intense sun and insects.

 A tree will only produce one bunch of bananas so they then cut it down.  There are young "suckers" that grow to take its place.

 Our guide said we could buy a house here for around $250,000.  Having a maid would cost $200 a month.

                         The old wooden houses in the little fishing village of Anse la Raye.

                                                 Shopping stalls along water

                                                    Small fishing boats

                                                    Old Catholic cemetary

                                                                     Good saying!

 As St Lucia is a British Commonweath, the Queen of England appoints a representive that lives here.

 St Mark's--A 1800's Colonial house that we toured.  People live here but open it up when cruise ships are in.

                                             They also sell souvenirs on front porch.

                                                                        Garden below

                                                "Date Palm"--They are not edible

                                                                  Our home!

                                                     View from top deck of ship