At Sea - Bound for Ft Lauderdale - Feb 14, 2009

This day was a sea day, our last full day of cruising. We had our last balcony breakfast (there is no room service on the morning you disembark) and then we started to prepare to leave the ship. Joyce started packing and I went down to cash some traveler’s checks for tip money. By lunch time Joyce had things well in hand and we had the best lunch ever in the dining room.

I checked email and did some writing for the journal and prepared to use my remaining internet time. Unfortunately, I could not seem to connect even though the computer could see the network. I assume the satellite was down. Joyce got her nap in and the ship sailed smoothly on toward Ft Lauderdale. At 3:20 PM we had about 240 nautical miles remaining on our cruise.

During the afternoon Joyce had her nap and I went for a walk on the promenade deck. I think they said 2.7 laps equals 1 mile. It would be a much nicer walk had they kept it on one level. Every lap also includes 22 steps up and 22 steps down. The air temperature was in the mid 70’s so it was quite pleasant, even more so if you averaged the fact that walking down the port side in the sun you broke a sweat which chilled you as it evaporated while on the starboard side in the shade.

Carol Lott would have enjoyed this stretch. As I started walking a Carnival ship was moving up fairly close on our starboard side. The sun was hitting the side that was toward us and it was so white it almost hurt your eyes to look at it, but it was beautiful. Looking ahead I could see 3 other vessles, 2 of which I thought were also cruise ships. The other of the 3 turned out to be a barge loaded with containers pulled by an ocean going tug.

The Carnival ship was steaming hard to pass us (we were only making about 17 or 18 knots) and cut right across our bow. Once they were a little ahead and on our port side they slowed to about our speed and were visible the rest of the day. They other two ships were much further ahead, but were also visible all afternoon. In addition, during most of the afternoon we could see some of the Bahamas islands to port. So there was no feeling of being alone on an empty sea on this day.

I got on the net and made a final mail check then decided I would rather relax and read rather than max out my net minutes. We finished the day with dinner and then headed back to the cabin to pack our dinner clothes and get the bags out for pick up. We settled in for our final night of sleep on the ship.

After a slightly cool, then a rather rough start the last few days of the cruise were most pleasant. The temperatures were mostly in the 70’s the last part of the week which gave of lots of good time outside. The only time we were really hot was when we were on Grand Turk. The sun was bearing down and you really felt it, but step into some shade and there was a nice breeze and it was just wonderful. That was on Friday and when I checked our phone messages on line there was a message from Mayor Blinn of Papillion. He was advising there was a snow emergency from 6 PM Friday until 9 AM Saturday. This meant no on street parking to allow for snow removal. Somehow we appreciated Grand Turk even more.