Sea Day

 Sea Date March 18, 2024

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Naha, Okinawa, Japan

Image
 Sea Date February 25, 2024 Day 2 Our tour concentrated on the Ryukyu Kingdom, the Imperial rulers prior to Japanese control. The Ryukyu Kingdom was a kingdom in the Ryukyu Islands from 1429 to 1879. It was ruled as a tributary state of imperial Ming China by the Ryukyuan rulers and treated as a vassal state of Japan at times.  They were the trading intermediaries between China and Japan . In 1879,Japan sent a military unit and annexed Ryukyu. Suiko, our talented, kind tour guide was back with us. It was a gray day with an off and on drizzle but still pleasant for touring.  We started at Syuri Castle Park.  It is the most famous landmark in Naha.  The G8 Summit that President Clinton attended held a large banquet here. It was the castle for the Imperial rulers of the Ryukyu kingdom.  Unfortunately, most of it was bombed in 1945, rebuilt and then burned in 2019.  The government is in the process of rebuilding trying to use authentic material and...
Read more

Panama Canal Crossing

Image
 Sea Date January 24, 2024 What an interesting day.  We started at 6:15 am on the bow of the ship to watch the sunrise and the beginning of the Canal crossing.  Throughout the entire day, Kimberly, our cruise director, shared insights about the operation and history of the Canal.  Having read The Path Between the Seas, I truly appreciated the engineering feat of this canal.  It cost our ship $367,000 to cross the canal.  Our local pilot had led 4,000 ships on this journey. We passed the Smithsonian Tropical Research Facility.  There are over 400 species of birds and butterflies in the area. We were able to see the jail that housed Noriega until his death. The pilots, trains, lines, water chambers, opening and closing of locks all work very smoothly.  It was fascinating to view the process.  I took too many pictures but it was captivating.  Locks are basically water elevators for ships.  Some ships that don't want to pay for transit ...
Read more

St George's, Grenada

Image
 Sea Date, January 20, 2024 You all will be shocked to know that I decided to skip history or nature tours and just have some crazy fun today!  (There was some research basis for the day - Grenada is a top 10 yacht destination.) I chartered a 42 foot catamaran for the day and invited 8 of our cruise friends to join us. The requirement for being invited:  no complaining, no being rude to tour guides, a go with the flow attitude, and fun! We had the perfect group for the perfect day.   As soon as we hit land, we grabbed a taxi to the Grenada Yacht Club, and boarded Bacchanal for a fabulous day on and under the water. Our first stop was to snorkel at the underwater sculpture garden.  There are dozens of 5 feet sculptures of people standing on the sea floor.  It was such an interesting sight and a bit eerie to see as we swam above. Lots of colorful fish.  My favorite was a small neon blue fish with white circles.  At the end, I saw black fish wit...
Read more