The Bollywood to South Beach Voyage – Regent Seven Seas Voyager, October 29-December 18, 2009
Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert
Part Thirty-four
December 12 (Saturday, Day 45, Cruising the Atlantic Ocean) –
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| Dr. Gay Culverhouse, former President of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers |
Snookums woke up and started getting ready to work out and then diarrhea hit. She stayed in the room most of the day and ventured outside for lunch where she ate the two cinnamon rolls that Filbert brought her in the morning for breakfast. Filbert, on the other hand, had a full day and attended the enrichment lecture on Puerto Rico and the PBS Frontline screening of “Sick Around the World”. Later in the afternoon he went to a lecture that was given by a passenger. Dr. Gay Culverhouse is sailing on the Voyager and a few days before she boarded the ship in Mumbai, she appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on “Legal issues relating to football head injuries”. She is the former president of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Filbert said that her lecture said that if you get a concussion, you should sit in a dark room for 1 week (i.e. don’t let your brain do any work) and that will help prevent the early onset of dementia that is being seen in some athletes that have had multiple concussions.
More after the jump . . . Filbert ate dinner in Signatures, the Cordon Bleu restaurant. Snookums still wasn’t up to leaving the room, so he had room service deliver cream of mushroom soup, coconut macaroons and a chocolate tart for her from Signatures so she was very happy and ate it all.Snookums fell asleep around 10 while Filbert logged on to the free Internet to listen to the SDSU men lose to Nevada, 92-72.
December 13 (Sunday, Day 46, Bridgetown, Barbados) –
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| Bridgetown |
Snookums woke up feeling better but took a dose of Imodium just to be sure. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast while docking at 9:30. We got off the ship for a quick walk around town before our noon snorkel trip. Most stores were closed since it was Sunday and that included all of the restaurant roadside stands that we saw. The grocery store was open due to the holiday season and we were shocked by the prices. A 10-pound frozen turkey was selling for $57. 1 grapefruit cost $1.75. 1 pound of bananas was $1. 1 small head of iceberg lettuce was $3.75. A 2-liter bottle of soda was $3.75. YIKES!!! This was by far the most expensive port we’ve seen on this cruise. It didn’t look like a very wealthy island although it does have the hotel that held Tiger Woods’ wedding. We also saw an 80,000 sq. foot “mansion” that is really 8 condominiums that sell for $20 million each. And Paul Allen’s private yacht, one of the five largest private yachts in the world, was docked across from our ship. So, there is some wealth on this island, but the locals probably don’t see much of it.
After our 2-hour walk we ate a quick lunch before leaving for our snorkel with the turtles trip. We got on the catamaran and after a 40-minute sail it dropped anchor very near the 80,000 square foot condo building. Pat and Erin, two workout buddies of Snookums’, were also on the catamaran. Everyone got in the water and then we saw huge sea turtles. Some of their shells were probably 4 feet long. There were 8 or 10 that kept swimming around us, enticed by the food that the crew was throwing to them. We also saw a few sting rays on the ocean floor and right as we started swimming back to the catamaran, we saw a 2-foot long puffer fish that kept swimming back and forth about 6 feet below us. The catamaran then sailed to a beach and dropped anchor and we “frolicked” in the ocean for another hour. Okay, our version of frolicking means that we stood in the ocean up to our shoulders. The waves were almost non-existent but we still had a good time talking to our fellow cruisers. We got back on the catamaran and Filbert enjoyed a few glasses of rum punch and Barbados’ Banks beer and Janet enjoyed lying on the catamaran’s net. We got back to the ship right before it was scheduled to set sail. We were both pretty wiped out from the morning walk and the afternoon of water fun. Snookums had enough energy to go to the gym to weigh herself and was happy to see that she was 4.5 pounds less than when she boarded the ship. Most of that weight loss was probably due to her gastrointestinal problems of yesterday, though.
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| Off to snorkel with the turtles-Erin, Pat, Snookums, Filbert |
The turtle snorkel and catamaran:
We had a great dinner in Compass Rose while our laundry was being washed. Filbert left during one of the courses and put it in the dryer. After dinner we stopped by the laundry room and got it out and ended up in bed by 9:45. It was a full, and very satisfying, day for us.
Next: Engine problems!
