Cruise: Half Moon Cay

Half Moon Cay is the private island in the Bahamas owned by the cruise company - so no big pier means small boats take you over to the island which is essentially just a really nice beach without anything much else to do. Sounds good right - except when it is raining like crazy which is what we woke up to that morning!

Half Moon Cay in the rain

We weren't going to let that stop us though and as the rain subsided a little we headed down to get the boat over to the island. I thought the boat ride in the wind was fun but other people didn't seem so happy, it was only 5-10 minutes though.

So just as we start to walk towards the beach to find a spot it started raining again. Proper tropical rain where you are soaked after about 30 seconds. Once again, being someone who works on understanding tropical rainfall for a living I found it quite exciting, but all the other people huddled under shelters didn't seem quite so enthused. In fact, people seemed quite angry about the rain. The heavy rain didn't last too long and we found some sun loungers down the beach under a tree. I relaxed and watched people for a while and Matt took a swim. It really was beautiful even in the rain - and the rain meant a lot of people stayed on the boat (crazy people) so it wasn't so busy.

We knew there was a guided nature hike you could pay for on the island so we decided to just follow the nature hike trail alone. It wasn't very long but it was an enjoyable stroll to see some of the native plants and a few animals - of course Matt found some Bahama's mushrooms!

On the nature trail

The trail led along the island towards the far end of the beach and we came out by where the horse stables were for rides along the beach. It did look like fun but I didn't think it was worth the price when you could walk.

View from the end of the beach, including a wedding. We ended up sitting by them later that night at Karaoke

We walked back to our spot on the beach and both headed into the water for some snorkeling and swimming. The water was so clear and warm and the sand so soft. We weren't really expecting to see much so close to the beach but as there weren't a lot of people we were pleasantly surprised to find a school of fish right by the beach. They weren't scared of us and at one point had me completely surrounded.

We found a little fishy all by itself!

Fish everywhere!

What a great view with the dark clouds and perfect blue water

 After getting out of the water we had some slight drama on finding someone had lost their S&S card (i.e. what gets you back on the boat, into your room and to pay for anything). It was about 1.30 ish at this point so we decided to head back to the boat to deal with it and have lunch rather than staying on the boat and taking the chance that someone wasn't using the card themselves.

Hungry? Our cabin was on the other side at the back - the row of windows below the red line

We got back on the boat (this is why you take some ID with you off the boat), got a new card, had lunch and watched some more rain! It really started raining a lot more consistently at this point and the ship actually ended up leaving a little early as everyone had left the island. We both enjoyed Half Moon Cay even in the rain (it was still warm after all) so I can only imagine what it is like in the sun!

The evening consisted of more karaoke (not me, no one wants to see that), drinks and food. I can't quite remember if this was the night we had the most delicious black bean and vegetable enchiladas for dinner or not but they were amazing. Maybe my favorite food from the whole cruise! We also enjoyed the Quest game with the cruise director. Let's just say that some people are crazy and will do almost anything and leave it at that!

Time to sing for some people

One more day in the Bahamas on land to go. This cruise was going by way too fast!

Rain won't stop us from having fun!

Cruise: Grand Turk

It's time to stand on dry land! We were up early, as our cabin was low down and at the back we could really hear the engines when the ship was maneuvering in to ports. No bad thing really as it was good to be up early on those days. We had ordered room service breakfast the night before and it arrived right on time - yummy bagels with smoked salmon. Room service is even better when it is free!

We then headed out to the forward stairs to get off the boat. The stairs were packed with people waiting to get off, but we didn't have to wait too long to go down to deck 0 - the benefits of being in the cheap rooms at the bottom :-)

We headed off the boat and to our only excursion that we had booked - snorkeling. We had to wait for a little while for everyone to arrive as debarkation was a little slow for some, but after a wait we were loaded up onto a boat and headed to "The Wall". 

Just in case you weren't sure where you were

Not much better than this!

It was around this point that the whole pot of coffee Matt drank for breakfast was making him a bit wobbly. Nevertheless, we got our snorkel gear on (we had our own) and jumped into the warm clear water. We were a way off the beach at the point where the reef drops off from 20-30 feet deep to over 7000 feet deep and it was amazing. The perfect time to try out our new underwater digital camera.

The fish were not afraid

Couldn't get much deeper than this. Definitely couldn't touch the bottom

We also sneaked some cereal off the boat. Turns out fish love cornflakes and will almost bite your fingers off to get it - those teeth are surprisingly sharp. It was very cool to be surrounded by so many fish everywhere. It wasn't a colourful coral reef but it was fun to swim around, back and forth over the wall and just watch all the fish. I even found a little zebra fish after swimming away from the group.

Just an idea of how many fish there were

This boat got washed ashore during a hurricane (I think the captain said Sandy)

After a while we got back on the boat and went to snorkel site number 2. This was closer to the beach with fewer fish but more sharks. I even got to swim down and touch one! Matt wasn't feeling too good at this point but he at least got in to see the nurse sharks hanging out.

Nurse sharks (note: no sharknados here)

Matt doing his thing. Much shallower here.

Here's a video of the sharks and me swimming down to touch it. It's a much better quality on my laptop but I had to degrade it to get it to upload. Anyway, hopefully you get the point!

Back on the boat and back to shore. After waiting a while at the beach and me searching the terminal area for a can of something fizzy we decided to head down the beach. We walked straight past Margaritaville (a nice pool but the beach was better) and past the main beach area and lounge chairs. We made it to Jack's Shack, and enjoyed some conch fritters (not as good as I hoped) and a local beer (better than I hoped). After a while in the sun, we were getting pretty hot so it was a stroll back down the beach, a stop in duty free and back on the boat. Getting back on was quick and easy but we watched everyone else in a huge line from the 3rd floor promenade with a nice cold drink!

I can't remember what we did that evening, but it more than likely involved karaoke, food and drink. Another early start the next day so we didn't stay out too late. What a great day in Turks and Caicos!!

Excited about snorkel time in Grand Turk

Blogger Fail

... I have been terrible at updating my blog recently. I promise to get some updates this weekend on at least some things from my list...

* The rest of the cruise (including actual islands and not just boat stuff)
* Camping in Vermont
* Trip to Colorado
* Swimming and camping in Ithaca

... It's pretty warm here (like everywhere it seems) and sitting with a hot laptop on my lap just hasn't seemed like a good idea. Maybe I could use the dining table but really, isn't that just a storage area? :-)

...I'll be back soon.

Sea Days 1 and 2

Sea Day 1:

Started out with purchasing the Cheers package - the drink package they have on the ships. You had to buy it the day you get on or the next day and so we picked today as we had wine with us the first night and wanted to get our value for money! We headed to brunch in the main dining room. This was the only time we actually went to the brunch. The food was good, as were the mimosa's and bloody Mary's.  We were on vacation after all! It was supposed to be a comedy brunch but there were no signs of any comedians.

After brunch we decided to try out the mini golf course up on the top deck. It was sunny, but the wind was pretty chilly so there weren't many people around. The wind made it somewhat challenging but I won in the end!

Golf time in the Atlantic Ocean

The rest of the day was spent participating in various activities, mainly trivia games - one of which we actually won! We lay outside for a while reading in the afternoon but the wind made it tough. That night was "elegant night" so while Matt took a nap, I hung out at the bar in the casino at the captains meet and greet watching all the people who were already dressed up for early dinner (we had anytime dining rather than assigned early/lat dinner). I tried a few different cocktails and all were good. I went back down to the cabin and we made an effort to get dressed up for dinner.

Pre-dinner drinks at the atrium bar

We got a few pictures taken at some of the many backdrops. They take pics for free and then display them the next day and you can buy any you want (or none at all). We did actually buy one - a nice cheesy one with a piano. Before dinner we watched the best sunset of the whole trip out on the deck and followed that with lots of lobster at dinner! I also tried the chilled strawberry soup, which basically tasted like melted McDonald's strawberry milkshake - weird. The good thing about cruising - you can order as many or as few dishes as you want so I got some salad too :-) Can't remember what we did after dinner - just hanging out around the ship probably!

What a great sunset!

Sea Day 2:

Finally the sun and warmth combined, at last! We started the day with a 2-3 mile run around the running track. This was our only workout of the whole trip, although we did take the stairs the majority of the time rather than take the lifts. After breakfast at the buffet we found a couple of loungers in the adult only serenity zone which were a lot nicer than the general loungers by the pool and with fewer people and a bar. We relaxed in the sun with my favourite pina coladas and watched the ocean.

So so soooo delicious. Seriously. I want one now!

We had a few breaks for food, more trivia, more food and ended the day with more comedy. Doesn't sound like the most exciting day but it was wonderfully relaxing and warm :-)

Towel animal 2 and a Fun Times,
which lists all the activities for the next day

Towel animal 1