Home Sweet Home

Well here we are domiciled back on the Gold Coast after an extremely tiring couple of days getting home, but everything was on time and we were home this morning Tuesday by 9.30 am just lost Monday completely thats all.
We had a marvellous 72 day cruise, there were a couple of little blimps here and there, but we had a great time and saw so many exciting landmarks and wonders of the world.
To be able to get through it with us both just getting a cold and bad coughs for a week or so was quite good.
There were 16 medical evacuations during the voyage and there were quite a number of sick people on board, the doctor was a busy man and of course his charges were massive.
We have a short 45 minute video of the entire cruise that we will get to show to those who are interested and I managed to get some photos posted of St Lucia and St Barths that I couldn't get up on the ship. They are installed on the days posts we were there.
Well folks here endeth the blog of the Seafaring Duo until next time, not sure when that will be, we'll sit back take in some fresh air and when we get the air out of the medicine ball that has been established, we may look to do something. Thanks for taking the time to read about our journey and to those who posted comments thanks very much. Bye now, cheow, see you around!!!!

The Pilot jumping off the ship out of St. Barths.

Some fish coming ashore in St Lucia.

Pink Dolphin.

Our home away from home on the mighty Amazon River check the water colour.

St. Barths and on our way to Fort Lauderdale

We had a fantastic visit to St Barths, a small island only 8sq. miles but full of beautiful coves and beaches, lush scenery and the tiniest airport you've ever seen.

The strip is only 2100 feet long (700 yards) and the planes come in and virtually drop onto this tiny strip. If they miss they're in the drink. We took a taxi (provided by Regent) to go around the island. The driver was very good and explained all the details to us. The shopping here is very expensive but the window shopping was good even though Gloria hates it with a passion. Saw some of the biggest yachts we've ever seen and luxury cruisers a dime a dozen.

We've enjoyed all three Caribbean islands and i'm a bit p.....d off that I can't load photos so they may have to wait until we get home.
Currently its midday here on Sunday (2am Monday in Qld.) and we're rushing to get to Fort L.it never seems to amaze me how on the last day the ship goes like crazy to get home. We'll dock tomorrow morning at 6 am and have to be off by 9am.

We had a great day yesterday. There was a morning meeting of the circumnavigators. As we walked into the theartre all the officers and crew were there and clapped us in. Then then proceeded to view a 45 minute DVD of the cruise. It was quite emotional and there were a lot of tears flowing.

Gloria on the putting green!
It's no wonder many have rebooked to go on future cruises (all of this type of length) Regent do it so well. Its the best cruise we've been on and I'm sure if we do it in the future we'll be doing it with Regent.
Well we have to get on with the packing and we'll be home Tuesday morning all being well and planes on time etc.

Thanks for taking the trouble to view our blog, when I get the time I'll probably sit down and read it myself. So bye now, see you around, Chow ( the Captains saying).

Castries - St Lucia

St Lucia spans 22 miles long by 14 wide and is a breathtaking destination. It is well known for its exotic beaches, green mountains, volcano’s, fishing villages and banana plantations. Castries is the capital of St Lucia.

We did a wonderful tour up through the Morne hills, very steep in parts. Went to a place where they did batik and then of course sold it. Some nice, not mad on it myself.We passed small communities and had picturesque views of the Atlantic and Caribbean coasts of the island.

Then went to Stony Hill, the private residence of Dr Sony a neuro surgeon and his wife. Its on Sthe top of the Island and very lovely as it looks down over Rodney Bay, an exclusive part of the island. Beautiful house and gardens, which we could roam at leisure, pool and entertainment area. 

They served us with cod fish in batter and you could have a banana ketchup or hot spicy sauce on it.  Both good. Also had small cakes and a soft drink. Was a wonderful hour we spent there, Tony also got the opportunity to speak to the Dr and talk about the area. Then back down the mountain past banana plantations, these crops are exported to England.

We got out in town, not far from the ship and wandered around the vegie markets, not so good. Big bread fruits and small mangoes, not quite ready for eating. They have many bars about the size of our bedroom and they drink or play cards etc, they always seems to have someone in them whatever the time of day. 

Dinner last night in the Prime 7 restaurant with an English couple called Tony and Frances, so will remember them.

These islands are so beautiful, so green and lush vegetation, we are very fortunate to be able to see it. Tomorrow we will be in St Barths, it’s getting closer to D Day, but we are ready to come home now we know the time has come.
Unfortunately we are unable to post photos, once I work it out I'll put them up. Sorry!

Bridgetown Barbados in the beautiful Caribbean

One of the many places we’ve wanted to visit is the Caribbean, and it was an exciting time when we docked in Bridgetown Barbados one of the more important islands. The pop. is approx. 500,000 spread over the island 21 miles long by about 11 wide.

From our cabin we immediately recognised the cricket oval just a couple of hundred meters from our ship. We drove past it and it will only be a few weeks and we should be watching the cricket there on TV at home.

Virtuoso our travel agency conducted an excursion where we travelled up the West Coast of the Island where all the expensive hotels, golf clubs, and elaborate homes are located. It was so pretty, very flat but as we drove east across the island the topography changed into quite hilly areas affected by the prevailing winds, sugar and banana plantations and some large surf on the beaches.

Visited a church going back to the 1600’s which had a cemetery behind that was very interesting seeing the different headstones and tombs, there was even a sun dial showing the exact time of day.

We then drove back across the middle of the island’s farming areas to the highlight of the excursion, lunch at a place called Champers restaurant.

This is the restaurant from the beach. Our table was on the far right.

Prawn Salad with mango, yummo!!!!!!

Wow, this was located on the sea on a point overlooking a fantastic beach, with the day being almost perfect, the colour of the sea and the sandy beach made for picture perfect photos.

Spot the bar and beach umbrellas!!!!!

The meal was amazing, T chose a prawn salad, with grilled mahi mahi followed by a rum based cake. G, had spring rolls, thai chicken, and creamy coconut pie. There was plenty of drink to go with it. What a meal! What a day, What a lovely island to be recommended to all.
Tomorrow we'll be in St Lucia and then onto St Bart's.

Devil's Island French Guiana on the way to Bridgetown Barbados

Ile du Diable, better known as Devil’s Island is one of 3 closely spaced small islands lying 6 miles off the Coast of French Guiana, they formed part of the infamous penal colony that functioned in French Guiana from1852 until 1946.

It was the island known as Ile Royale that served as the main administrative centre and where the vast majority of surviving buildings have been preserved and maintained. The island is well known as the place where Papillon the movie was portrayed. We tendered ashore and began a walk around the island which takes approx. 2 hours depending on how much time you spend exploring the buildings and museums. In a way it was a bit like Port Arthur, a place all prisoners were given a hard time, lots in solitary confinement cells, death row  and a site for the guillotine. The bars on the cells and the irons for chaining prisoners to their beds indicate the harshness of the prison regime.  It is a very pretty place although very hot and humid whilst we were there.

We are at sea today on our way to Bridgetown Barbados where we arrive at 9 tomorrow.

We’ve had some fun times, last night they held an auction for the “crew welfare fund” where they auctioned off heaps of articles like the charts of the cruise to Amazon River , flags all signed by the crew, the Captains jackets and epaulettes, but the highlight was when he dropped his trousers and auctioned them off! He did have another pair underneath so no dramas there.

The function raised over $8000 so well worthwhile.

Captain Felice a lovely man next to Terry Breen a lecturer on board.

Today we had “The old Country Fair” where the crew set up a number of games for everyone to participate in, like balloons filled with water that you threw at them, darts, basketball, the casino crew had a blackjack comp. horse racing where you wound a cotton reel with a horse on the end to the wining post. Gloria even threw into the basketball ring and won every time. Old skills eh!

Good fun enjoyed by all.

Unfortunately time is slipping by too quickly now and in a week we should be domiciled in Southport. We are now looking forward to coming home. We realise that 72 days is a long time and we have thoroughly enjoyed every minute. We could not answer the question of “ what was the highlight of the cruise”? there have bee so many, so varied and each one has been an amazing experience. A lot of our friends have already signed up for new cruise next year of durations from 78 days to 130 days. We are not quite ready to do that, except we know that cruises of 14  maybe 20 days are now too short.

Parintis - Amazon River - Brazil

Parintins stands out as the most hospitable cultural city in the region. Its people exhibit an artistic expression recognised worldwide due to their folkloric festival. Its pop. is around 72,000 and  it is located on the Is. of Tupinambarana. Parintins distinguishes itself from other cities because everything in the city breathes culture, magic, beauty and happiness year round. The Bio Bumba festival is held here every year at the end of June and is the biggest annual festival in Amazonas. They put on a show for us today at the convention centre and about 500 of the 700 guests all turned up for it.

It was a mixture of African and European origins. Combining theatre, drums (plenty of them) music (very loud) dancing and circus. The props were very good, the dancing fair and altogether  too loud. In the end I just had to get out and you know I love dancing and music. 

The river was running very fast and the tenders had to go against the current so made it longer to get us all to shore. They didn’t start the show until the last tender was unloaded. The people who got the first tender weren’t pleased about this as they had been waiting in the centre for 2 hours and started clapping and calling out for the show to start. Very poor show on their behalf we thought.I did walk up the street after I left but being close to the port couldn’t see anything that looked interesting or even exciting. Have to be careful around the Amazon and we were warned about wearing gold. One lady nearly had her gold necklace snatched yesterday but saved the pendant by grabbing it but the thief got away with the necklace. Fortunately it was the pendant that was the costly bit. So got the tender back with only 5 on it, guess when the show ended they would all have had to wait again.

The Captain is pulling up the anchor and we’re off to Santarem tomorrow, our last Brazilian port.

Our Honourary Australians

The Mighty Amazon River

There really aren’t enough superlatives to describe this phenonomen, (sorry not sure the spelling is correct) the “mighty amazon”! How fortunate are we to be able to sail on this amazing river. Our guide yesterday said that there are only about 12 cruise ships a year sail 1000 miles up the river to the City of Manaus so that is really something considering there are currently 48 cruise ships off Brazil. Here is a major place in Brazil with a population of 2 mill. that will host 4 matches in the World Cup of soccer to be held in 2014 in Brazil.

It is supposed to be a pristine part of the world, this rain forested jungle, yet it has to be the dirtiest river or sea we have been on. Over 850 river boats, 20,000 taxi’s and today we saw all this food or junks of it being thrown into the river (even saw a TV passing by). If we dare throw a piece of paper or anything at all it is immediate expulsion, no beg pardons, you’re off.

From the tiny villages to this large City dotted along the River, there is always something going on. 

Yesterday we did an excursion called the Meeting of the River’s. It is where the Rio Negro River meets the Rio Solimoes and creates two definite colours. So we were in this ferry boat that went down the river for an hour to the place where the two rivers meet to see this and were quite surprised to find it was not as good a spectacle as we saw at Boca de Valeria the day before. 

What was exciting was this massive black cloud looming over the top of us as we were about to board these narrow boats holding about 10 people to cruise into to the jungle and the rain forest.

There were about 6 boats that set off and no sooner had we entered into the jungle when we  were met with horrendous thunder and lightning and the biggest storm we’ve ever seen with pelting rain. As you may imagine even though the little boat had a top on it we were all soaking wet, but what an experience. Beautiful birds, low canopies of bush, we even came across some fishermen netting large catfish and this little boat crashing into logs, we came across some large lillie‘s at least 2 meters in diameter and the guide picked some up to reveal these large thorns underneath WOW! 

We then had to get back to our ferry boat and another hour later got back to the ship and had to weather another almighty storm as we re boarded. 

Woops, What's that!

Today, as we had stayed overnight, we did an excursion of the City of Manaus, dirty bloody place, went to the Zoo and saw some animals not seen before, then onto the famous Opera House, Circa 1896 a truly beautiful theartre and were fortunate to witness an orchestra, (maybe 50 people) practising, that made it a remarkable highlight. 

We then went to an Indian Museum which was okay, really not our scene and then back to the ship for lunch.

We witnessed again a number of pink dolphins around the port, we have seen several, but not yet been able to get a photo, (please check it out on Google) to get some idea of the beauty of these fish). Well I’ve prattled on for long enough, please forgive, but this is something else!!!!!!!!!