Saturday – Turtle Encounter in Barbados

Both of us have been here before, mostly on Sundays, when it’s more or less shut, and neither of us really fancied the long walk into town, so I opted to spend the morning painting in the cabin. Paintings have been sold pretty much as soon as I put them on the Craft Room window – this is something I didn’t do last year, and wish I had; it means the paintings have been attracting a lot of attention from all passengers, not just those in the art classes.

After lunch, it was time for the second of our specially organised crew-only treats; a catamarran trip to swim with turtles!

I have to say, at this point, that, without a doubt, this cruise has been the most fun out of all the cruises I’ve done to date. The crew-only trips give everybody a chance to let their hair down and have a bit of fun without having to worry about responsibilities to passengers – I’ve never come across this with any other cruise (and it would certainly never happen on a Fred Olsen ship!).

The journey to the turtles location took at least an hour, possibly slightly longer. Sailing North along the coastline, everybody was in good spirits; soft drinks were served (alcohol is never served until after everybody’s been for a swim), and we just chilled, watching the world go by… thinking… how lucky are we?

When we got to the location where the turtles live, the catamarran dropped anchor, and everyone was issued with goggles, snorkels and lifejackets. We’d brought our own goggles and snorkels, but the lifejackets are a company rule (the catamarran company, that is – no lifejacket – no swimming – captain’s orders).

Then came the swimming; we were off-shore, so there was no standing on the bottom – we were in about 15 feet of water. No sooner had everyone climbed into the water than the turtles came.

It was quite an amazing, and slightly emotional experience. There were about half a dozen turtles, of various sizes, swimming about just beneath us. With the goggles and snorkels, we were able to look down onto them and see them clearly; sometimes, they would come so close that you wasn’t sure whether to move out of the way, or let them brush past you; we were advised not to touch them, grab them, or chase them… these are wild animals in their natural habitat; it felt agreat privilege to be sharing the space with them.

The encounter lasted for about a half an hour to forty minutes. Everybodyy climbed back on board thoroughly satisfied with what had just happened, and ready to party their way back to the boat.

The return journey took slightly longer because they unfurled the sails and allowed the wind to power our transit. Loud music played, the rum punch was served, and a jolly good time was had by all. At the from end of the catamarran, strung between the two hulls, was heavy duty, leather netting, where you could lie and watch the sea pass beneath you, or watch the clear blue sky pass overhead; marvellous!

Back at the port, the catamarran crew took a slight diversion, so that we could sail past the Marco Polo. Strict instructions were issued that moonies would not be tolerated; it didn’t stop a great cheer going up as we passed by – the passengers stood on deck looking down must have wondered what a bunch of renegades we must have been, not knowing for one minute that this was the crew from The Marco Polo.

Back at base, we took advantage of the free wi-fi in the terminal building until it was time to return to the ship; all-aboard time was 7:30pm – sailing at 8pm.

After dinner, we opted for another early night. The Marco Polo Orchestra were the evening entertainment in the Marco Polo Lounge, which we didn’t fancy much; the Line Dancing at 9pm appealed to us even less.

So that’s that…

Our last port of call in the Caribbean. From here, we head in a North-Easterly direction, towards The Azores – five sea-days’ sailing away… back to work tomorrow!