It took awhile to get the Emerald Princess docked in the strong wind. As Captain Nash has said in the past, Bonaire today was hard to arrive at, but easy to leave. G and I packed up my laptop in my backpack to go back to the Internet cafe on land to download more TV series (just to see us through the next couple of days), but were separated in the mass of humanity in the Piazza waiting to disembark. That's always the case when there's a late arrival; everyone wants to get off at the same time. No worry, though. We both knew where we were going and met up on the way to the little telecenter tucked in by the Del Sol store. Whereas last time we had done this, we had been able to download about 12 hours of video over an Ethernet cable in one hour, today it took two hours just to get 8 hours of video, but we can finish out the cruise with that.
We took the laptop back to the ship and left again to do just a quick snorkel - well, I snorkeled and G floated- down the waterfront. The beauty of Bonaire is that that can be done, safely and enjoyably and for free, within a couple of minutes walk from the ship. The downside is that it leaves me with not only a dirty swimsuit (which is easily hand washed) but with a dirty rash guard and swim skirt as well. As soon as we were back on the ship, I started what will surely be my last load of laundry (praise God!) with the little bit of Tide detergent we had left. We've used two 50-ounce bottles of laundry detergent this winter, right down to the last drop. I'm not sure if that's excellent planning, or just making what we have last till the end (but I think it's the latter).
G made it out to a hot tub while I was doing laundry. Apparently another couple had noticed that the hot tub on Deck 17 aft was out of service all the time lately, and, after getting a bit of a run around about chlorine levels being out of whack (when the tub is empty??), raised enough of a stink to get the issue resolved. This has been ongoing all winter. G fought the fight once, but didn't want to have to go through it again. Luckily, someone else picked up the cause, and, hopefully, the hot tub will be open for our final three days on the Emerald Princess. The four hot tubs mid ship are too noisy for our taste, and it's quite a hike to the two quiet hot tubs in the Lotus Spa. We book this cabin simply because of its proximity to the Deck 17 hot tub; it's a bit of a let down when it's out of service.
I can't say we were hugely hungry when it came time for Dinner with Darko, but these are very numbered at this point, and we are a bit reluctant to miss even one. We took a bottle of Martini & Rossi Asti Spumante that's been floating around here (no pun intended) since the holidays to start with dinner and finish at sailaway.
Darko suggested the veal, and -heaven help me- that's what I ordered, and they were perfect together. I made G promise not to give me any of his usual "Poor little baby cow" talk, which is guaranteed to snatch any good taste right out of my mouth, and he was good to his word.
We were up on the Promenade Deck for sailaway, to watch as "the gangways were struck, the lines let go and the Emerald Princess thrust off its berth". (We've learned so much nautical talk from Captain Stenzel!).
We stayed until the lights of Bonaire were no longer to be seen, and then excitedly returned to the cabin to watch some of the TV shows we purchased from iTunes and downloaded today.
Other entertainment options were Disco: Blame it on the Boogie, and Philomena on MUTS, both strong offerings but...new TV shows. That's no contest, at this point in our winter.
