Prepared Wednesday, December 12th
This morning came way too early for me. After a very restless night, when I awoke just after 3am, those two ventilation fans in our cabin's ceiling prevented me from falling back asleep. Even with ear plugs, the noise was drilling into my head. It simply never stops. Unfortunately for Holland America, when today's Explorer was delivered to our cabin yesterday evening, there was a comment form included in it: In the event anything wasn't living up to our expectations, would we please let them know?
Well, as long as they asked...
After laying awake for two hours in the noisy dark, I grabbed a pen, found the form and took it into the bathroom where there was some light. I wrote down exactly what wasn't living up to my expectations, dressed and left the cabin to drop the form off at the Front Office. I was awake at 5am; it was time to let someone know about it. I then went to the buffet to get some of that delicious coffee, available 24 hours a day. Even at that early hour, there were crew members cleaning and getting the breakfast food stations set up.
My next stop was the Crows Nest. I thought those comfortable leather chairs and ottomans would be a good place to settle until the sun rose. I knew that today's port, Kralendjik, was on the western side of Bonaire, and that sunrise would appear right off the front of the ship. It was a good plan...for awhile. I sat sipping my coffee and waiting for the first sign of dawn, until two crew members came into the lounge and began vacuuming. I was on the move again...
By that time it was 6am and the fitness center was open. Not that I wanted to watch sunrise from a treadmill; more that I wanted to walk through the fitness center to get to an open deck that G had said was over the bridge at the front of the ship. I found the wooden door to get out there, and slipped out onto that deck. Finally i saw the first light of dawn. Success!
At the same time, just as I've mentioned seeing before, I could see areas of squalls, then clearing, then squalls. It was extremely windy out there, but I thought that the squalls were moving parallel to the ship and behind us, missing us.
I was wrong. Before I could make a decision to move inside, the ship was hit from the side by a storm. The wind was gusting so much that the rain was blowing sideways. I had retreated to an area under a small overhang when it started to rain, but it was an exercise in futility. The rain was hitting the bulkhead behind me with such force that it was running down the steel in sheets. My hair was stinging against my face. I tried to open the heavy wooden door I had come out of, but couldn't budge it against the force of the wind. I was stuck out there for the duration of the storm. No one knew I was out there, nor was there anyone around to help me.
Luckily, the storm was as fast moving as its wind would indicate. But by the time I was again able to open that door, I was drenched. Cold, wet and tired. And it wasn't even 6:30am yet.
I returned to our cabin, peeled off my wet clothes and crawled back into bed. No, it wasn't any quieter but at least I was warm and dry.
When we arrived in Kralendjik at 8am, I had been up for almost 5 hours. If Southwest had flown from Bonaire to home, I would have been on that flight by 8:30. That's all it would have taken for me to flee. Fortunately, that wasn't an option, because I proceeded to have one of the best days of the cruise so far.
For the past two days, G and I have been...let's say "discussing" our plans for Bonaire. With a full day on the island (our Emerald cruises feature a shorter day), I desperately wanted to go snorkeling at Klein Bonaire. G's ears are still stuffy; he has no interest in snorkeling right now. But he also didn't want me to go alone (I would have been fine, but he had visions of that awful propeller accident on Dominica less than two weeks ago). In the end, he figured out an acceptable solution; I joined a 3-hour snorkel trip on the Woodwind catamaran. G spent time on the ship eating lunch and walking around Kralendjik, knowing I was being looked after. And despite the winds and a brief rainshower, I had a wonderful sail and snorkel.
I did learn a nugget of knowledge about Klein Bonaire: it was once owned by Harry Belafonte, and in the old days it was where people infected with cholera were quarantined. Who knew? But all I really care about is that it has some of the best snorkeling in the Caribbean.
Of course I took underwater videos and photos with my iPhone. It held up to two hours underwater, and allowed me to get what is, without a doubt, the closet video I'll ever get of a turtle. I was busy videoing a hawksbill turtle diving into the depths off the wall by Klein Bonaire, and when I turned around, there was another one behind me so closely I could hardly get all of him in my shot. It was amazing, right up there with when I saw a family of dolphins just feet away from me while diving in Cozumel. You don't forget those sorts of experiences. The sun wasn't shining brightly, so the colors weren't the best, but, if you'll watch the videos, I think you'll understand my fascination with underwater sea life.
G was waiting for me when the Woodwind Trimaran returned to the dock at the Divi Flamingo Resort, and by the time we walked back to the Noordam, it was after 4pm. We were showered for the evening and up on deck for a gorgeous sailaway from Bonaire (sadly, no photos of that, though, as my phone's battery was depleted after all the underwater videos and was charging in the cabin).
After dinner, we went to the Vista Theater for the second production show of the cruise, called "If These Walls Could Rock". The first production show earlier in the cruise had NO props, but made excessive use of the stage floor's ability to raise and lower in sections and rotate. It almost required a Dramamine to watch.
Tonight's show made up for that lack of props by featuring hundreds of them. The stagehands worked harder than the dancers. Beds, benches, trees, a dance club, sofas, chairs, a phone booth...you name it, this show had it. The pit portion of the stage went up and down at least 8 times, and every time it did, the props on it had been changed out. And the darn thing would make this grinding noise, announcing its imminent arrival. OK, so production shows aren't Holland America's forte. It certainly offers a lot of other, varied entertainment. It's just the opposite on Princess; there, the production shows are a highlight for us and the other entertainment pales a bit in comparison.
There wasn't any question about enjoying any of the other entertainment tonight, though. Up since 3am, two hours on the water with a fair amount of chop due to the wind...I'm nearly typing this in my sleep. I don't think that the ventilation fans will even bother me tonight.
Not that it would make a difference. I'm just five sleeps away from the quiet of our cabin on the Emerald. Unless they've re-worked the ventilation during dry dock, I have nothing to worry about there.
Photo 1: I really thought that storm was going to miss the ship. I was so wrong!
Photos 2 to 5: snorkeling off Klein Bonaire. You can see the drop off of the wall in photo 4, and the shallower part of the reef in photo 5.
Photo 6: two ships in Bonaire today; the Noordam on the left and Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Sea out of Panama on the right. We'll also be in Curaçao and Aruba with the Grandeur on Thursday and Friday.
