Monday 9th November

A very lazy day at sea. Pretty calm & warm with a very gentle pitching & rolling motion. Jane did 4 laps of the ship at 600m per lap & d*** did 2 & complained.

No luck at the quiz today but d*** enjoyed a lecture on finances by an American investment advisor.



Tuesday 10th November

Still at sea, which is quite calm. Usual quizzes with very disappointing results but the dinners are quite interesting as we opt to share & have different people with us each night. The majority have been from the US from a range of states & with some very interesting views on the country's future. There are also plenty of Canadians, some Brits & a few Germans.

Wednesday 11th November

Can’t believe how calm & warm it still is as we anticipated some roughish weather at this time of year. Attended another lecture by the finance guru, which were interesting but hardly stunning. He does them well though & always includes a couple of very apposite jokes. Since he focuses on the US market & conditions much is not too relevant to us but it makes us feel glad that we live in Australia as seniors rather than the US.

In the evening we went to a show by a US comedian & it was fascinating to see him trying to get the audience to understand his jokes, which obviously frustrated him as I think that they were far too subtle for the geriatric group. We found him quite funny but it certainly was hard work. The sense of humour seems to be inversely proportional to the average girth of the audience & in this ship it is pretty considerable.

Thursday 12th November

Weather as before & we will be glad to get to Antigua as shipboard life is beginning to pall. Jane went to Bridge lessons today, which she enjoyed while d*** re read his Grandfather’s letters from Colombia & edited the index etc. Still not much luck with the Trivia quizzes.

Went to the late show of the Beatles tribute band but it wasn’t a great improvement on the last one so we were somewhat under whelmed.

Friday 13th November

Another hot day with calm conditions & a very lazy one for us. Jane did her Bridge classes & quite enjoys them & d*** mooches, reads & dozes between quizzes.

We were shocked at the Paris attacks which were heavily covered by BBC & Sky & felt sorry for the Parisians.

Saturday 14th November

Getting closer to the Caribbean & today saw our first seabird since passing Gibraltar. It is a black & white winged & headed tern of some sort as we saw it dive for a fish & so we must be nearer to land again. Still calm, warm weather & doing our quota of quizzes. Were very embarrassed when we gave the wrong answer re the size of a beer 'schooner’ today but will have to try harder tomorrow.

Sunday 15th November

Arrived at St John’s, Antigua at 8am & walked down the jetty to be besieged by taxi operators. Only problem, no $US or local so off to find an ATM. The first was out of action & the only other dispensing $US was at the Casino which opened at 10am, we thought, so we found a local bank ATM & withdrew $East Caribbean, probably the world’s most unloved currency.

Back to the key where Earl, a huge local, collared us for a minibus run around the island but we had to wait whilst he grabs some more punters, not an easy job. To our relief it only took about 20 minutes but it wasn’t much fun as it was hot & humid. Off we went crossing the island to Nelson’s dockyard in a wonderful inlet on the south side of the island. Unfortunately the dockyard museum was very busy full of minibuses & the rest didn’t want to stop there so we set off through the western rain forest back to St John’s. The beaches, apparently there are 365, are very impressive, comparable to the best in WA but the sea is much warmer here.

Back in the town we had a beer & then, as d*** was complaining, we returned to the ship where he just snoozed whilst Jane went back into town to check emails etc.

After dinner we both had an early night.