Hello from Cozumel, Mexico

Hello from Cozumel, Mexico

Thursday evening November 4, 2010 (Third travelogue of this trip).

I have had the best of intentions posting more often, but I just can't seem to find the time. I have a lot of catch up on, but the first thing that needs to get reported is the wedding.

Shawna and Bryan exchanging vows (note her parents in the background)

Man and Wife!!!

Today we departed the ship and took vans to Mr Sanchos where the wedding was held. This is a small little resort with some neat facilities. The weather was pretty good. A bit windy, but that made the surf really spectacular. I have included a few photos. The setting was absolutely beautiful with the beach and surf in the background. The actual wedding was on the beach and the sand was very clean and white. Shawna looked beautiful and Bryan was quite handsome. Bryan wrote the ceremony and it was very well done. The parents looked approvingly on the wedding and seemed very proud of the couple.

We returned to the ship after the wedding. After lunch, Pat and her sister Judy went shopping and I started working on this blog. We will have a reception dinner in one of the restaurants later this evening.

Now lets do a bit of catching up. Sunday was an at sea day. In the evening they had a big Halloween party. We were amazed at the number of folks dressed up in costumes. We estimate that it was several hundred. Many of the costumes were quite elaborate and/or unique. We positioned ourselves in the walkway that led to the party area and had a wonderful view of all the folks/costumes.

On the last couple of cruises we have splurged and joined the spa and we did that again on this trip. They have a very limited membership, so the place is quiet and relaxing. There is a huge hydrothermal pool, two saunas, a steam room and the wonderful heated ceramic lounges. We have gone every day.

Another splurge is purchasing internet time. The ship gets the internet from satellites (much like we do on the bus). However, the connection is pretty slow and you buy internet connection by the minute. I usually chase some business related activity and it has been kind of busy on this trip. Unfortunately, not much in the way of sales.

I mentioned that I was going to do a dive at Roatan, Honduras. Roatan is an island off he coast of Honduras. It has a mixture of beauty and poverty. When we drove to the dive support area, we passed lush tropical areas. These were intermixed with areas of what looked like shanty areas. These areas were on the main road. The houses were in poor condition and there was trash everywhere. A real dichotomy.

We did a two tank dive and both dives were spectacular!!!. The ship dictates that the dive masters not take us to a depth of more than 70 feet. It was obvious that they were not going to police that rule rigorously. Indeed, my dive computer watch recorded a depth of 95 feet. Both dives were what they call wall dives. We swam at a depth of about 30-50 feet for a while and then we came to a complete drop off where we could not see any floor. The coral was absolutely gorgeous. It was almost like parts were sprinkled with gold leaf. The fish were beautiful and the coral formations were quite varied, some of which I had not seen before. We even got to see a turtle and some lobsters. The second dive was supposed to be a drift dive. This is where the boat drops you off and picks you up some distance away. The current was not strong, so we had to do a bit of paddling with our fins, but we traveled quite a ways.

We could have made it from Roatan without an “at sea” day, but our ship had to perform some mandatory maneuvers. All ships that have been in service less than six months must perform these maneuvers. The process takes about three hours. One of the maneuvers is a 360 rotation of the ship. This is done in the length of the ship using the bow and stern thrust propellers. In addition to that, the ship is put in “anchor mode” where the various propellers maintain the ship in exactly the same location and orientation using a sophisticated GPS system. It is said that they can maintain location within 5 feet.

That is all for now.