We were scheduled to dock at 7:00 in the morning; unaccountably at 8:00 we were still at sea. The captain got on the P.A. system to announce that in the middle of the night the ship had come to the assistance of a small freighter that had been adrift for two days without power, food or water. The night watch crew picked it up on radar, but it was dead in the water and not showing lights. As they steamed by, the other ship managed to attract their attention with a signal light. The night watch crew woke the captain, who turned the ship around and went back to assist. After supplying them with batteries to start their engine, food and water, we were on our way.Almost everyone on board slept right through it, but my roommate was up going to the bathroom and wondered why we were alongside a completely blacked-out ship at 3:00 in the morning. I assured him it was probably a secret drug transfer.
My activity at Dominica was a whale-watching expedition.We went out in a small boat looking for sperm whales (Moby Dick) which hang around the islands at this time of year. Just as we were getting out to the whales, one of the little girls on board started getting sea-sick, ran for the head, and pretty much missed the whole event. We found a pod of five whales, which were just as curious about us as we were about them. The second picture here is three of them right next to each other, just the noses poking out. The third picture is a whale "spy-hopping", poking his nose straight out of the water to get his eye high enough to take a look at us.
We got back to town with enough time to wander the streets for a bit. This was Carnival week, and the shops were pretty much shut down, with three standing parades wandering the streets for the entire afternoon. A carnival parade consists of a large truck with about 10000 watts of speakers pointing every which way, accompanied by a few hundred people in costume, which proceeds down the street at about 1/4 mph. There are almost no actual spectators, because anyone who sees one just joins up if it happens to be going their way.I lament the transition from live music to boom-box- trucks.
Why?
P.R.
Ship
USVI
Dominica
Grenada
Astro
L.G.
Eclipse
Aruba
Bday
Buzz
