When we met with very rough seas leaving Columbia, the Captain announced that we would be forced to skip our last port of Key West and, to avoid the impending storm, take a longer route farther to the east around Cuba. So, the last days of our long voyage would be spent captive at sea,…
Continue reading →Traveling with friends can be the perfect storm either way, a disaster or a triumph. With Tom, Charmaine, Jack, Linda, Dean, and I, it has been the best of times. We’ve shared day trips ashore, had parties, dinners, celebrations, toasts, and even formed our own “Flatlanders” trivia team to test our collective knowledge of useless…
Continue reading →I love sea days. I love the (mostly) gentle sway of the ship, the melting of blue from sky to sea, the feeling of being at home on the ocean, the mystery of its depth, the water slapping against the hull, the misting spray, birds roosting on the jackstaff, dolphins arching in the ship’s wake….
Continue reading →I remembered Lahaina fondly from years ago when Dean and I rented a condo on the beach in Maui for a week or so, and Lahaina then was a loose, carefree, hippie town with beer and seafood restaurants, galleries with local art, a quaint main street, and lots of t-shirt shops. It hasn’t changed too…
Continue reading →On the east coast of New Zealand’s north island, the port of Napier, with its vast timber export industry, is in the heart of sunny Hawke’s Bay, the second largest wine region in the country, though when we arrived the weather was cloudy and drizzling. Napier, the Art Deco capital of New Zealand with a…
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