Day 115 Ascension Island, United Kingdom

Today was an amazing day!!!!! The Captain made an announcement yesterday that our chances of tendering today at Ascension Island wasn’t too good. The port authorities had sent him a message that it wasn’t safe. He said that an assessment would be made when we arrived this morning. Well…. I was on the first tender ashore and it was bouncing around pretty severely at times. The crew was doing a valiant job but in the end we were taken back to the ship because it was not safe at that point. The Captain & crew continued working on a safe tendering operation and with the changing tides were able to manage the process in a safe manner. I was very surprised when the Capatain announced that tendering operations were going to commence. I give him and his crew the highest marks possible for perseverance and making the landing possible. I believe many Captains would have folded their tent early and just sailed away. Great job Captain!!! The crew ashore who were working the tender landings ashore did a magnificent job and should be commended. Great job!!!! Ascension Island was interesting and fairly desolate. My friends Dan, Maryann, Martha & I hooked a taxi when we got ashore and toured around the island for a bit. We first went to the beach where the turtles are laying their eggs. What huge holes… We then headed past the USAF base and up Green Mountain for some great views along the way. We came back through the village of Two Boats and ultimately back to Georgetown. It turned out to be a great day thanks to the valiant efforts of Captain & Crew!!!!

Day 114 At Sea

Today was just perfect!!!! The weather is magnificent, lots of sun with a nice breeze. I capped off the afternoon with a great massage. The World Voyage continues to go exceptionally well. The crew are doing a wonderful job and the food is magnificent. The ship is always immaculate.... just perfect. Well, it's not quite perfect. The group of guests that came on in Cape Town are not quite what we have been used to up to this point. For some reason we have a very large number of loud, rude and obnoxious guests... So in summary the crew is great and a fair number of the guests really are pathetic! Fantastic day!!!

Photo Contest Entries

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Day 113 St Helena, United Kingdom

Today started out pretty good. I was on the first tender ashore in St Helena to take my Napoleon's St. Helena tour. All was well until we got toward the top of the mountain and the bus broke down. We sat there for half an hour without out too many details as to when a replacement bus would come. The bus driver got in another vehicle and headed off to parts unknown, apparently to get a bus so I left. I wasn’t going to just sit there and burn up my time on St Helena. I walked down the mountain and arrived at the port about 40 minutes later and reported the situation to the shore excursion personnel. Of course no mention was made of any kind of reimbursement for my tour gone bad. You would think they would refund my $75 without even being asked…. I then wandered around town a bit and then headed up Jacob’s Ladder…. What a climb! After my stroll down the mountain this was a pretty good challenge going up and down the steps. I successfully completed the challenge and got my certificate. I ran into my friends Art & Yvonne who bought me a cold diet drink which never tasted so good after the hike up & down the mountain. Ron & Glenda came by and joined us for a drink and we had a really nice time there. Ron, Glenda & I decided to get a taxi and tour around a bit (take the same tour I had to walk away from in the morning). We hooked up a tour and did the highlights for St Helena…. Napoleon’s tomb, his house and the Plantation House,the stately home of the island's Governor and his tortoises. It was a nice tour and then we headed back to town and back to the ship. Nice day except for the HAL shore excursion….