My nephew, Connor Corgard, a senior at Minnetonka High School, is big into sailing and was in Miami for a competition so we hooked up that evening and I took him and a buddy for their first visit to Hooters!
I boarded the Amsterdam on the 27th. It’s very busy at first with settling in – unpacking, reviewing procedures as after being home for 2 months when I didn’t need to even think about work it does take some catching up to get back in the swing of things. There are many crew as well as passengers that I have sailed with before so it feels like home already. New Year’s Eve was a great time had by all.
Today we visited French Martinique, which means the island of flowers. It has been several years since I was here and it was nice to see many improvements made. It is considered a “region” of France, they speak French and use Euros as their currency. It teased us with a little rain but I did manage to get a few photos. The sailboats always remind me of Connor and I believe he’ll probably sail these islands some day. I always like to try to imagine lifestyles in ports and in browsing some local stores I find things such as disposable goods are not plentiful so of course are expensive. A package of 20 small paper plates was 3.20€ - or about $5. People tend to buy fresh items frequently so items are in small quantities at the grocery stores – not the huge items we are used to buying in bulk at our Costcos or Sam’s Clubs.
Lush tropical visits to Tahiti, Samoa, Great Barrier Reef; Vietnam & Thailand, scenic cruising through the ice realm of Antarctica with its eerie floating icebergs, a visit to Pettah Bazaar in Sri Lanka, touring in Mumbai, India, sailing through the Suez Canal for my fourth time, seeing the ruins of Olympia in Greece and Pompeii in Italy, experience the energy in an authentic flamenco dance in Spain before returning to the home port of Ft. Lauderdale.
