Day 14 East - 01/15/22 - Almost Half Moon Key

We slept in until 9am before heading to the Lido for breakfast.  While eating, the Captain came on the PA  system with an important announcement for all guests.  His message was that the Bahamian authorities had refused to give the ship clearance to disembark passengers at Half Moon Cay which is Holland America's private island. He indicated that the threshold number had surprisingly been reduced unannounced.  His voice definitely conveyed disappointment.  

 

So, no snorkeling today.  Instead we walked the deck and relaxed in deck chairs watching Eleuthera Island pass by at 13 knots.  Ian announced a few changes to the schedule including FREE bingo at 3pm at the Billboard Onboard location.

 

At lunch in the Lido we had a very pleasant extended conversation with the Pinnacle Grill Manager who's from Turkey.  He explained that the Pinnacle hadn't been open because of the low passenger counts.  He also volunteered that about 60 passengers like us were sailing back to San Diego and some 900 new passengers were joining us.  

 

The Captain gave his noon report at 1pm and there was still a measure of disappointment in his voice about being turned away from Half Moon Cay.  Since this was his last announcement and his last cruise for a while (he goes on vacation tomorrow), his expression of disappointment and thanks to the passengers for sailing was emotional I'm sure. He also let us know that there was a cold front arriving tomorrow and we might have gale force winds when docking (a tug is on standby).  Rain is also expected in the afternoon.  We'll likely not get off except to go through the mandatory Immigration clearance. Last, we're expected to be the last ship of the many to dock and we'll be at berth #21.

 

I continued reading my current mystery novel,"Bone Rattle" by Marc Cameron.  It's set in Alaska where I'm from (in my early years in a time long, long ago).  

 

We ended up playing the free Bingo games where my wife came within one square of winning the grand prize.  It was a full house in the billboard online area.  

 

Afterwards we spent the time on the aft deck watching ships and Eleuthera Island on our port side. The RCCL Jewel of the Seas passed us on our starboard side on its way to Miami. One fun additional fun sight was 4 of the dancers came out and took a number of selfies in the beautiful sunshine.  They appeared grateful to be there after probably being in Covid quarantine.  

 

We even had a conversation on the aft deck with a fellow passenger who contracted Covid and served 8.5 quarantine days until yesterday.  He, too, was super grateful to be out on deck in the sun.

 

After dinner we watched the Step One Dance Company presentation of Musicology with only 4 of 6 dancers.  It was good.  We then took in the 60's set of the billboard online and then music trivia in which we did super poorly.

 

We wrapped up our evening trying to identify all of the marine traffic around us (lots).  I have a paid app that helps.

 

Tomorrow we'll do the immigration clearance and probably catch up on YouTube videos while waiting around. We don't intend to leave the ship except when required to do so.



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