For the past few years, I have become a somewhat regular guest lecturer aboard the ships of the British cruise line Cunard. I've given talks aboard the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Anne, and the Queen Mary 2. This voyage, aboard the Queen Victoria, will be a bit of a milestone for me. I now have lectured aboard every ship in the Cunard fleet.

 

I boarded this voyage partway through its itinerary in Aruba, then we continued through the Caribbean, visiting several islands there, some new to me, some of them I have been to before. We then sailed northeast to do a full trans-Atlantic crossing, stopping in the Azores along the way.

 

Joining me on this sailing is my sister Elena, who travelled with me to Alaska aboard the Queen Elizabeth a few years ago.

Had a great Arabian breakfast at the hotel, then took the free trolley to the cruise ship terminal where the Queen Victoria was docked. It was a lovely morning, a few drops of rain, but mainly sunny and hot. We got through the port security quickly, and eventually on board.

We got settled in I took a dip in the pool & hot tub for a bit, then I had my sound check in the Royal Court Theatre. We ended up going to dinner early, and I went out on deck to get some sunset photos.

Today was my last day in Aruba. I went ashore after breakfast and walked around the waterfront. Almost right away, the strap on my camera slipped through the buckle and it dropped to the ground, hitting hard. The hinged door for the battery compartment broke, and it needs to be closed for the camera to operate. Luckily, I had a band-aid in my bag, and I used that to hold the door closed. Whatever works!

Saw a fishing boat in the harbour that was half underwater. I'm not sure what happened there, but that can't be good!

I kept walking along the shore, looking for wildlife. There were plenty of pelicans who seemed very accustomed to people. I was mainly looking for iguanas, and did manage to spot one, swimming in a little lagoon. I was able to fire off a couple of shots before he disappeared in the foliage. There was also another smaller lizard nearby that was darting around, trying to evade my camera. I found a deserted beach (Governor’s Beach) and spent some time exploring around there. There was another pelican sitting on what looked like the skeleton of an old wooden boat in the shallows, along with many other sea birds.

I walked around and took my sandals off to wade through the water and into the mangroves. On the way back I spotted some crabs on the rocks.

The last time I was in Dominica was back in 2007 when I did the world’s first ever rope-traverse of the Boiling Lake. Nothing so dramatic today. I would have loved to have done the hike up there, but it takes too much time, and I only had one day here.

We went ashore early, and it was warm & humid, with the occasional drizzle here and there. I wanted to check out the botanical gardens and there was a hiking trail I was interested in. It was a short walk through town to get to the botanical gardens. I was impressed, the gardens were filled with amazing plants, flowers and trees. There was a huge banyan tree there, and I've always been fascinated by how strange they look with countless tendrils extending down to the ground. We saw lots of little lizards and some hummingbirds amongst the trees. One interesting monument was a school bus that had been crushed under a huge Baobab tree during Hurricane David, back in 1997. The tree is still alive and is a testament to the power of that hurricane. Dominica gets hit by them frequently.

Elena and I split up and continued to the Jack’s Walk Trail. It was a steep, winding trail through mostly bamboo forest. It was steep, but a good workout, I had the whole trail to myself. At the top there was a lookout where the Morne Bruce Garrison used to be. There's still an old canon there.

The view overlooking the city was great, a nice reward for a sweaty hike. I passed the Morne Bruce Cross and walked up to another viewpoint. There, the sun came out and a nice rainbow made an appearance over Roseau.

On my way back, I ran into some more lizards, and a bunch of huge caterpillars. Turns out they are Frangipani worms (Pseudospinx tetrio). They're huge, about as long as my hand, and are voracious eaters. It turns out they're also poisonous, so don't eat them. Apparently, they bite too. They end up turning into giant brown moths with a 6-inch wingspan.

Down the trail I encountered 2 large, green lizards, feeding on something in the underbrush, so I stopped to photograph them as well. Afterwards, I walked back through the botanical garden and strolled around a bit in town before heading back to the ship.

I made the decision to hike out to Fort James today, which is located on a long spit of land northwest of St.John’s. I left pretty early, at 8:45 to ensure that I missed most of the harsh, mid-day sun. It took me almost an hour to get out there. Along the way I stopped to photograph some cattle egrets, and take a stroll along Fort James Beach.

I arrived at the fort, and it looks like it was abandoned, then re-purposed, then abandoned again. It was very decrepit, so I decided to do some urban exploration in there. The floors were falling apart, and full of holes, the roofs of the buildings were decayed. It was quite dangerous to go inside any of these buildings, and I'm surprised the place is actually open to the public. My whole time there, I only saw a few other people. I did befriend an orange and white cat that seemed to live there. I gave him some water and petted him a bit. Unfortunately, I didn't have any food for him.

There were several old canons still aimed out towards the sea. The fort was built to guard St. John's harbour and is one of the many forts built by the British in the 18th century. Fear of a French invasion prompted the construction, but the site now lies in ruin, but it still offers a great view of St. John’s Harbour.

I kept walking around and found another abandoned building. This one was Russel’s Bar & Seafood Restaurant. The place was absolutely abandoned and should be torn down. I saw this as another opportunity to do some more urban exploration. It appears to have closed in 2012 when Russel, the owner passed away.

I checked the place out, wandered around the kitchen then walked upstairs where I was suddenly startled by a local guy and his wife. He went out of his way to scare the crap out of me, but he was cool. We chatted a bit, and he pointed out a trail down by the water that would take me to the rocky part of the shoreline, just beyond the walls of the fort.

I took his advice and found my way down there. It was a bit slippery and sketchy, and I could only go so far, but it was a cool place to watch the wave crash on the rocks. I started to head back along the beach. This time taking my shoes off to enjoy the water. By the time I got back to town, it was getting hot, and I was running low on water, but I saw the big cathedral was close by, so I walked up the hill to check it out. An impressive building, for certain. It was Sunday, so there was a service going on inside. I didn't linger long before heading back to the ship. In total I was out walking in the tropical sun, carrying my heavy camera bag for about 4 hours.

Back aboard the ship there was a ceremony to celebrate Robbie Burns Day with Scottish folks speaking, singing, dancing and eating of haggis.

This marks my 90th country (Or overseas territory). Quite a milestone, I can see the next big target ahead of me. Regardless, it was a gorgeous morning, but it was windy, and the sea looked a bit choppy. We got off the ship early to go on an excursion to Nevis Island. I figured that if I was going to visit St. Kitts and Nevis, I should probably visit both islands.

The ride over was in a very fast catamaran, and it was much smoother than I was expecting. No problem. Along the way, we passed some super yachts at the south end of ST. Kitts, and in the channel between the 2 islands was Booby Island (Yep, that's the name).

Once on Nevis, we went on a mini-bus tour. We saw the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton in Charlestown, then the ruins of Fort Charles and eventually went to a beach spot for lunch, some rum punch and a swim in the ocean.

The ship docked at St. Martin this morning, on the Dutch side of the island. I had been to St. Martin before, so this time I wanted to do something different, so I decided to take the day and go on an adventure to Anguilla. The ship was holding my passport, but I managed to get it back temporarily.

Anguilla is a British overseas territory, so this was going to be an international adventure. First thing after an early breakfast, I headed ashore and grabbed a taxi. The weird thing was I ended up sharing the taxi with a local woman, and the cab driver dropped her off at the emergency room of the local hospital. I have no idea what was going on. Anyway, we went from the Dutch side over to Marigot on the French side, where the ferry terminal is.

I exited Saint-Marten and boarded the local ferry. The weather good today, so the 20-minute ferry ride was no problem. Once I arrived in Anguilla, I cleared immigration and grabbed another taxi to take me up to the north shore of the island. There was a particular spot I was looking for, so I got the cab driver to let me off on the side of the road, and I walked until I found it. A trail that winds its way down the hillside to the sea at Sandy Ground Beach. It was a gorgeous beach, and there was practically nobody else. I think I saw 5 other people the whole time I was there.

The main attraction was a shipwreck. The Pamead was a cargo vessel that was broken up by Hurricane Luis (or Lenny) in the mid 1990’s. Sources seem to disagree on the details of what happened. There's actually not just one, but 2 ships that had been wrecked here. The Pamead, which was easy to reach, and a smaller one, possibly a tug boat, further away. I had the shipwreck all to myself, so took some photos, had a snack, took off my shoes and enjoyed the beach for a while.

I didn't want to risk missing the boat, so I gave myself plenty of time to get back. Instead of finding a taxi out in the middle of nowhere, I'd planned to walk back to the ferry terminal. The walk was nice, hot but not scorching.

I reversed the process and exited Anguilla, got onto the public ferry, then went through French immigration back in Marigot where I took my final taxi ride of the day back to the ship. It was a good day, and Anguilla is my 91st country (3rd new one on this voyage).

The long journey northeastward across the Atlantic continues. The first few days gave us nice weather and calm seas. I had plenty of opportunity to enjoy the amenities of the ship like the outside decks, afternoon tea, pub trivia quizzes and more. There were a few nice sunsets and the full "Snow Moon" made an appearance, rising through the Earth shadow. I continued to give more talks in the Royal Court Theatre, and did a Q&A session in the Yacht Club.

W were supposed to be stopping in The Azores on Feb 4th, but there is a big storm that is working its way across the Atlantic, and the conditions are deteriorating there, so he has made the difficult decision to cancel our plans to dock there. It looks like we'll continue on and head directly to Southampton. We'll see what the waves and swell develop into over the next few days. It's unfortunate that we can't stop in The Azores, but that's the way things go. North Atlantic winter storms are no joke.

Cloudy, gray and cool. We were up at 6AM to collect our passports and deal with U.K. immigration, then breakfast and off the ship.

As far as travel days go, this one was long, but relatively easy. The bus ride to Heathrow was uneventful, but we had a lot of time to kill. We had lunch at a pub and waited. The flight was an easy one too. We arrived in Toronto about 45 minutes early. The cold was a real shock. -16 C or so.

Finally got home at 10:00 PM, equivalent to 3:00 AM body-clock time. So very tired.