SAO MIGUEL ISLAND, THE AZORES : FINAL PORT IN THE 5TH LEG OF OUR GRAND VOYAGE

Taken at last night's dinner in the Pennant Grill

Crater Lakes

The final tour we did from Aurora was to visit the crater lakes in Sete Cidades, 10 miles north west of Ponta Delgada.  If you look at the photograph very carefully, you might be able to see the reason why these crater lakes have so many visitors.  Not only is the setting beautiful, but if the sun is shining and there are no clouds – not the case for our visit as there were some clouds – the farthest lake is meant to look blue and the lake nearest the camera is green.  Quite honestly, not all of us could see this – and we all took off our sunglasses just in case it made a difference, but we dutifully took our photograph and are now publishing it on the web!

As the title of this blog suggests, we are now on our way home to Southampton having cruised about 40,000 miles in 95 days, visiting 29 ports.

I hope my blog has enabled anyone who has taken the time to read all the entries (and I admit yes, there were a lot of them!) to appreciate some of the enjoyment, pleasure and excitement from what has been for us the voyage of a lifetime. Yes, photographs can show you where we’ve been, but the memories will last us forever.

Thank you for keeping up with our adventures during this Grand Voyage and should we ever be lucky enough to do another one, then yes, I’ll be there with another blog.  It won’t be until January 2013, but watch this space!

 Until the next time, goodbye!

ST LUCIA

Pointe Seraphine Duty Free shops!

View from our balcony!

Bird that just flew past our balcony!

Our arrival into St Lucia was very wet, quite a few heavy tropical showers that lasted about an hour or so, then typically Caribbean weather, the sun came out.

We were in St Lucia last December so did very little yesterday apart from walking around the attractive Duty Free shopping area called Pointe Seraphine. 

We watched some small aircraft landing and taking off, as we were berthed opposite the small airport and also a ripple of interest as an American destroyer came in and anchored just behind our ship.

My next blog will be from Ponta Delgada, which is our final port in this Grand Voyage.  I will probably write a final blog to round off the whole adventure, hopefully just before we arrive in Southampton, but if not when we get home.

ARUBA

Aruba is situated in the southern Caribbean, 18 miles north of Venezuela.  The island is roughly 19 miles long and 6 miles across at its widest point.

We arrived in cloudy skies, very windy and a temperature of 26c, which was very comfortable.  We took a walk shortly after breakfast and came across very many iguana-type creatures, sunbathing not only on the rocks next to the sea but also on the walkway nearby. Although a couple were small, no more than 10” (25cm) and quite a pretty shade of green, the majority were well over 4’ (121cm)!  These are not my favourite creatures but thankfully the camera has a reasonable zoom!!

We had to be back at the cruise terminal by 1045 to board our motor launch to the waiting Atlantis submarine.  The sub was built in Vancouver in 1990 at a cost of $3.5 million.  It is 65 ft long (19.8m), holds 48 passengers, 3 crew and is all electric.

Entry into the sub was via the conning tower and a very steep ladder!  It was quite cramped but fully air conditioned.  We were taken to an area that contained a couple of boats, deliberately sunk to form an artificial reef for the start of our 45 minute ‘tour’.  It was very difficult to take photographs because of the light and the thickness of the glass which gave everything, including the people, a greenish-blue tinge!

We were surprised that there was no ear-popping and no sensation of diving at all, just the noise of the thrusters taking us down or up, and we did reach our maximum dive capability of 135 ft (41m) where we rested on the bottom of the sea. We did see fish, many quite small, but photographing them was an impossibility because we were travelling quite fast and so were they – generally in the opposite direction!

Still, it was great fun but we could have done with a much longer time down there!  Maybe next time!

A day at sea next, then to final warm destination, St Lucia.

PANAMA CANAL

The lock is just visible in the background

The 'mules' that guide us through the canal

Our transit through the Panama Canal went well and with the temperatures relatively comfortable at 25c.  We sailed under the Bridge of the Americas around 0630 and negotiated the last lock into the Caribbean at about 1600.

As we had done this transit three years ago, we didn’t take very many photographs this time, so not much choice to show on this blog. 

We are at sea now, 2 April and not particularly Caribbean seas – quite a large swell/waves although the temperature is now 28c at 0945.

Tomorrow is Aruba which will be the topic on the next blog.

HUATULCO

First view of the bay from our balcony at 0700

Part of the beach where we spent the day

Following the success of Cancun, the Mexican Government looked for an equivalent resort on the Pacific coast, the result was Huatulco, based around 9 bays and 22 miles of stunning beaches.

Huatulco Bays are located at the foothills of the Southern Sierra Madre Mountains in the beautiful state of Oaxaca.  It is 513 kilometres south, down the Mexican coast from Acapulco.

What a pretty little place, and so unexpected to find such a lovely beach a minute’s walk from the ship.

The temperature was 25c at 0700 and forecast to be 34c by the afternoon.

After an early breakfast we walked around the little town, which took all of half an hour, then back to the ship to change so we could have a swim and spend some time on the beach.

The water was beautifully warm and the beach was backed by little restaurants serving drinks and meals.  We decided to have a drink, a local beer and a Margarita for me.  Very refreshing!  It didn’t take much thought to decide to have lunch by the beach instead of the ship, so another Margarita joined a white wine to accompany our fish lunch, which was delicious.

We got back onto the ship around 1630 ready for an 1800 departure, but unfortunately a passenger was taken ill and he had to be taken off the ship into a waiting ambulance.  He gave us all a wave from the stretcher so hopefully he will recover soon.

We are now at sea for two days, ready for our transit of the Panama Canal.

FIFTH AND FINAL LEG : ACAPULCO TO SOUTHAMPTON

Part of Acapulco beach

Catch of the day!

View from Aurora on leaving Acapulco

We arrived into Acapulco in glorious sunshine and that remained throughout the day with temperatures around 30c.  That’s more like it! 

Because we had been to Acapulco before, we chose this time to take a long walk along the front, stopping off for a refreshing beer  - or two!

We went back to the ship for lunch and off again in the afternoon for another walk, this time along the beachfront the other way.

We left Acapulco at 1800 for a short trip down the coast to Huatulco.

SAN FRANCISCO : END OF 4TH LEG

What a disappointment that for the first time on this long voyage we had rain all day. In fact the only thing that made it better for us was learning that it hasn’t really stopped raining there for three weeks!

We did venture out, just after breakfast, and immediately found the pavements etc were flooded.  Despite having waterproof jackets on below that trousers/jeans were soaked in minutes, so after 45 minutes we decided to call it a day.

A quick trip to the launderette on board found us in a queue of people trying to get trousers and jackets into tumble driers before they were going out again!

So, not many photographs I’m afraid.  The first one shows the view from our balcony and you can just make out the bridge in the distance. The other two were taken on our departure at 1800 when yes, you can guess, the sun shone briefly.  Alcatraz is the second photo and finally the bridge, as we sailed beneath.

Time is simply flying by now and our next stop will be Acapulco.  The temperature in San Francisco was 8c but we understand it will be around 30c in Acapulco.  That’s more like it!