Travelogue Chapter 3

From now on I will be posting to this blog via email. As I now have a free email on board the ship, I will be able to post more regularly than last time when I was dependent on shore based internet café. As for internet, the Semester at Sea programme allows free access to some 20 websites useful in research and gives 2 hours of free internet access to other sites. After that, one pays a hefty fee while on the ship. My email on board is:ankeyserlingk@semesteratsea.net


But let me start at the beginning.

On January 16th we moved into the Dulles Marriot hotel to spend the night before our departure near the airport. We do this as it permits us to leave our home in leisure and also to be near the airport in case of snow. It beats trying to finish packing, clean the house and close the house on the morning of the flight. On two trips, this has saved us from missing ships because of heavy January snow storms. It is a cheap insurance to be sure to make the flight. Ships don’t wait and you would need to fly to the next port if you miss the ship.

We arrived in Nassau as did our 4 bags and we headed to our hotel, the Nassau Palm. It is a somewhat rundown hotel built in the ‘60’s but is very convenient to downtown and to the port. Nick, our son, his wife Milena and son Emmett arrived late that night. The meeting in Nassau was the hand over of Emmett from his parents to us for the long voyage.

The next morning I checked out of the hotel and found that the meaning of “It is better in the Bahamas” actually refers to paying taxes. In the Bahamas, one pays some 40% in various and sundry taxes above the quoted room rate. I was quite upset by this as I would imagine most visitors are as there is no mention of this punitive tax in the quotes and literature. If you like taxes, “It is better in the Bahamas”…

On the morning of Saturday, we the Life Long Learners (LLL’s) who are non staff adults were allowed to board the ship. On this trip we are only 1 LLL’s including grandson Emmett. This is a great improvement because when the 750 students board, it can take 3 hours of standing in line. This is what we went through in 2004, the first time we sailed with Semester at Sea.

Once on board, we were shown to our cabin. It always shocks me on boarding a ship to find the small size of the cabins. This time our cabin is 10 feet by 15 feet plus the toilets and closets. It takes a while to settle that this is going to be home for 3.5 months but in fact after storing the gear, hanging the family calendar and the world atlas on the walls the place looked like ours. Also there are huge mirrors which give an added sense of space. At any rate, one does not normally spend a lot of time in the cabin as one attends classes, reads on the outside decks or in the various lounges throughout the ship.

On Monday, we finished up doing a few purchases for the trip and after lunch with Milena and Nick, we boarded the ship for a 5pm departure. It was a beautiful sunny day. The ship rails were shoulder to shoulder with students waiving to about 500 parents who had accompanied their kids to Nassau. The next time most kids will see their parents will be in Miami on our return. The captain backed off the pier, turned the ship in an elegant manner and headed us out to sea.

So we are now on the first leg of this around the world trip. B and I have been to all the ports we will visit but the fun thing will be that will be able to show our grandson Emmett around the world.. It will be a unique experience for all of us and a voyage of discovery.

From 1000 miles off shore heading 080 degrees, I sign off. More later.