December 2007

    Day 8 - Monday, December 3, 2007

    With our experiences of "Hayden-day" slipping slowly into the past, we awoke this morning to a beautiful view of the harbor in Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands.  Here's the view from our balcony:

    Alas, it lasted only for a short time.  Just after the photo above, a cruise ship slid between the "Navigator" and our lovely view.


That's our balcony railing in the foreground; the two ships are only about 40' apart.

    This is the Norwegian Cruise Line's "Norwegian Pearl" and it's even bigger than yesterdays "Empress of the Seas".  Contrast our passenger total of 380 with the "Pearl's" 2,600.

    It wasn't easy to figure out the name of the ship; they were so subtle about it:

    If the two ships at dock weren't enough pressure to put on tiny Road Town, the Cunard "Queen Mary II" was anchored farther out in the harbor:

    We disembarked and had our traditional port photo taken:

    And then again with Gael and Guiseppe:


Gael said to tell Bill Barr: "Hot, Hot, Hot!"

    Look back at those two photos.  She looks SOOOOO much happier with Guiseppe....

    The "Pearl" had a parrot to pose with; not so much the "Navigator":

    Here's a shot showing the contrast in size of our ship (in the foreground) and the "Norwegian Pearl":

    It was about a fifteen minute (very warm) walk into town.  Not much to see, but for those of you with A.D.D..

    LOOK!  A chicken!!!!

    .. but Gael spent a lot of time in this spice shop:

    And I was able to find a product that I'd needed for some time. The price put me off, though:

    Walking back to the ship (the Butt Paste helped), we saw that Tortola was heavily into inflatable roadside Christmas decorations.  It's hard to realize when sweating in the tropics that Christmas is only three weeks away:

    Here's another study in ship size (we're on the right):


    Today was the first day when we sailed during daylight.  Promptly at 4:00p we got underway, and even as we're backing away the window washers next door were still at it:

    Our neighbor for the day also has a rock-climbing wall; must be the latest thing:

    From the bay, Tortola looks even nicer (although it had grown cloudy):

    Remember the QM-2?  Everyone moved to the topmost deck to watch us slide by:

    Even though it was clouding up, the sun beamed through in spots to highlight the hillside:

    At 5:30p we opted for a galley tour.   I don't know why they scheduled it then; seems like dinner prep would be underway -- and it was.   The chef explained that you get a better impression of what it's like in a cruise ship galley when it's busy.   It sure was!

    The tour was conducted by the ship's Executive Chef, Sylke Hampel.  She told us that she has 52 "boys" working for her in the galley.   I guess if you're one of only two female Executive Chefs across all the cruise lines, you can be a bit sexist!  As we reached each station, she shouted "Good Evening, Boys!" and they all roared back, "Good Evening, Chef!"

    This station is preparing and finishing all the cold appetizers for tonight's dinner:

    This is the assembly line where orders come together. Sylke personally examines every main dish before it leaves the galley:

    This fellow's job is to decorate all the dessert plates before they are plated:

    It ocurred to me that I've included very few pictures of the ship.  This is the main dining room:

    And these are my two favorite cooks; at least this week!

    Dinner tonight with three more lovely ladies, one of whom took this:


    Tonight's entertainment was a songstress, Julie Grace; she was excellent!

    Tomorrow we visit the Dominican Republic.
 
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