Out to Sea to See What We Can See

 We left the Fort Lauderdale Cruise Ship Terminal three hours late on Saturday; apparently some medical paperwork issue relating to a crewman who'd come down with appendicitis earlier and had to be taken ashore.

There were also rumors of a delayed flight delaying the ship, as the cruise line had booked/managed the flight and so guaranteed the ship wouldn't leave.

Regardless, soon enough we were off into the Atlantic!  A bit windy at times depending on how the wind is blowing, but warm enough.  Sometimes, it was even very hot.

Our accomodations for the next two weeks:

We walked a lot, exploring the ship and finding where the restaurants and bars were located.  There's entertainment venues of course, but more Martha's thing than mine since you know....people.

I explored and got to enjoy room service, for those mornings when you just don't want to get out of the complimentary bathrobe:

You have to actually put on pants to go to the main dining room for the Full English Breakfast:

Photo by Martha

Martha, did some more wandering of the ship and said: I've found my people:

Photo by Martha

Some early morning wandering produced less crowded conditions for her:

Photo by Martha

The food so far has been good, no Michelin stars but good.  My "cut down on the sodium intake" diet has been put on hold for now.  But the doctor said "live life" so who am I to argue?

After dinner one evening, I ventured out to the ship's stern for this sunset shot:

No serious effect from sea-sickness so far for either of us but an afternoon expresso proved too acidic for me, causing some queasiness.

On Monday, we put into the docks at the Royal Wharf area of Bermuda, a British Overseas Territory.   Hot and humid though quite windy was the order of the day.

After a short wandering near the visitor center, we walked to the Commissioner's House, the large building on the right in the picture above.  It houses the National Bermuda Museum, with many well curated exhibits.

View of Royal Wharf from the Commish's House

Photo by Martha

There were, of course, several large cannon around the perimeter of the Fort which historically guarded the port and channels of the area.

Photo by Martha

Photo by Martha

Within the fort's walls, there's a tourist attraction called Dolphin Quest.  Apparently you can swim with them when the water is warm enough.  

Here you can see the morning staff meeting underway before they opened things up for the public:

Some of the stuff that caught my eye among the many exhibits in the museum:

Bermuda was for some time a penal colony for the British.  "Prisoners in Paradise" was the motif used in the museum.  When they ran out of room, they used ship hulks to keep the prisoners.  

Prison Hulks:

The last POWs of WWII, I knew the story of the capture U-Boat, just hadn't realized the Bermuda connection:

Invasive species and legends:

In case you've ever wondered about the ship parts that are yelled out by a sailing ship's officers in the movies:

Nice and cool portion of the museum's basement exhibits.  The upstairs were kept "cool" by the stiff breezes that blew in through strategically open doors.

The historical looking church spires below had caught my eye from aboard ship but we discovered upon wandering to them that it was just a shopping mall!

Having walked over 14000 steps, yep another death march, we returned to the ship:

We'll now be back at sea for the next seven days I believe.  Next land we step on will be in England.  More to come.  If you're curious about parts of the ship that we've not shown, drop me a line.  The parts open to the public that is, no tours of the working parts of the ship have been announced.