Having a swell time at sea!

We were only supposed to do one Cruise ship cruise a year, but in January when I asked Ian what he wanted to do for his BIG birthday this year, he said without any hesitation, a transatlantic cruise to the Caribbean (I really hadn’t expected that!). So here we are just back from our second cruise of the year which had 9 sea days and 5 ports. We sailed on P&O Britannia doing a repositioning cruise from Southampton for the start of the Caribbean season. We spent the first 3 days navigating south westerly to Funchal, Madeira followed by 6 sea days heading west across the Atlantic to the Lesser Antillies islands of Antigua, St Kitts, St Lucia and finally Barbados. Everything was new for us, a new ship, all new ports and the challenge of long days at sea.

As we headed towards Portugal it got a bit choppy, the sick bags appeared on the stairwells and there was an annoying knocking noise in the cabin. It’s a bit like travelling in a car or a van and there’s a rattle that you can’t quite work out what’s causing it. We finally discovered some spare batteries rolling around in the desk drawer as the ship rocked with a 4 metre swell and cross winds averaging 35+mph. Watching the waves was very confusing as they seemed to be going in two directions at once, the swell went one way and the surface waves were being blown another. I was definitely taking my anti-sickness meds and everyone was staggering around like drunken sailors as we walked around the ship. 

When we docked at Madeira, it was damp and rainy. Undeterred, we hopped on to terra firma and went in search of the cable car ride up to Monte and headed for the Palace gardens. Even on a dull day these were incredible with some fabulous flora and fauna framing waterfalls and sculptures. The low cloud broke every now and then giving glimpses back down the mountainside to Funchal.

As we left Funchal, the sea calmed, the weather gradually became warmer and sunnier, and an Atlantic Booby Bird took up residence on a forward mast. We could spot her plunge-diving for fish in the evenings, she stayed with the ship until we reached the Caribbean- what a cheeky hitchhiker. We were both surprised by how much we enjoyed the sea days. Our crossing of the Atlantic Ocean (2744 nautical miles) was incredibly smooth with only a gentle swell; we soon relaxed into a daily routine of reading, swimming and just lounging around in the sun. The crossing was nothing like what we’d expected.

So, it was all a bit of a shock when we finally arrived at the first caribbean port. To be honest I found it a little overwhelming. After so many years of looking at pictures of this destination, it was a bit of a “pinch me” moment to be there. We docked at St Johns in Antigua and spent a day on a beautiful beach with soft white sand and turquoise water. It was quite humid, and the air temperature was around 32 degrees Celsius so it was lovely to cool off in water that was a seductive 18-22 C (yes it was a bit like a warm bath). I was a shadow worshipper that day and felt like a living sundial as I kept turning and repositioning my sun lounger around the base of the parasol.

Another highlight was snorkelling with the fishes near to Basseterre on St Kitts. We even caught a glimpse of a turtle passing below us, he was incredibly fast and in quite a hurry to get away from the crowds. Ian claims he saw a sting ray, but I think he was imagining it! We both saw a yellow trumpetfish (apparently quite rare) and lots of other rather colourful friends of Nemo. Sorry, there’s no pictures, I have an aversion to putting a phone or camera underwater!

On our final day we completed our voyage of 4499nm and arrived at the island republic of Barbados. We took a shore excursion (it was a detour to the airport!) to Bathsheba on the Atlantic coast where the coral limestone rocks create dramatic coves and rocky stacks. Along the way we found out that the traditional chalet style wooden homes were designed to be taken down in a day and moved to the next village to follow the work. After some rather steep and bouncy roads we headed for the aptly named Atlantis Historic Inn. It is one of the oldest hotels on the East Coast of the island and was only made possible by the railway line from Bridgetown that was established in 1883. It was an idyllic place for a spot of lunch with swaying coconut palms and the sound of the waves crashing on the shoreline.

All too quickly (despite a flight delay of over 2 hours on the tarmac) we were back in the UK getting over our jet lag and planning our next few weeks of cruising in our narrowboat Heron. She might not be as big or as luxurious as MV Britannia, but she’s home, the shore excursions are all free and she doesn’t use as much fuel either!