November 23 - Cabrits, Dominica

 This has been a glorious day!  We're anchored today in a little bay off Cabrits, Dominica.  Dominica is properly called the Commonwealth of Dominica and is an independent republic.  It's the youngest island of the Lesser Antilles and is still being formed by geothermal activity. That's visible at a place called Boiling Lake which is the world's second largest hot springs.  The island is known as the "Nature island of the Caribbean" because of its lush environment and diverse flora and fauna.

Because of health restrictions only people on ship shore excursions were allowed to tender ashore.  The tours didn't appeal to me so I stayed on the ship and I had a spectacular day.  First I did something I haven't done in years. I went to the pool and sat in the sun for a while. It's been years since I've done that and it was wonderful for a change. The waiters were walking around with different boat drinks and I had something pink which was like drinking a strawberry smoothie with a little kick.

I had heard that today would be a marina day so I went to check it out. Seabourn opens an area at the stern of the ship and has kayaks, hobie cats (for people with sailing experience), banana boats (three  people ride astride like on a horse) and doughnuts (two people sit in it).  The latter two get towed by fast zodiacs. I signed up to go on a doughnut.  It was just me and when I got in the zodiac I asked if I could stay in that instead of transferring to the doughnut.  The two officers handling the zodiac were happy because if they weren't towing the doughnut they could go faster.  So off we went! They revved up the engine and we took off.  It was exhilarating as we zipped around the bay, did loop-de-loops and figure eights and roared around the ship. I felt like I was flying across the water.  Evidently not many passengers realized they could  do this or else they didn't want to so I spent more than a half hour in the zodiac. I loved every moment as the spray came and we bounced across wakes from the tender.  Wow, it was fun!  Unfortunately I couldn't take my camera so you'll have to take my word that I really did this.

Tonight I'm dining with one of the officers on the zodiac and I'm looking forward to that.  He's the ship's first officer which I think is sort of the equivalent of the First Mate.

                       Sunset leaving St. Martin

             These are two shots of beautiful Dominica

                    It's hard to see but if you look hard you can see a zodiac pulling a doughnut