We had two lovely and uneventful days at sea following our sail away from Jost van Dyke. It was sunny and not too hot, but I stayed mainly in the shade because I didn't need to barbecue myself at the end of the cruise. Our trivia team rebounded and we actually finished in second place one day and near the top another. It was fun even if we didn't win a Seabourn mug, made in China, or a faux leather passport holder, also made in China. I had dinner at another hosted table one night and the last night sat at a table next to a very nice couple from Houston and we had a good conversation. They were on the ill-fated tour to El Yunque in Puerto Rico.
I've met many friendly and interesting people on this cruise. I think it's a good thing that as I've aged I've become more comfortable striking up conversations with people in all sorts of places. Had I not, I might have felt lonely on this trip despite the fact that Seabourn did a great job of trying to keep me and the other solo travelers from feeling alone. After all, we do have to take some personal responsibility for social interaction.
I had a wonderful time and truthfully if I didn't have Emma the schnauzer waiting at home, I would have been tempted to stay on for the next cruise. My trip home was uneventful but I do have some observations about air travel now. I flew Delta from Miami to Atlanta with a connection to Richmond. Maybe because it was the Monday after Thanksgiving but the airports and planes were jam-packed. Both of my flights had no empty seats; in fact, they were asking for people to give up their seats for later flights. I didn't see any people making a fuss about wearing a mask in the airport or on planes and I was thankful for the latter. I didn't want to wind up being grounded someplace because of rowdy passengers. On the other hand, I saw lots of people wearing masks down around their mouths or hanging around their necks which seems rather pointless. Since I'm not an epidemiologist I'm not sure about the efficacy of masks in general so perhaps it makes no difference. All I know is that if that's the entry ticket to travel I'll do it.
I enjoyed this cruise enough that I have booked future cruises. I'll write about those when the time to go approaches. I'm into sunsets so I'm going to post three more photos and then that's it for this voyage. If you've been reading I hope it hasn't been boring. I write my blog for me to remember places I've been and things I've seen. For now, may everyone have a wonderful Christmas and I hope for a better 2022 for all of us.
Sunset on November 27 north of Hispaniola
This was a little after the sun went down on 11/28 and I thought it looked like the ocean was on fire at the horizon.
I took this from the plane as we were descending into Richmond International. The colors were absolutely stunning!
