MAR 10: Sea Day #4

 

course over the past two days as of 2200 today

We passed south of Great Inagua during the night in the Turks & Caicos. I succeeded in my plan not to stay up to see if I could spot any distant lights.

Most of today, SIRENA cruised west-northwest with Cuba off the ship's port side.

On my Marine Traffic app, there was a bomb burst of cruise ships that departed Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and Canaveral yesterday (Sunday). It was hard to guess collectively how many passengers were on these ships, but it was in the tens of thousands. Extending that out over the winter cruising season would be a staggering number of people.

This graphic shows only cruise ships in the Caribbean region.

As mentioned in earlier posts, the cruise we booked was a 22-day counterclockwise trip around the Caribbean beginning in Central America. A few months ago, it was changed to two 11-day cruises to the eastern Caribbean. We have now been told that the complete change in the itinerary was due to a construction delay at a seaport terminal in Cartagena, Columbia. The original itinerary was created two years ago and was predicated on the finished terminal, where some passengers could be disembarked while others embarked. The extent of the Mother Goose factor in that explanation is unknown. Some quick research shows that cruise ships regularly use the terminal. This could be only for a port call rather than a transfer point. Regardless, the rollout of any explanation was poor and late.

We will see who disembarks in Miami. One notable person will be Lilly, whom we met on our first day and enjoyed chatting with throughout the cruise. She was a friendly, outgoing young lady who we will miss. She joined us for dinner this evening before heading off to pack so that she could get to one of the bars to say goodbye to a reportedly cute bartender. We hope she has a bright future ahead of her.