Sea Day 12 - Not Grand Cayman

We are in some big seas. We felt the turn to approach George Town around 5:30am. By 7am we were mostly still and rocking. Without opening the curtains or turning on the TV, Clay knew we were near land because he could see dozens of wifi networks available. I finally got up and the seas were clearly bigger than at Nicaragua. With binoculars, I could see the huge breakers ashore. I never spotted the tender dock, btw. I decided around 7:20am to dress in sea day clothes and not going ashore clothes assuming if we stayed that I would not tender ashore or that I could change later. About 7:30am, we changed course and started back out to sea. About 7:40am, the Captain's voice came over the cabin speakers to tell us that the swells were 6 to 8 feet at the ship and that the port agent and harbor master had advised him that our scheduled tender pier had been closed due to swells breaking over them. So today ends up a bonus sea day for everyone. The further north we get the bigger the seas get. The Captain advised that he expected it to be worst around 3 to 4 am as we round the western tip of Cuba and to get better as we sailed east away from Nate through the Florida Straits to Miami. The good news is that the big swells are no longer broadside from starboard! In other good news, they issued a new Currents since a port day just became a sea day and the movie Going in Style will be shown on a big screen in Regatta Lounge at 2pm with popcorn.

We received our preliminary invoice and still had $51 of nonrefundable shipboard credit to use or lose. We knew that and have browsed the boutique daily buying things we don't really need. Today I noticed the spa was open as we made our way to Horizons to wait for our cabin to be ready. I told Clay I'd like a bottle of skin toner to replace my last spa visit one that I had used up. It was exactly $50! Mission accomplished! When we got back to the cabin, there was another letter on the door. It was to remind us that time was running out to use or lose our shipboard credit. Clay read it and told me, you're ahead of them.

I haven't written about it but I'd like to give praise where it is due. Our room steward is Joseph. I believe he's from the Philippines but confess I haven't seen his badge closely enough to know. He is the best cabin steward we have had (except for onboard NWP's Crystal Serenity) in all our sailing time. He is timely, efficient and always friendly. He makes an effort to greet us by name when we pass in the hall and drops what he is doing to get to the cabin door before us to open it. He would have been our best steward ever except he wants us to use too much soap. When a bar is about half gone, a new one appears and yesterday with only 2 days left an old one disappeared. I know it shouldn't but that really bothered me. We could have happily finished the cruise with the soap we already had. I guess I am too frugal and picky but Crystal wins and Joseph takes 2nd place. That still makes him an absolutely fantastic cabin steward.

Given the ever growing swells, we've studied the menus and will probably stay downstairs the rest of the day. That will mean lunch and dinner in Grand Dining Room instead of Terrace. We generally prefer the speed and range of choices in Terrace over GDR but you've gotta do what you've gotta do.

At noon, the Captain made an announcement into our cabins again. He said swells had increased to about 13 feet now. He again thought conditions would worsen until between 3 and 4 am when he could turn east and run along the north coast of Cuba for shelter. He pointed out that the swells were no longer from starboard which was helping things be better than they might have been otherwise. He said now the swells were surpassing us from aft and the ship was kind of surfing as the swells passed us. He said that meant Nate was traveling in the same direction but faster than us. He advised care with the soup at lunch. Having now had cold soup, he should have advised against hot coffee. We witnessed a narrow escape in GDR. If it weren't for the 2pm movie, I'd probably just knock myself out with Dramamine and call it a day. I may yet wind up wishing I had.

Since we have Internet now and I don't expect anything noteworthy to occur all day, I'll post this now. If anything newsworthy occurs, I'll come back with an update.