FIRST THINGS FIRST

January 14, 2020

Ya know, that’s a crazy expression – first things first.  If you put second things first, they would then be the first things.  Right?  Anyway ...

As you know, my beloved’s Kindle was bumfuzzled.  She couldn’t get in to her crochet patterns, and to paraphrase her comment one day at the Augusta National, she was not happy.  And if Mamma ain’t happy.

Well, we went ashore today, and took the offending device.  After touring the Fort Frederikstad and Museum, we headed for some souvenir stores.  We passed one that advertised WiFi.  I pulled it up on the Kindle – the only page you could get to was a list of WiFi spots – and tried to sign in to the merchant’s WiFi.  It needed a password.  I asked the merchant if he would do a huge favor for me, and explained the situation.  And voila!  The main page came up, Bonnie quickly scrolled through the settings and turned the WiFi and airplane mode off, and there were her patterns.  To thank the merchant, we bought a $2 Diet Coke and gave him a $3 tip.

And on to second things (second).

As you know we’ve had some rough seas since sailing away from Port Canaveral.  The Captain steered us below the Bahamas to get us into smoother seas, and then after skirting the northern coast of Cuba and Hispaniola, he steered south, and dropped us below Puerto Rico and into smooth seas.  After we came out from PR’s protection we had some bumps, but docked smoothly in St. Croix.  The details of the day will come in a few sentences, but sitting at supper, the Captain came on and said he was changing our itinerary.

Tomorrow was supposed to be St. Maarten (where your favorite cruisers are going swimming) but because of the rough weather, the fuel resupply ship could not satisfy our thirsty engines.  So, we are going back to San Juan (which was to be our last stop), and get refueled.  We will actually get an extra hour there, and then head out to the rest of our schedule.  I’m not sure where we will be when, but as soon as the new itinerary is published, I’ll let you know.  Those of you who traveled to Russia with me remember rule number one: Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape.

In my photography talk – how to take better pictures with your digital device – I show a couple of pictures I took as suggestions for some creative picture taking.  And I have never been able to remember where I took those snapshots.  Until today.  Walking off the ship and into town, Mom looked up at the little red fort and said, “That’s where you took the picture through the window looking out into the harbor.”  And she was right.  Now I know where three of the pictures in the talk were taken.  All right here in St. Croix when we were here in 2012 on the Carnival Pride – our first Journeys Cruise.  What to go BonBon!

We wandered around town for a total of about 4 miles, visiting the Catholic church again (it had been damaged by the last hurricane and the restoration is almost finished), and in and out of stores and shops, picking up a couple of souvenirs.  The downtown bandstand was manned with good singers and we enjoyed that as well.  And Jani, if you are reading this, we picked up a surprise for you.  And Jani, if you are not reading this, we picked up a surprise for you.

We are sailing up the eastern coast of Puerto Rico as I type this and the seas have a gentle roll to them, not the hump and bump of the last couple of days.  Prayerfully the high pressure system that was dominating us earlier has moved on to other locales.

After supper tonight we went to Karaoke open mike.  If you’ve never been, treat yourself the first chance you get.  The singers covered all the bases – really good singers, average singers, and brave souls with a microphone.  The later group, sadly, did several numbers.  It was interesting when they got up for their fourth number – one-fourth of the audience got up and left.  We waited a few minutes so we wouldn’t be noticed, but you could hear their enthusiastic performance way down the hall.

Well, I think that’s the day, or the most of it.  We’ll see you tomorrow from Puerto Rico, where I will wear my Roberto Clemente shirt ashore.

TTFN