We arrive in St Kitts and passengers begin disembarking before I awake. The Captain's forecast for today is for overcast skies and rain. I think he has his days confused. Yesterday he forecast clear sunny skies, and there were showers much of the day. Today as I look out the skies are mostly blue with an occasional whispy cloud.
I grab a quick breakfast in the Diamond Lounge and head ashore.
We are sharing the dock with the Celebrity Summit, and there is another ship anchored in the harbor using tenders. She is too far out for me to identify but I believe she might be a Windstar ship.
Workmen are busy constructing a new pier, I suspect which will hold two ships, and probably of the oasis class size. I would guess scheduled for completion next year. The streets are clean, and the shops more than plentiful.
I find it very ironic that I needed to travel thousands of miles to answer a question I had 16 months ago while visiting Canada on the Vision of the Seas. I am sure you all remember, but on the pier were hundreds of sections of large pipe. I asked and asked, but at the time no one was able to tell me what they were for. Now that has changed.
While ashore this morning I was having a conversation with a passenger on the Summit that turned out to be from New Brunswick, Canada. He tells me the pipe was purchased to build a pipeline to transfer oil bearing tar sands to a refinery near Montreal. Due to inability to secure all the required permits etc, the project has been temporarily halted. Locally this was a very sensitive topic as the halt put the jobs of thousands of workers at risk. Subsequently no one was willing to discuss the subject with anyone, especially an outsider like me. Who would have guessed that I would find the answer sitting on a park bench in St Kitts.
As I return to the ship a group of our cremembers are wheeling carts of provisions to the Summit. I can't read all the labels, but many boxes of asparagus are transferred. I hope they haven't given away too many limes. FYI the Summit is sailing out of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Our ship is being refueled today. The process takes most of the day. I belive there are refineries here, but I am not sure. There are definitely a number of large storage tanks, and at least one oil tanker is moored nearby.
I take a peak at tonight's menu. Why do they do this? Three of my favorite dishes on the same menu, while last night there were none. I will wait until I arrive in the dining room to decide.
Cleaning and maintainig a ship is a never ending job. The past two days all the carpets on decks 13 and 12 were shampooed. A process that appears to work quite well as the carpet now looks nice and fresh. One crewmember sprays a detergent solution on the carpet, giving extra attention to any stained areas. I can't imagine anyone would ever spill a drink. This is followed by a standard carpet shampoo machine with strong suction and I assume a water rinse. When all finished, fans are used for drying. I didn't get it, but I heard one guest complaining to the concierge host that cleaning the carpet made it dangerously slippery.
Today all the lights are being repaired in the Vortex lounge. In additional to replacing burned out general lighting, some of the spotlights had failed as had several strobe lights over the dance floor.
The only entertainment in the theater tonight is the love and marriage game show. I expect the Schooner bar will be busy.
I resolve my dining dilema once I reach the dining room. Lasagna and braised beef but skipping the accompaning potato. No appetizer and no desert as usual.
With no entertainment tonight, I return to the Diamond lounge. It remains packed until closing at 8:00. I then head to the Schooner bar.
Thee was a decent sunset tonight, of course I don't have my camera and don't take pictures. The seas remain calm as we head to St. Marten at about 8 knots.
No comments:
Post a Comment