World Cruise

When the Aegean Greek islands came off the itinerary for the cruise, the storm we were avoiding dictated that we instead see one of the Ionian Greek islands. Corfu was selected by the crew. First, it was available. Second, it was out of the storm. Third, we could dock instead of use the tender so even if the sea was a bit on the high side we could still go into the port and visit.

[Read more…] about Corfu

So far on this trip the Sun has been with us and against us. But, on a day I least expected it, the Sun decided to have a little fun with me; specifically at sunset.

[Read more…] about Fun With the Sun

Our first two ports in the Mediterranean Sea are tender ports where the ship anchors and we get off via a smaller boat and taken to shore. As mentioned in the Suez Canal post once we hit the Mediterranean area we encountered heavy swells. This appears to be due to a weather system over the eastern Mediterranean. The problem is that with swells in the anchorage area it’s unsafe to get onto a tender from the ship and as the prediction is for worse conditions tomorrow the Captain has decided to cancel the first two port visits in the Mediterranean. This means we will only see Santorini as an outline on the horizon as we arrived there this morning but could not get off the ship. And, we won’t see Crete at all.

[Read more…] about Itinerary Change!

The Suez Canal is another one of those special spots where you can stand on the deck of a ship and see two continents just by turning your head. Even though both sides technically belong to Egypt, for a northbound transit looking to the left you see Africa and looking to the right you see Asia.

[Read more…] about Suez Canal

Back in the time of Moses the city of Petra was a major center of trade and capital of a region in what is now Jordan. When you come to Jordan a trek to Petra is a classic “bucket list” thing to do. So, I signed up for the Petra excursion for when we docked at Aqaba. I had done some research about such an excursion and determined it would be a trek. Little did I know what kind of trek it would end up being.

[Read more…] about Petra

Did not think I was going to post again for a bit until yesterday (3/18/18 about 10:45am) when I realized that we were sailing through one of only a very few unique spots on the Earth where you can stand on the deck of a ship and just by turning your head see two different continents at the same moment.

[Read more…] about One Unique Spot in the World