2/11/17 Saturday Half Moon Cay, Bahamas
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This is our last full day aboard Rotterdam. We'll have to pack this evening for our departure from Rotterdam tomorrow morning in Fort Lauderdale. We've arranged for our luggage to be sent straight from the ship to JetBlue at FLL so we don't have to handle it until we arrive at JAX.
After breakfast in the Lido we returned to the cabin to find it all made up, with our luggage on the beds and a "disembarkation package" on top of everything. We made out the US Customs declaration. We attached the provided four B6 (JetBlue) luggage tags and four Rotterdam luggage tags to the bags.
We carefully filed away our JetBlue boarding passes in my carry-on along with the Customs form. We noted our disembarkation group so we can march off smartly tomorrow morning.
Then we got on with the doing of the day. It's cooler here, anchored off Half Moon Cay, at 72*f. This little uninhabited island is off the south end of Eleuthera, and about 200km east of Andros Island where I did a flock of tests on the submarine Sand Lance in 1977.
There is a large tender (two decks, many chairs) available here to shuttle people between the island and the ship. I suppose it also brings the workers here from Eleuthera on boat days.
We took a picture of our cabin stewards, Durma (L) and Moris (R). They've done fine work in keeping us happy and cabin 3312 organized. They've entertained us with the bed animals and their happy greetings.
About 1430 the last tender departed after bringing the last people from the beach. We got underway quickly, coming around to course North to skirt Eleuthera.
Around 1730 we changed course to 324*, having passed most of that island. In a bit, we'll change course to turn into Grand Bahama Canyon / New Providence Channel and onward to Fort Lauderdale.
At 1600 we went to the culinary center and picked up the recipe cards furnished by Keri. We'll bind them at home after we check for duplicates from our last cruise.
I went to the Crow's Nest at 1700 for a couple glasses of wine at happy hour, while D elected to go to vigil mass in the culinary center.
We went to dinner in the dining room about 1830. Good food, nice little table for two, and we polished off the last bottle of wine in the package. We came back to the cabin to pack and prepare. Amazingly, everything fit into the suitcases we brought.
I've transited this channel before, en route to TOTO (the Tounge Of The Ocean) between Andros and New Providence Islands. There's deep water there and a well-instrumented range that supports various kinds of tests. I've used it.
But I can't believe that was 40 years ago. I suppose that I'll soon have to admit that I'm 47 years old with 30 years in grade.
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The disembarkation from the ship and the shuttle to FLL airport went so smoothly and on time that we were very much surprised. Of course, we have a long wait time for our flight - things usually do go well when you have lots of time.
We had a nice breakfast in the airport. Now we're sitting at a wifi/powerbar charging and chatting.
It's going to be a long day, partly due to our late flight, partly because at least five cruise ships are in and out today and partly because the big snow storm in New England has air service clobbered up there. There are lots of folks waiting around for NE flights that are delayed or cancelled.
I can't say much in praise of the F wing at Terminal 3. There are 10 gates with limited seating. Some concessions open onto the main aisle, complicating the flow of foot traffic to & from the gates. It's especially bad when a flight arrives and 100+ passengers try to get to the terminal at the same time.
However, there is this power bar with seats near F5. That's good. We're at it now, keeping the machines 100% charged and doing some things we haven't been able to do while at sea.
We went off to have a glass & chatted with several people. Then we had a sandwich, during which we were notified of a gate change from F5 to E6. So we moved to the E wing and found a delayed flight to LGA at that gate. But they loaded as we waited. Our flight took off and landed on time. Lana met us near the luggage door & drove us home to the condo.
And so ends the trip. Thanks for coming along.
