SAILING TO HELL AND BACK

Did you know you could sail to Hell ?
We just returned from our week's sail with our good friends and we had a GREAT TIME!
The Carnival ship, Freedom, left from Ft. Lauderdale a week ago Sunday and our first stop was Key West.  Been there . . .  Done that! The 2 other couples we were with were not impressed by Key West but it did help to get us into the party mood. The next day was a day at sea where we all took advantage of sitting on the deck watching the sights go by, drinking a few beers and eating every 15 minutes. Life is good ! No one over did any of the above activities and it was a great day. The sun was hot and the beer was cold. The company was great fun.

At night we all went to the shows and stayed up till after 10! What a wild and crazy group this is. The food on the ship was pretty yummy and we didn't miss a night in the dinning room. We had lobster and steak, shrimp and frogs legs, snails and strawberry soup. Nothing to complain about in the food department. And the desserts were pretty hard to pass up. That chocolate molten cake is a sure thing when nothing else looks good.

In the dining room

         

On the third day of the cruise the ship was docked off the coast of Grand Cayman Island. We had to take a tender to shore and we could have stayed on the boat for all that Grand Cayman had to offer. This  island is nothing but a lump of limestone sitting in the middle of the sea. It is one really UGLY island and has very little to see. With the exception of the town of HELL.

We took a guided sight seeing tour of the island and Hell was the first stop. The town is named for some rock formations in back of the post office. Not much to see there either but it is unique. We bought a post card and mailed it to Abby and Roman in England thinking they would get a kick out of a card from Hell.
From Hell we went to the turtle farm where turtles are brought in as hatchlings and nurtured for a few years and then slaughtered for turtle meat. HOW AWFUL! The turtle meat is not exported anywhere but is sold only on Grand Cayman Island. We did not have an opportunity to try any as we could not find a restaurant selling it.

The last stop on this strange island was at the dock to take a "submarine" tour of the harbor. The boat was built so that the bottom of it appeared to be a submarine below the water. You got on, went down some stairs and sat on uncomfortable benches looking out windows at fish swimming by. Not as thrilling as it sounds, (if that sounds thrilling to you), but very different from anything we have ever tried before. We returned to our ship and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and laughing at what a disappointment Grand Cayman was. I guess with all the money on that island they don't care that it is one really UGLY place to live.
Stop three was the following day at the BEAUTIFUL island of Jamaica. WOW ! I really think Jamaica is THE MOST beautiful island I have yet to see. It is GREEN and MOUNTAINOUS and just plain gorgeous. We docked in Ocho Rios and took a catamaran sail down the coast to Dunn's River Falls.

Frank is checking out the sights

 You could climb the water fall with a guide or walk up a dry path and stairs next to the falls. We walked the path to the top and took a dip in the ice cold water. Absolutely beautiful.
The sail back to our ship took us way out into the ocean for a wonderfully invigorating ride all the while drinking rum punch. It's a wonder we didn't get sea sick but we were having too much fun to even think about it.

Bob is following the Jamaican motto of "DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY"!

It's easy to "BE HAPPY" when they are serving FREE rum punch!

Once we returned to the ship we set sail for one more day at sea before coming back to Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday morning very bright and early. It was an over cast morning with temperatures in the high fifties.  We tried to stay on board as long as possible but the cruise crew threw us off and we had to return to land. 

All in all it was a great week of fun and friendship and hopefully we will do this again next year.