Emerald Princess, December 2008, Day 9

Princess Cays, Bahamas

Much cooler weather this morning and mostly cloudy. The sea has been slightly rough since last night but not so choppy this morning. The tenders could take passengers to the beach at Princess Cays. It's a private retreat owned by Princess and used for a variety of beach recreation activities, some are free, some you pay extra for. It's on Eleuthera Island a part of the Bahamas. We have never been over there.

Breakfast was in the Horizon Court and lunch on deck at the pizza place.

We were pleased and surprised to get upgraded to Platinum status in the frequent cruiser program. You get a new member card, a shiny pin and best of all, free Internet on the next cruise. Also, and perhaps even better, when you embark next time there's a special express line to use and when it's time to depart there's a dedicated lounge to wait in with coffee and buns and lots of room.

It is time to pack up and put our luggage in the hall by early evening. A wonderful thing about a cruise is that we have been many places in the last ten days but once we unpacked on November 30 we haven't had to pack or unpack again.

We had a bit of maritime drama this afternoon. The sea got quite rough around noon and the tenders bringing people back from Princess Cays were really rocking and bobbing. By 3:00 when we were preparing to set to sail for Ft. Lauderdale, one of the winches that brings in the tender boats was damaged. Probably by the rough seas. There were many announcements and updates by Commodore Romano.

When the crew finally got a winch working it raised boat #21 very slowly and not as smoothly as usual. But it worked, at last the boat was secured and we were on our way. We were supposed to leave at 4:00 and it was after 5:00 when we did.

After dinner in the Michalangelo we braved the tossing deck and went to the Princess Theater to see John Bressler's show, music with comedy. The sea was really rough and we were happy to get back to our room.

Distances Sailed
Fort Lauderdale to Aruba
1137 nautical miles = 1308 statute miles = 2103 kilometers

Aruba to Bonaire
120 nautical miles = 138 statute miles = 222 kilometers

Bonaire to Grenada
395 nautical miles = 454 statute miles = 731 kilometers

Grenada to Dominica
199 nautical miles = 229 statute miles = 368 kilometers

Dominica to St. Thomas
274 nautical miles = 315 statute miles = 507 kilometers

St. Thomas to Princess Cays
740 nautical miles = 851 statute miles = 1369 kilometers

Total distance so far
2865 nautical miles = 3295 statute miles = 5300 kilometers

NOTE: 1 nautical mile = 1.15 land miles = 1.85 kilometers