Saturday – 7 December 2013 – Day at Sea and Cozumel, Mexico
After a return visit to Fort Lauderdale where we left the ship only to be reprocessed in the dingy cruise terminal by the US Authorities (who as you may recall never forget or forgive) we spent a lovely sea day heading southwest to Mexico in calm seas. This began our second segment of this 18 day cruise, this time on a "Western Caribbean" cruise itinerary. A very big highlight for me was being greeted by Helen Harrison who had joined the ship in Florida for a few days. Helen had been the Tour Desk Manager on Song of Flower, the ship which addicted me to luxury cruising on my very first cruise in the early 1990s. She was also fiancée and later spouse of "J. J. Stewart", the primary Cruise Director on Flower for whom I worked for a number of times on month long engagements as Enrichment Lecturer.
Helen is now Silversea Cruises Headquarter's Director for Tours and was making a training visit for a few days. I was surprised she remembered me, but at a long—very long—lunch on the sea day from Ft. Lauderdale to Cozumel we reminisced not only about that very special ship but also she recalled every detail of my first cruise, from Bali in Indonesia to Cairns, Australia. Apparently, that was a very special itinerary as it called on ports that had never before seen a cruise ship including Komoto and the northern tip of the York Peninsula in Australia. Before Helen disembarked in Cozumel I sent my regards to Bob (JJ's real name) and we expressed our hope to meet again on land or sea.
Silversea's six ships and the now three ship Seven Seas Cruise Line are in essence all derived from Flower, still sailing as Quest Expeditions' "Ocean Diamond". Cruise ships never die, but they do get renamed.
After breakfast on our huge veranda, the next morning found us in Cozumel. This is a small island off the Yucatan Peninsula made famous years ago by Jacques Cousteau. Since then it has become a world renown diving center as well as (unfortunately) a base for the large mass market cruise ships on short "Mayan Riviera" itineraries from Miami. We watched a couple of Carnival ships sail in before us, fortunately to the dedicated Carnival facility some distance from downtown where Silver Spirit docked next to a ferry.
Barbara and I had booked a ship's excursion on the "Atlantis Submarine", a real submarine that takes tourists comfortably down to as deep as 200 feet below the service. The Cozumel operation is the only one currently in Mexico, although Atlantis runs similar subs in Hawaii as well as in a number of other Caribbean islands. Barbara wasn't thrilled with the somewhat tackiness of the safety briefing at their office and gift shop before the shuttle boat to the sub's mooring as the room was decorated kind of like a 1960s fried seafood restaurant. World War II submarine sounds played over loudspeakers. However I was able to avoid the mandatory overpriced commemorative picture taking by claiming that Barbara and I were "not married to each other". Try it, it works. At least it amused the other tour takers.
Despite the tackiness of the introduction, the sub ride was quite enjoyable. We saw, uh, fish as well as large coral formations in the local protected underwater park and even went over the edge of the shelf where the sea floor drops down abruptly from 100 feet to a dark abyss more than 6000 deep.
We next bribed the cab driver hired to take us back to the ship to drop us off instead at our friends Mike and Kathy's house near the small downtown. They were not there, but I've been hearing about the house for years and wanted to see it. They built the lovely duplex to provide a base for their diving obsession and as a rental property. We sat by their pool before the property manager came to give us a tour. Nice place.
Then we were off to the undeveloped side of the island to visit "Coconuts", a local hangout and proclaimed by usually pretty measured Mike as his favorite place in the world. I made a frantic international call to him to ask if it was safe to drink the margaritas, as drinking anything in Mexico other than beer or bottle water can be troublesome. He assured me that the water and ice cubes at Coconuts were safe but that it wasn't prudent to drink more than one of the gigantic and quite tasty margs. The guacamole and chips made for a wholesome and nutritious lunch.
We returned to Silver Spirit by 4 pm for "tea time" where I was surprised by the head waiter with a lactose free very rich chocolate cake and some chocolate dipped strawberries. And you ask why we keep doing this.
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