So much can change in such a short amount of time. I know it has been awhile since I’ve written anything, but I was finding it difficult to write. I took this contract with plans to be on one ship for 10 weeks before switching ships for the rest of my contract. It was also planned that my boyfriend would be joining me shortly after my ship switch. Two weeks ago we were informed that would not be happening. I was crushed…we both were. But I was given the choice to return to the last ship I worked on and meet him there. I felt that I was faced with an impossible choice: Live my dream of seeing the world and risk losing someone I have grown to care for OR Go be with him and give up on my dream for now. True to the promise I made myself in high school, I have not given up on a dream for a boy. We’ll see where we are in a few months time and take it from there, but for now I’m Europe-bound in 3 weeks.
With the bad news and the decision making process, I just couldn’t write. I would think about it, but just couldn’t bring myself to put words on the page. If I had free time I would watch movies or TV and I have finished reading all of the books I brought with me. Easier to consume someone else’s creative work than produce your own. However, things are getting better and life is getting back to normal. Not that my life is ever normal or that I would recognize it if it were….I think my first summer after college was the last time my life was normal. Oh, and a period of about a month after I left life on the road.
If last cruise was a week of angst this cruise has been one of adventure. I finally bought a kite in San Juan last week. There is a fort in town with a large lawn and it is always cluttered with people flying kites. Since witnessing this over a year ago, I’ve wanted to try it out. So last Sunday I went to the makeshift kite stand in the corner of the lawn and bought myself a kite. It a beauty too- with a scene of Lighting McQueen from the movie Cars. I was a little worried that I didn’t know how to fly a kite. I think I flew one a couple times as a kid, and then when I was working at the dollar store in high school I believe I bought one and my dad helped me fly it. I remember it not being very much fun and quite difficult. Well, it’s much easier in San Juan. I think they have better wind than Pennsylvania. I was under the impression that in order to get the kite in the air you have to run. You probably do back home, but here it tries to take off as soon as you take it out of the package.
The rest of the cruise got off to a bit of a slow start with a trip to my typical beach in Barbados. I did a little snorkeling, but not much.
I found and swam with another turtle for a bit though. The next day I was in St Lucia- the boring day of the cruise. I wasn’t planning on getting off the ship this day, but some friends and I went to a nearby hotel for lunch and internet. The adventures started the next day….
Antigua is a port I’ve visited many times…every other cruise for much of the last 2 years. I had heard about a place to zipline and do a ropes course in the rainforest, but I had never left the town, the nearby beaches, or the
pizza place in the airport (don’t judge me). Realizing I only had 2 more trips to Antigua, I decided I must make my move. Shortly after getting my ticket for the tour I realized, “I don’t like heights. Why did I just sign up for this?” Not being one to back down from pretty much anything I decided to go through with it anyway.
The rainforest wasn’t really what I was expecting. I actually don’t know what I was expecting. Rain, maybe? No rain. There was forest though. I think I was expecting it to be wet and muddy if not raining….but I didn’t notice that much either. It just seemed like every other forest I’ve seen, but with palm trees instead of pine trees.
I did 9 ziplines and then did 3 of those a second time. The biggest one was over 300 feet long and over 300 feet off the ground. I loved it! After I felt how secure it was on the last one, I wasn’t scared at all. They hook you in while you are
standing on a platform around a tropical tree and tell you when you can go. Then you jump off the platform and ZING! off you go through the air.
After the last zipline you had to do the Leap of Faith to get down from the platform in the tree. Here they hook you into a winch and tell you to step off the platform. When you do, the winch lowers you the 30 or so feet to the ground. It’s basically a controlled free fall. That was the worst part for me. You can see where you are going on the ziplines and you feel secure sitting in the harness, but that feeling was gone here as you were falling. I made it back to the earthen surface just fine though.
Now that the ziplines were done it was time for the ropes course. Here I was faced with about 12 different kinds of suspension bridges. The first was just the normal bridge you would seen on a playground- wooden planks below, rope mesh sides. No big deal. The next consisted on a single steel cable for you feet and one rope for your hands…basically tightrope
walking
with a rope railing. Trickier, but still easy. The next was the most difficult for me. There were wooden planks every few feet, nothing on the sides, but differing lengths and diameters of ropes hanging down from above. You basically had to Trazan yourself across the bridge with the planks there for support. The more balance and upper body strength you have the easier all of these are supposed to be. I made it across them all with no one needing to assist me or come rescue me. I didn’t see anyone fall, but a few people needed assistance.
At the end, I was awarded a “Certificate of Bravery” for completing the course. Personally, I was actually very proud of myself. I did it! I faced my fears and pushed myself to do the ziplines and complete all of the ropes course elements. In the end, not only did I survive and succeed, I actually enjoyed it.
Later that night, back onboard, there was a crew dodgeball tournament. I haven’t played dodgeball since high school I would estimate, but I really wanted to play so I joined a team. We only had 4 teams, but we played for about an hour, and my team was the champion!!!! However, I am terrible. I got better as the game went on, but I was really horrible at the beginning. I haven’t thrown a ball in awhile and my aim could stand to improve a bit. But I had fun and we will hopefully be doing this again before I leave.
I found myself in St Maarten the following day. It seemed hotter than usual so it wasn’t long before I jumped in the ocean. Then I flew my kite on the beach before heading to my favorite restaurant on the beach for lunch and internet before returning to the ship.
After a late night of work, I was up early go diving in St. Croix. I became a certified open water diver a few months back before I left my last ship. However, I haven’t been diving since. Again, I was quite nervous faced with this trip. I had only done my training dives, what if I’ve forgotten what to do? What if I freak out and ruin everyone else’s dive? Thankfully all of my worries went unfulfilled once again and I was fine. I definitely still have more to learn and I can get a lot better at many of the underwater skills, but over all I did well. I did notice that I am a bit too goal oriented and I focused more on the people in front of me, where we were going, where my buddy was, and making it to the end of the dive than I did on looking around and exploring the underwater world.
On our first dive we went to what is known as The Wall. We descended to about 20 feet and swam along for 20 minutes, suddenly the ocean floor drops away. It is a near vertical drop to around 3,500 feet. The deepest we descended was 77 feet, but it was so cool to look in front of you, behind, up, and down and see a solid wall of coral and sea life.
Our second dive was spent in the coral beds of the shallower water. In fact, St Croix has a coral nursery where they are trying to regrow coral that was destroyed. It kind of looks like an underwater greenhouse- little potted coral dotted the ocean floor. We saw lots more sea life on our second dive including a sting ray! I was able to get pretty close to it- it was just sitting on the ocean floor. I guess we were near a squid and a sea turtle as well, but I didn’t see those. Sad. As my diving skills and my confidence in my abilities improve I’m sure I’ll start looking around and exploring a bit more. There are some pictures from the dive, but I need to get them from the guy that took them- then I’ll post a few.
I’m hoping to do a wreck dive next cruise so hopefully I’ll write about that soon. Three more cruises left on this ship- where has the time gone. I’ve been out here for 7 weeks already. I feel like I was just home…now everyone is going back to school. Have a great week!
