Planet Ruby Starrs

Its day 20 something on the good ship Borealis... 2 full days from landfall... Pria de Victoria. Sunny, calm - no wind all that is lacking is a comfy seat in a quiet spot.. Yesterday we had the scrap heap boat building competition. It was well supported and there were 8 amazing entries. Seriously stiff competition... 7 of the 8 floated but the fantastic - or rather the astonishing model of the actual Borealis couldn't handle the turbulence And she capsized...  In the end, after all the models holding the 10 'passengers' - actually cans of pop- had been floated in the pool the winner had to be decided by the loudest cheer. Our ship 'The Astonishing Icon of the Pool' got a cheer to match its size🤣🤣. By far the biggest boat produced.. floating beautifully, incredibly stable with the 10 cans disguised as jolly pirates and prisoners peering out of portholes, it was greeted with a positive roar and shrill whistles... outright wi...

Those of you that know me will know that for a long time I've considered the radio 4 music 'sailing by' to be a hypnosis mechanism, played every night, enough people hearing it a to keep us all drugged and under control... I think it works very well ... even on cruise ships ... even though we don't hear it we are just experiencing the reality of actual sailing by. Usually docile, pliant, in some cases asleep... etc... But.....  after the sail away party held as we left Antigua... I'm not quite sure... given the state of most of these cruises it was positively riotous - People dancing on the side of the pool - brandishing walking sticks - chanting YMCA -complementary rum punch flowing freely.... Alot of ABBA...chaos...almost reminisent of raving at Tall Trees - at one point I thought everyones going to jump in the pool.... (🤣🤣NOT) Everyone was obviously up for the party... the caribbean spirit captured and carried away. It was a very bo...

Interim post.... Cruising for home ... And Dr Fred resumes his stargazing duties. It's good on this ship, lots of interested people, which means they talk to us quite a bit. Dr Freds often chatting to people showing them where things are in the sky. He's got his secret location on deck six which he is now sharing with some people🤣🤣 I think they have secret meets up there.. The build a boat scrap challenge continues.... its got seriously out of hand. The boat is rivaling any cruise liner - its enormous .. needs 2 people to carry it - I would say its slightly over engineered🤣🛳🚢🤣. We are now just bracing ourselves For the five (plus 2 half days🤣🤣) days to the next Port - Hopefully the Azores, weather permitting, then the following three days after that we hit home in the cold and wet..... The sea days are not too bad Dr Fred has several lectures to give and another four stargazing sessions Plus the old bits he's doing in between just for ente...

The ship berthed at Dominica.... right in the middle of the town. It was refreshingly un dutyfree .... still lots of market stalls selling touristy stuff - the usual shirts, hats, baskets, but noone really hassling - quite a laid back vibe - even if you loitered looking at bits and pieces. We wandered through the supermarket where I purchased some Dominican sardines, for my world collection pf sardine tins - but nothing much else caught our eye - a lot of the goods were waitrose... it just shows how global we are now -there was very little in that supermarket I couldnt find at home ... especially in Leeds. The centre of the town is quite contained. It has the standard over the top cathedral and usual mishmash of ramshackle and done up buildings just sat side by side.  There are more swish looking appartments nearer the edge of town looming in the distance. There were alot more of the ramshackles.... its a continuation of the colonial style... mostly woode...

Grenada - the most southly point of our trip. The heat is punishing especially as the town is considerably hilly... very short but steep roads at every turn. We walked up to the fort but it was a tad disappointing due to restoration work meanning most of it waa scaffolded but there was an amazing view point giving a 360 vista of the immediate area.  The breeze made the climb bearable but I was hoping the sun block held as this is the deceptive weather cool breeze taking the edge off the sun.  We wandered down to the harbour. This is considered to be one of the prettiest bays in the whole of the Caribbean and maybe it is, but because it was Sunday It was deserted, which was quite nice because it meant there was no traffic but also that were no bars or cafes to get a cup of coffee..... After the hustle and bustle and chaos of the other places we had visited this felt very calm and quiet. I wouldn't say it was particularly pretty - Maybe it looks bet...

Our last stop of the island hopping cruise, Antigua and Barbuda. To be honest more of the same. 8 islands in 8 days you start to get 'Island Leg' ... how ungrateful am I😂. Although it does look a lot flatter and therefore less lush. Also when you get into the town it's much more modern, less ramshackle and its very clean. I'm presuming this is because it's been hit by tsunamis, hurricanes or earthquakes in the more recent past, so theres been a lot of rebuilding. There is the usual run through of duty-free shops none of which were selling banana ketchup. In fact there were more 'upmarket' clothes shops then anything else. We walked up through town to the cathedral, but we decided not to bother going in as it was probably just as grand outside. Actually it looked A bit desolate, uncared for and run down. We did think perhaps if we'd paid to go in the money would go towards doing it up but it looked like it needed a lot...

Okay so basically I think we lost the plot in Bridgetown, Barbados 🤣🤣🤣.  And I didnt take many photos.....  We got off the ship late because we thought the sun would be less cruel after lunch🌞. Actually we've got a bit bored sitting about so It was still very sunshiny but we walked into town about a mile and a half. We had been pestered by taxi people to take a cab... everytime they mentioned a distance it got further away... they looked at Dr Fred who is using his stick due to dodgy knee and shook there heads knowingly... ' He'll not manage the walk... its a long way' 🤣🤣  But we walked... you see more that way. It was quite pleasant, a nice boulavard under palm trees - turquoise sea as a back drop. The odd steel drum busker... It felt more like what I had expected the Caribbean to be. We got to the seedier side of town but even that wasn't too bad ... And then we headed for the beach along the boardwalk.   The beach was just as...

Its a never ending island hop... today we hopped of the boat at Kingstown, on the island St. Vincents and Grenadine. Once through the usual port duty free - cheap booze and diamonds to go milarkey we were straight into the town... crazy noisy smelly chaos... refreshingly no tat shops for tourists, just local markets and street traders all vying for local sales.  Music blasting from everywhere, cars (very battered and often very pimped) all over the roads - parked in the middle of the street, loading, unloading, chatting seemingly oblivious to the total traffic jam caused behind them...  We walked through this mayhem - the temperatures were rising probably about 30 degrees - tourists evident by trying to walk on the shady side of the street - even when we turned off the main drag and there were less people it was still like carnival time with music blasting everywhere. Its very atmospheric and mostly promotes a good vibe although I have heard '3 little birds' everywhich way a...