January 1 - Roseau, Dominica

 Weather – 28º, partly cloudy – just when you thought the rain clouds were rolling in, they rolled right out

Steps –5,867

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Although we didn’t get to bed until 1AM last night (last year we were on this same boat and were sleeping before 11) we had to be up early for dolphin and whale

New Year rum punch

watching.

whale...trust me

Despite having been on cruises A LOT, I’ve seen few whales and other than a dolphin watching trip in Oman years ago, I’ve seen few dolphins.

There were 80 other people from the cruise on the excursion with us. We were on a 2 double decker simple boat with plenty of room to move. The boat had a captain and 3 other workers who gave us the most thorough safety briefing

whale

we’ve EVER had on a boat…usually there’s little more than ‘there’s the life jackets.’

These guys also explained the whales and dolphins we could see and their hydrophones that helped them know where the animals were - we could hear the clicking sounds – very cool.

Today’s tour did not disappoint. We didn’t see the dramatic breaching we of course had hoped for, but what we did see was exciting – it’s the knowledge that we

spouting

might not see anything that makes actually seeing anything thrilling. We saw were a few mother sperm whales (12m, 15 tonnes) hanging at the surface, then showing their tails and disappearing. We saw a couple of babies sperm whales hanging at the surface. Before heading back, we saw a bunch of dolphins.

We also saw a bunch of flying fish. These seem to launch themselves off the sides of the boat back into the water. This reminded us of our cruise in the

tail!

Indian Ocean years ago, when flying fish seemed to be hurtling off the sides of the cruise ship every day.

All of a sudden it seemed like the wind picked up and the water was rougher. The guide explained that happed because we went from the calm Caribbean sea to the rougher Atlantic.

We didn’t get far from the port today…as usual, wanted a local beer, but not

baby

much seemed open, so it was back for a room service lunch on our balcony which faced the town and was in the shade...glorious.

It doesn’t seem like you can get far without being offered a rum punch. They’re always a bit different…rum, juice, spices – maybe cinnamon or nutmeg.

Speaking of the port...we remarked that it really takes very little for huge cruise ships to dock. Dominica has a short pier only about 10% or 15% of the length of

rainbow leaving Dominica

our ship. This is not an industrial port at all. There was one other cruise ship and a

releasing the ropes

ferry in today.