World Circumnavigation 2024 - Sector One

7^th - 29^th January 2024

Itinerary: Southampton - Bermuda - Charleston - Port Canaveral - Fort Lauderdale - Key West - Panama Canal - Golfito - Puntarenas - Puerto Vallarta

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January 07. Southampton. On board earlier than expected. There was a slight problem with my Indonesian visa. We'll find out if it's going to be a problem later in the cruise.

January 14. King's Wharf, Bermuda. Because of bad weather crossing the Atlantic, we arrived about 2½ hours later than expected, but the departure time was only put back by an hour. This meant we only had 3½ hours in port. We grabbed a taxi and visited Fort Scaur, Gibbs Hill Lighthouse, Warwick Bay and a quick flit round Hamilton.

January 16. Charleston, USA. A very disappointing day. We arrived slightly before 12:30 pm. Immigration was held in a hall off the ship, rather than onboard. The procedures were done deck by deck and as we were on deck 1, we were among the last to be processed. We were finally called about 18:00. It was dark when we left Immigration and so there was no point going into town. In the end, we went to a hole in the wall pizza parlour where we had a fabulous pizza and then had a local beer in a hole in the wall bar. So far Fred have not impressed us with their port scheduling. Things can only get better. The good news is that we have to go through it all agin in Honolulu.

January 17. Charleston, USA. Today's tour was to the Middleton Plantation. The origional house was destroyed during the American Civil War, but one of the flanker houses has been restored. True to form for this cruise. it was closed for cleaning! We did, however, get to see the grounds and some of the outbuildings. As we weren't able to see the house, our guide gave us a short tour of the old part of Charleston, instead. An enjoyable but very cold trip.

January 18. Port Canaveral, USA. Much warmer than yesterday! From the dockside, we could see Cape Canaveral and the space centre. Today, the four of us took the shuttle bus into Cocoa Beach, where we just strolled along the main road, with a couple of visits to shops and a pub. An unexpected bonus was seeing a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral.

January 19. Fort Lauderdale, USA. A kind of non-day really. Linda was having trouble with her feet. so Rob, Barbara and I took the shuttle bus to a local mall. We had a mooch around. did a little shopping and came back to the ship. I didn't even take any photographs!

January 20. Key West, USA. The ship docked right next to the town. Rob and Linda moved cabin today, because of problems with their original one. So Barbara and I wandered into town and strolled around. It's a quaint little place which became surprisingly busy later in the morning. In many ways it reminded me of New Orleans. We had nachos and beer for lunch, in the Hard Rock Cafe, my 48th HRC!

January 23. Panama Canal, Panama. Today we transited the Panama Canal. It was hot!

January 24. Golfito, Costa Rica. Last night, after exiting the canal, we docked. Everyone one assumed it was a medical emergency. Wrong! Instead we were refuelling to be able to get to Auckland! The captain came on and informed us and said that we would now not be able to visit Golfito. Fred is certainly not impressing me so far.

January 25. Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Not a particularly exciting port. We just had a stroll around, looked at a local market and cathedral. A couple of beers and back on board.

January 28. Puerto Vallarta, México. When I booked this cruise, Acacpulco was the original Méxican port of call. This was changed to Puerto Vallarta before we sailed. It's been almost 30 years since my last visit. As we left the ship, we negotiated a trip with a taxi driver for the four of us. We saw downtown, strolled along part of the malécon looking at some of the sculptures. Then we drove into the hills to an artisinal tequila producer, where we tasted various tequilas. A quick look at some rocks called Los Arcos, back into town for a visit to the church of Guadalupe. A couple of quick beers by the port and then back on board. During the sailaway party we the backs of a couple of whales.