World Cruise 2010 - Seven Seas Voyager

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Takoradi, Ghana

We docked at the port of Takoradi on schedule at 8am. This port had lots of vendors set up on the pier ready to sell all kinds of African art but we had to delay our shopping because our nature conservation tour headed out as soon as our ship was cleared. This tour took us to the various wetlands and “green banks” of Takoradi where we would see how Ghana is protecting the environment for future generations.

Our first stop was at Monkey Hill where the government has set up a preserve to protect the forest where local monkeys maintain their habitat. We hoped to see some of them during our visit, but unfortunately, they make themselves seen only in the early morning and at sunset. They were already back in the deep forest, and not visible.

Feeling a little disappointed, we reboarded our coach and drove to the twin city wetlands which is home to many species of native birds and animals. As we were disembarking the coach to walk toward the wetland area, our driver had an altercation with the local police because we were holding up traffic. The policeman started to shove the driver, and I thought we were going to be in the middle of a fight, but cooler heads prevailed quickly. With the threat of violence over, I did get some good photographs while walking through this conservation area.

Next, we drove through the townships (the ghetto areas) of Sekondi and Takoradi, the twin cities and saw how the average local people live. To me, it looked like the people were surviving after a bomb destroyed their homes. It appeared that they were barely surviving, but interestingly enough, everyone we passed waved to us and smiled broadly. Everyone, without exception, was very welcoming. After leaving the township, we drove through the central market area, the new part of Takoradi, and the commercial enclave of the city before retuning to the pier and the market that had grown since we left for our tour several hours before.

We spent more than an hour going through the stalls and visiting with the vendors, all of whom were very friendly and none of which were overly aggressive. The prices were so modest that I did not want to negotiate the prices, and in most cases simply paid what they were asking for the products. In one instance, I was looking at a hand carved walking stick and Mary Pat called out that it was too large to fit in our suitcase whereupon the merchant smiled and showed me that it could be dismantled into several pieces making it very easy to carry home. Obviously, that was something that I purchased.

After a quick lunch, I took the shuttle back to town, and the huge central market circle, with Joan & Charlie who were looking for the expensive Kinta cloth that is made in Ghana. She did find some of the authentic cotton fabric and when she agreed to the price and got out some American money, all of the women in the area got up and danced around her and the woman who made the sale. It was a happy site. It seems that because of the price, not many local people can afford this cloth, and it is only worn on very special occasions. Joan was happy also.

While in the market, I met a very old woman who said that she wanted me to take her to America with me when I left. She wanted to see America before she died. I sat with her and told her that I could not do that, but I could give her a gift that I brought with me from America. I then reached into one of my pockets and gave her a lapel pin with the flag of the United States of America. As I attached the pin on her dress, she looked at it, gave me a big toothless smile, and thanked me profusely. It was a very touching moment.

I also gave lapel pins to some of the cute young children we met before returning to the shuttle stop and boarding our coach for the return ride to the pier and our ship. This was a very nice day and very different from our day in Togo. We were able to visit with the local people and let them know that we want to learn about their culture, and how they live their lives.

Our ship left Ghana at 6pm. We are going to have three days at sea before arriving at our last African mainland country, the Gambia, where we are going to host a tour for the Ensemble guests onboard the ship.

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Banjul, The Gambia

Our original schedule called for us to dock at 8am, but several days ago, we were informed that the port of Gambia would not be ready to receive us until 10am. This morning, the Voyager was waiting patiently outside the port area at 10am when Captain Mario announced throughout the ship that although we had arrived when we were told to be here, the pilot had not arrived as he had promised. I guess it was to encourage him to start his engines and motor out to us that our Captain moved our ship closer to the pier than expected. This was probably a signal to the authorities that we were ready to land the passengers with or without their assistance. As a result, it was not much longer until the local pilot made an appearance and guided us the rest of the way to the pier. We finally tied up to at 10:30am.

We had arranged for our group of 15 (out of 31 possible Ensemble guests) to meet in the Voyager lounge, after which I disembarked, located our coach, met Farma Njie, our Discovery Tours company representative, and Sheriff, one of our two guides, I then called Mary Pat on my walkie-talkie and requested that she send our guests down the gangway.
When our clients reached the pier, I guided them to where Farma had arranged some entertainment especially for our group by two local musicians, one of which was playing a “Kora” that he had personally built. Other guests, not on our tour, also enjoyed the music and took photos of our entertainers. From there, I led our group to our coach and we started the one hour transit through the city of Banjul and Serrekunda, one of the largest and busiest administrative districts in Gambia and home to the most popular market. While driving through this area, we were able to observe the hustle & bustle in the daily lives of local Gambians. From here, we started our drive through the Gambian countryside to the town of Batokunku where the “Mama Africa” gallery and gardens are located.

“Mama Africa” is a non-profit association operating the women’s museum and art centre. It is a unique place where we enjoyed seeing both traditional & contemporary art, both inside and outdoors in the garden. The gallery is owned by Isha Fofana, a renowned Gambian artist who has had a successful international career. She is considered a national treasure and anyone of importance who is entertained by the government of the Gambia is always presented one of her masterpieces as a gift in the name of the people of Gambia.

Women’s museums are still a rarity in countries around the world, and Mrs. Fofana hopes that the message of this gender-specific museum will be different from normal museums. Her wish is that these differences will generate interesting exchanges as more visitors from West Africa and beyond begin to drop by, and that her museum will turn into a lively cultural center.

Upon arrival at her gallery, we were welcomed by soft Kora music and served welcome drinks of local fruit juices after which we had a guided tour of the premises by the artist herself, detailing her works and experience, both locally and internationally.

After spending some time in the gallery, and also spending some money purchasing some of her extraordinary pieces of art, the 15 of us returned to the gardens for a cooking demonstration of Gambian dishes, including a display of local utensils and the ingredients used. All of the women at the property were dressed in traditional attire. Gambian dresses, and shirts for the men, were also provided for us so that we could better enjoy the experience. I liked my outfit so well that I purchased it along with a large painting that we really thought was perfect for our home, or office. The lunch that we had helped to prepare was enjoyed at tables that were set up in the garden. The weather was perfect for an outdoor meal and the selections were delicious, which was something that I had been needlessly worried about.

When we had finishing eating, a wonderful storyteller narrated historical events of Gambian culture, and of former heroic warriors, while playing his 5 foot, 25 string kora, a guitar-like instrument. After his performance, a troupe of local women dancers entertained us. Several of our group, mostly the women, joined the dancers and pounded the sand flooring while waving their arms in the air, just like the local women. It was quite a show, and great exercise too.

After the dancing, it was time to say goodbye to our hostess and her husband, and to reboard our coach for the 20 minute ride to the “Kim Kombo” fruit distillery & Farm where we would learn how local fruits are processed and made into liqueurs. But before we left the gallery, everyone waited an additional 5 minutes for me because our painting had not yet been packed in a tube for its safety. After apologizing to everyone for the delay, we headed directly to the distillery where, after a short tour of the facility, we were invited to participate in an extended liqueur tasting, We had an interesting and “tasty” tasting of several varieties of the dessert liqueurs; my favorite was the chocolate and mint. After we left, Allyn & Barry Shulman presented Mary Pat and me with a bottle of this delicious tasting beverage with their thanks for planning such a lovely day.

It took 40 minutes to get back to the pier which had grown to a full African market in our absence. I could not resist walking through the stalls, and once there, could not resist adding a few more treasures to my already bulging collection of purchases. I also could not resist one of the babies being carried on her mother’s back and asked how old the child was. Upon learning that he was 2 years old, I reached into my wallet and handed the mother $2, plus another to grow on for her little one.

We stayed on the pier until after dark, talking to the vendors and purchasing a few trinkets before we finally reboarded the Voyager. We did not want to get dressed for dinner, and so went to the La Veranda casual restaurant, before returning to the room and falling right asleep. Our ship left the Gambia at 10pm.

Luckily, tomorrow will be a sea day, after which we will make our last stop in African waters. That stop will be a new port for us that we can add to our list of countries visited. It is Mindelo, St. Vincent, one of the ten islands making up the Cape Verde Isles.

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Mindelo, St. Vincent, Cape Verde Islands

This morning, we docked at St. Vincent Island in the middle of its capital city, Mindelo. As I previously wrote, this is a new port of call for us and we are looking forward to seeing how different this port will be from the other stops that we made during our transit of West Africa. I am expecting a lot of differences because it is a primarily Catholic country rather than Muslim like Gambia, or Animist like the people of Togo; and its architecture is very Portuguese. Also, the Cape Verde Islands have been removed from the list of developing countries and recategorized as a developed country.

Our tour on St. Vincent gave us a taste of the city of Mindelo as well as the island itself, and its magnificent panoramic views. It started with a visit to the historical museum that was a problem because everything was explained in Portuguese. However, from that point, the tour improved and as it progressed, we explored the city’s local lifestyle and culture and had the opportunity to enjoy the views from the summit of the island’s highest volcano. The tour concluded with a visit to Catfish Bay Beach where we were served local appetizers along with Portuguese wine, soft drinks, beer, and bottled water while being entertained by a carnival exhibition that included a “Capoeira” dance show and local traditional music. We returned to the ship at 1pm, and relaxed the rest of the day.

We were playing trivia, with the Welden family, at 4:30pm as our ship departed from the island to start its four day transit across the Atlantic Ocean heading for the Caribbean where our first port of call will be in Bridgetown, Barbados. During the four sea days, there will be many special activities conducted by the cruise staff that will be lots of fun.

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Bridgetown, Barbados

At 10am, we tied up to the dock in Barbados. As I looked out from our balcony, it was difficult to mentally comprehend that we were no longer in the exotic parts of the world that we had been just four days ago. Our four month voyage had come to an end and that we were now in the Caribbean West Indies of our own hemisphere. We would not be seeing markets full of African sculptures, nor would I be tempted to buy anything here because the offerings would not have the fascination of acquisitions from faraway places.

However, the scenery was still pretty with its beautiful white sand beaches and turquoise waters, but, for some unknown reason, seemed less special. I still do not understand my feelings. I almost feel that it would have been better if we had gone directly to Fort Lauderdale and ended the cruise on a high note. On the other hand, maybe this re-entry into our own world is easier to absorb than being thrown into western civilization without a transition.

We had lunch on board the ship, and at 12:30pm disembarked for our tour—the Concord experience museum and the 300 year old Sunbury plantation house that was originally the manor house of a sugar plantation.

The concord, during the years that it flew across the Atlantic, had a twice weekly scheduled flight between London and Bridgetown, Barbados. I had never seen it before, and found it to be very small with tight seating compared to today’s wide bodied aircraft. I enjoyed visiting the plane in its museum, but do not think that I would have enjoyed travelling on it, other than for the speed at which it travelled. The flight on the concord took only 3.5 hours to cross the Atlantic.

The plantation house was set on beautiful grounds with manicured gardens. Today, it is used as a venue for weddings and other large parties. The house itself was quite modern with a lot of memorabilia of its past life. After our tour, we were treated to a glass of champagne, or fruit punch, with salmon canapés in the garden.

We returned to the ship after driving through Bridgetown, arriving at the pier at 4:30pm. We had dinner with Leon Hadley, an Ensemble guest who, along with his companion, had been evacuated for medical reasons earlier in the cruise. She was not able to return with him and is still undergoing treatments, but someone had to return to the ship and pack their personal belongings.

This world cruise has seen more than 40 passengers leave the ship during the voyage for medical reasons. Never before had I known of a voyage that lost so many of its passengers, and it was nice to visit with one of them who seemed on the way to recovery.

We had a pleasant evening cruising the Caribbean Sea. Tomorrow, we will dock in Antigua after lunch so will have a leisurely morning in which to focus on some packing for our journey home.

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St. John’s, Antigua

We spent the morning cruising the beautiful turquoise blue Caribbean Sea, and arrived at Antigua, the island of 365 beautiful white sand beaches, at 1pm. After tying up at the St. John terminal, we disembarked the Voyager and started our tour of spectacular Antigua that included visits to the Antigua National Park, the Blockhouse Ruins, Shirley Heights, and Nelson’s Dockyard Village.

The panoramic views from Antigua National Park were fantastic, and included looking down on English Harbor and Nelson’s Dockyard. The latter sight was named after Horatio Nelson who served here at Antigua in the 1700’s. Because it was such a clear day, we could also see the island of Montserrat 27 miles away. While visiting the National Park, we were able to attend the Dow Hill Visitor Center where we viewed a cultural audio/visual show depicting Antigua’s past and present.

At Nelson’s Dockyard, our last stop on the tour, we visited the museum, and saw a lot of fabulous yachts tied to the old stone quayside. After the tour, refreshments were served to us at an 18th century inn before we returned to the pier.

This evening, we attended the wedding reception and dinner of Amy Shepeard and Michael Clough. They had celebrated their wedding earlier in the day at a resort on the island. Our hosts were Amy’s mother, Patty Bloom, and her sweetheart, Sir Jack Hayward. It was a wonderful party that started with drinks on the Horizon Lounge patio, followed by entertainment in the lounge where J.R. performed and sang beautifully for the group of 71 guests. The wedding couple and their parents also took their inaugural wedding dance to the applause of the guests. The dinner was in the French Signatures restaurant where everyone agreed that it was a delicious meal. The best part of the dinner from my point of view was the four tiered, butter cream, wedding cake with lemon filling.

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Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands

The Voyager had docked at 8am and we immediately departed for our tour to the baths at Spring Bay, on the island of Virgin Gorda. It was a 40 minute cruise along the Sir Francis Drake Channel from Tortola to Spanish Town (Virgin Gorda) from where we boarded an open air safari bus for the brief drive to the unique enclave, the baths, where mammoth boulders, palms, sand and sea caves mark the spot. The waters were crystal clear.

We spent the next two hours enjoying the warm waters and the pure white sand beach before having to get onboard our van for the drive back to the Little Dix Bay marina. From here, we reboarded the boat to take us back to our ship in Tortola. The Voyager left the British Virgin Isles at 1pm, and headed for our final port of call, Grand Turk in the Turks & Caicos Islands, where we will spend the afternoon tomorrow.

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Monday, May 10, 2010—(Day 116)
Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos Islands

We spent the morning doing some packing and then attending an interesting lecture on how terrorists and other criminals are interrogated before enjoying our final World Cruise port of call on the island of Grand Turk, part of the Turks & Caicos Island chain.

We did not do any shopping here. We had already finished that part of our cruise, and so we decided to spend our time ashore enjoying one of the nearby white sand beaches. This one, although quite pretty, did not offer the privacy that the beach at Virgin Gorda provided. However, it was still very nice and clean. The highlight for me here was being parked alongside the Carnival Miracle, a 3,000+ passenger ship. All of the Regent passengers noticed, as did I, that there was a solid line of people waiting to reboard the Carnival vessel that stretched the entire length of the pier. It looked like there were more than 3,000 people standing in the heat of the day waiting to get onboard the ship, and they waited a long time whereas we were able to get on and off of the Voyager at will. It would be a wonderful advertisement for Regent to insert a photograph of the Carnival passengers waiting to board their ship. That is but one of the many reasons why we prefer to travel with Regent Seven Seas Cruises.

We spent several hours on the quiet beach, which was even more so after the Carnival passengers left, then leisurely walked back to our ship ignoring the call of the duty free shops lining our path. Back on the ship, we finished our packing and lined the corridor with our 14 pieces of luggage before getting ready for our last night of the world cruise. Tomorrow, a day of cruising the Caribbean and our final day of the world cruise, will be a day of mixed emotions. I am definitely ready to return home, but am sad that this adventure has come to an end. Luckily, we have another wonderful cruise coming up soon, and we will hopefully be back on Regent for a 72 night cruise around South America in January, 2011.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010—(Day 117)
Cruising the Caribbean Sea

It was a beautiful day on which to end our world cruise. The seas were smooth as glass as we spent our last 24 hours on board the Seven Seas Voyager saying our goodbyes to the companions that we have shared this cruise with and promising to stay in touch by telephone and email until we meet again.

The crew and the cruise staff put on a goodbye show for the passengers that brought tears to many, but the wonderful memories that we have made will last us the rest of our lives. I have to keep in mind the saying that I learned years ago, and that is that “we should not cry because it is over; just smile because it happened!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010—(Day 118)
Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
The end of the 2010 world cruise

We said our final goodbyes to the crew of the Seven Seas Voyager as we left the ship for the final time that ended this year’s World Cruise. The mixed emotions kept on coming for the next several days as we flew back to San Antonio and reacquainted ourselves with our real lives, returning to work, hugging and kissing our children and grandchildren, and unpacking our suitcases. Our 14 pieces of luggage arrived on the following Monday, and the following week was spent looking at the various memories that we had purchased over our four month voyage. A few items were broken in shipment but I was able to put them back together without too much trouble.

It was great fun to have been able to enjoy this wonderful voyage, but it is even more fun to return home to our family. The grandchildren are the best at listening to our stories as they gather around and still sit on our laps as we recount our adventures.

My immediate project is to finish my book, and I am going to do that next. I hope you enjoyed reading about our voyage as much as I enjoyed being there.

Goodbye for now!

Hope that you will join us for a future cruise,

Jay W. Silberman