Happy 4th of July!
We are recovered from boat emergencies, body ailments and a long winter. Jim leaves July 11 for a trip to Desolation Sound on Mark Casteel's boat, Rosie, along with Alan Parks and Jimmy Ragland on his boat SnowGoose. This will be a first for Jim, traveling in a power boat/trawler into Canadian waters. I have planned meals and packed lots of canned/fast food to help them get through their weeks at sea. They will stop in Nanaimo or Comox for provisions before they head into the isolated anchorages of Desolation Sound so they probably won't starve to death, but I want to do my bit. Even included some chocolate mini candy bars for late night sweet attacks! Hope the weather is good and the seas mild.
32 Days At Sea
I have reactivated this blog so I can get people ready for our next long cruise. We had to abort our New England cruise last fall because I was ill, but this year I am ready to go and we found a real deal on Princess cruises on board the Crown Princess. We leave Rome on Nov 20 for a cruise through the Mediterranean, stopping in Naples, side trips to Florence, Pisa, Pompei, Cannes, Athen, Mykonos, Santorini, Ephesus in Turkey, Barcelona, and then to Ft Lauderdale and finally Galveston on Dec 22. We will be on the ship for 32 days!! I plan to blog down to this trip so friends and family can get ready with us and share the trip as we go along.
The first thing we've discovered is the credit card we wanted to use expires the same month as the trip starts, so we had to order a new one early to allow purchase of side trips and other purchases on board. Also, we discovered Jim's passport expires less than six months after we return home so the cruise line will not accept his passport number. That brought the online cruise planning to a stop until we get those renewals completed. While I wait for those to arrive, I am researching the ports of call and sightseeing opportunities. Also, I am reading all suggestions for packing for long cruises. I still need to find out if Princess has a special price to cover all laundry like Holland America does. We plan to pack enough clothes for 10 days and send things out on the 7th day with a 2 day turn around. Of course, we could go to the laundry, but with a huge boat, I bet there will be a waiting line. Also, I don't want to do laundry. Maybe if we were on a 112 day cruise I would consider it. We'll see. More later.
