Monday dawned bright and sunny (yet again) in Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands, the one place on this cruise we actually booked a shore excursion. The only thing to see on this island is “The Baths”, a volcanic rock formation/beach area about a ten minute ride from the tender pier. Monica was here with Bruce when we last cruised together in 2005 and thought it would be a nice beach opportunity. As you can see from the pictures, it is a very nice area and yes, that IS Larry in the water!!!! After a very lazy afternoon (see a pattern here?) we had dinner in the Italian Restaurant with Rosanna Da Ria, the Future Cruise Consultant onboard. We’re really not sure why we were invited to dine with her, beyond the fact we know her from Crystal, but it was a very pleasant evening of great food and conversation.
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| Sunset over Tortola - the colours lasted about 20 minutes after the sun went down |
Tuesday, horror of horrors (!), dawned cloudy, with a hint of rain in the air! BUT, it was still very warm, so no harm done! We spent the day reading, knitting (Monica) and attending a cooking demo and Larry the Lecturer’s third lecture, Pirates & Buccaneers. Fortunately the skies cleared as the afternoon went on as last night was the “dining highlight” of the cruise, the Poolside BBQ. Silversea does this once every cruise and they truly do it right. They asked everyone to vacate the pool area by 4:00 and then turned the entire pool deck area into an “al fresco” restaurant. As you can see, the variety of food was excellent and it tasted as good as it looks!
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| Yes, that is a whole suckling pig... and it tasted great! |
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| How's this for a paella pan? |
Today is “packing day”, as we leave the ship tomorrow in Ft Lauderdale. The day dawned kind of grey and threatening, but the skies have cleared and as we type this, there is not a cloud in the sky, the wind is calm and the seas are flat. A perfect day! Silversea’s Food and Wine gurus, David Bilsland who is their culinary trainer and Lyn Farmer, a very well-known writer and lecturer on wines, led a cooking challenge where the chefs for the various dining venues on board did an ‘Iron Chef’ style cookoff, complete with surprise ingredients and guests to judge the final products.
Too bad we’ve been stuck inside packing for part of the day, but it has to be done!
This afternoon marked the last of the guest lectures on board - Larry Klausner did his final talk on writing books or screenplays, and how to get into commercials. As usual it was very interesting and gave those of us aspiring writers a lot of tips. After the lecture, Larry, his wife Mary and both of us dropped by The Bar for a drink. It was fortunate that Monica packed the current version of a project she's been working on because Larry gave it a quick look over and gave her some more tips on what needed to be changed, and how it would be dealt with by producers or directors. Here's a photo of Larry, Monica and Mary at The Bar:
Tonight we dined in the Asian restaurant, completing our sampling of each and every place to eat onboard. We are staying at Pier 66 in Ft Lauderdale tomorrow and will be meeting Susan for a tour of the boat she is babysitting, followed by dinner. We fly home Friday and after 10 days of sunny and warm, we are NOT looking forward to the cold and snow. But, such is life!
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| One of the courses in our tasting menu at Seishin |
