I passed out on my bed last night and left the curtains open so awoke with the sun blazing in my face at 6:45am. Arrival into Grand Turk was set for 8am, so I jumped in the shower, gathered my belongings and went to deck one around 7:45. I was the first person off the ship and headed straight for the taxi staging area. The fares were posted all over the area so I knew the trip downtown wasn’t going to be that much.
One thing I don’t understand is why the ports don’t have ATM machines there. It seems like it’d be so simple. I had to get the taxi driver to take me to the bank before downtown. Our driver was cool, his name was James Hall, and besides driving a cab he’s a geography teacher and a radio personality. I didn’t realize there was so much history in Grand Turk, like the missile tracking station, the salt pits, and that John Glenn splashed down 22 miles off the coast. George Washington said that some of the best salt that he ever had was from Grand Turk. We also drove past the new Carnival Welcome Center that’s still under construction. It was supposed to be completed at the end of this month but they said it was delayed a little.
The downtown area had a couple of vendor markets and very spread out. There are really no resorts on the island but a lot of 20 room hotels and dive resorts. The internet café was just outside of downtown. The place the cab drive dropped me off at said their internet wasn’t working but they told me about 1,000 yards down the street there was another café, so I went there, the full hour was $12. I started walking back to the cruise port after I finished with everything and hailed a taxi. The taxi was $5 from where I was to the cruise port.
When I got back to the cruise port I came across this place called Local Village Bar and Restaurant so I walked up to see what it was all about. Had I known of this place a couple hours earlier, I would’ve saved some serious money. They had free wifi, cheap drinks, ad fresh local seafood. I hung out there til the 1:30p all aboard.
I wandered the ship for a bit after we set sail from Grand Turk and then came back to the room to do some editing.
Dinner was great. The 9pm seating is much better and our table is right against the window – the view would be much better if it was light out. I had some fried fish for my appetizer, mussels and pasta, beef, and a cheese plate (shocker I know!). After dinner there was a Hawaiian under the stars party with a nice buffet and plenty of dancing. I hung for a bit and then came back to the cabin to get a head start on tomorrow.
Navigational Highlights:
During the evening we’ll sail in a southwest course into the Caribbean Sea, about 30-miles from the Dominican Republic. At 1:00am, we will pass by the southern end of Punta Negra, located on the eastern side of Cuba. We will continue at 19 knots and the pilot will embark at 11:00am, one-mile from the port of Ocho Rios.
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