I've had to censor this installment by removing some interesting material. Also, I am holding back another two installments I have written due to the sensitivity of the material. I'm keeping the stuff, but I'll have to put it online later (I hope).

Just mentioning this because you may wonder if I've just been sitting around not writing for awhile. This is not the case!

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Today (a few days ago, now) we had to abort our visit to Labadee after the high seas and a strong wind caused a line (rope) to break at our mooring in the bay. The ship could have blown aground were it not for the ship's lateral propellors and the help of at least one of the tenders which was put into temporary service as a tugboat.

So we left Labadee just after noon, and now we're cruising liesurely among some islands we don't often get to see. Normally it's dark when we leave Labadee. It's quite beautiful here amid the islands in the rain and fog. The islands are rugged and mountainous, much like the Gulf Islands in BC.

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I signed up for a free (for crew) tour tomorrow (Wednesday) in Jamaica. It's our day off, and I have plenty of time (almost nothing but time). So you see, I'm giving Jamaica a chance.

Seriously, I thought it would be a good idea for me to go ashore and do something here, rather than just sit on the ship and complain about the place. So I wandered down to the crew office to check on what excursions there were in Ocho Rios, and if any crew spaces were available.

There were two spaces available on an excursion that interested me: a 'canopy' tour of a tropical rainforest.

(In return for the free tour or excursion, crew members are usually required to write an evaluatuion report afterwards to send some feedback over to head office and/or the event planners. In this case, however, a report is not required because this particular excursion is highly rated and not under evaluation.)

I'll have to get on the bus with the cones and stay with the group, which has never really been my cup of tea. I don't like being a member of a group – especially a group of probably retired and no doubt fat tourists. But I would like to see what it's like up there in the upper reaches of a tropical rainforest, and it's free, and what else am I doing?

PS. It's now Friday, and I've prepared a little video of the canopy tour for your enjoyment. (This version is very low quality due to size and uploading concerns. I'll try to put up a much better quality rendering ASAP. In the meantime, this will give you an idea of what the tour was all about.)


Ready to go zipping around the treetops