Relax, This Is Not Us

2 Fall Off Cruise Ship in Gulf of Mexico | Chicago Tribune

GALVESTON, Texas — A man and woman fell overboard from a cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico early Sunday, but both were rescued after a four-hour search and appeared to be in good condition, a cruise line spokeswoman said. The 22-year-old man and 20-year-old woman fell 50 to 60 feet from a cabin balcony, said Julie Benson, spokeswoman for Princess Cruises.

Friends and family can heave a sigh of relief, or perhaps of frustration; David and I didn't go overboard. We're not that far away, but we were on a cruise in the Caribbean until yesterday.

We weren't on any "foo foo ship," either. We were on Windjammer's S.V. Legacy. 

It's been a lot of fun but also pretty frustrating because I started off being sick and David got sick the next night, and we had trouble sleeping because our cabin was too close to the generator and the engines. Ventilation was okay but not great – we both felt sicker in the cabin than we did during the day.  I've got this cough that comes and goes, and David's got sinus stuff going on and a cough.

Currently, we're on Tortola at a beachside place that's not quite a resort and not quite a beach apartment; it's got delusions of grandeur, although we might like it better if we weren't sick. The "beach" is a bit of a disappointment in this area, we could have done a bit better but frankly, I thought we were getting a lot more for what we're paying. I suspect the rates are higher because we're closer to the high-end yacht marinas and the market can stand the higher price more.

There are lots of pictures of the ship and the sails and I did have a tremendous time helping to raise the aails. We did have a lot of fun and will probably do it again, but it was not a foo-foo ship at all so if you're contemplating a Windjammer cruise, you should be a person who doesn't want a lot of formality and perfection.

It's the end of their season and the ship is going into drydock for a refit, and it'll be moved to start doing a brand new Costa Rican itinerary. We'll go again, but we'll be sure to get one of the nicest cabins on the 2-deck or the 3-deck. Cabins on 1-deck are tiny, noisy, not well ventilated, and that area tends to be where families stash their kids while the parents are 2 decks up, something that really became a problem later in the cruise. One particular parent, who seemed to be a single mom, was traveling with her 3 extreeeeemely lively sons, and left them to run around getting into trouble all evening while she was partying with her friends. Other kids on the ship were well behaved and a pleasure to travel with, even though their parents also left them to their own devices much of the time. Raising kids right makes a big difference and earns points in my book, grouchy snarky childfree woman that I am.  

We met a lot of interesting people and David volunteered to distribute email addresses to everyone. 

Lots of photos will be uploaded in a day or so. We haven't decided if we'll stay out the week or if we'll cut the trip short and come home early. More on that later.

I will say that Tortola seems like a fun island and it's certainly sporty driving around at night on the left, as the cars all have normal American style steering-wheel on the left. This means that the oncoming headlights are pointed directly in your eyes, too, so that makes coming back from a restaurant or bar late at night kind of challenging.

We went to a local place last night called the Jolly Roger Inn, a very funky beach shack that serves pretty awesome, gourmet-level cuisine. It's run by an affable Canadian guy. When we drove over, the road kind of petered out and we thought we'd taken a wrong turn. I was expecting more "there" there – then we saw a sign that said we were in the right town, and then spotted a small sign for Jolly Roger's. It was next to a derelict building and we thought "great, another local tip gone bust" but kept seeing cars come out of what looked like a goat track along the water. We crept along there to see where they were coming from, and sure enough, there was this beach bar on one side, and a building on the other side that was another part of the same place where the kitchen was. It was all open air, very roughly built, with old yachting pennants and crap nailed all over everywhere. A live band started playing jazz, and we thought "what the hell, this looks like the place to be.

The meal was really very good and the one rum punch I had about put me down for the night, but in a good way. We were able to sleep better than I would have expected (the room has a noisy AC unit and fridge) and we're feeling somewhat more optimistic today.

Of course, it helps that it's warm and pleasant here. So we'll see!