No Dinky Toy for us!

I'm not fond of tunnels, mines or anything underground or waater.

When I signed us up for a submarine ride to see the reef in Grand Cayman today I thought it was a toy submarine.

It was a real little tourist sub that went down over 100 feet (30+metres). It was too late to bail out once they closed the hatch so we stayed on and enjoyed the ride.

Not quite 20,000 leagues

6:00 am was a very early start for cruisers who are supposed to be relaxing. This morning found us up at dawn with around a dozen other souls to commemorate ANZAC Day with a service on board Seven Seas Navigator.Thank you to Regent Cruises and on board lecturer, Terry Bishop, for organising this event.

Terry Bishop

After seeing to our ablutions, breakfasting and waiting for a decent hour to make its appearance we rode the ship's tender into Georgetown, capital of the Cayman Islands.

We passed by two Carnival ships in the harbour - they remained afloat all day

Submarine ahoy - we transferred from our tender to a sub shuttle to this little submarine

I didn't realise we were going down to a depth of over 100 feet in this vessel

We had a porthole from which we could view the reef life

We took tens of images - all beautiful but I'll only bore you with two

A shipwreck

After our adventure we repaired to Margaritaville, a US/Caribbean cultural institution

The local ale was on offer

One appetiser was sufficient to fortify two hungry submariners for their next adventure

Next stop was Stingray City  - an hour's journey from Georgetown

There were rays all around

Our guide giving a lesson on stingray anatomy

The stingray gives Mr Geniaus the eye

I get ready for a cuddle

Welcome back to dry land by a prickly sunbather on the dock

Cayo Hueso

24 April, 2013

The original Spanish name of idyllic Key West, Florida where we finally found the sun yesterday was Cayo Hueso.

As our prebooked kayaking tour was scheduled in the afternoon we were able to join the "Harry Truman tour" in the morning then grab a quick bite before our adventure. Key West is one of our favourite ports and we were thrilled that we could take full advantage of our time there. I felt sorry for the people on the Carnival Imagination that was also in Port; they only had a few hours to experience this lovely island.

Our pictures tell the story of our day.

Our lovely little Navigator (left) in port beside the Carnival Imagination

Beer at 9:00am for only $US2

Perhaps Key Lime Pie is a better breakfast option

White sand beaches

Swish hotels

Pretty timber houses come in all sizes

Only 90 miles from Cuba


The US Navy has a strange looking ship moored in the Harbour.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the Little White House

So that was our morning. We had reacquainted ourselves with the Key West area and learnt a lot about President Harry Truman during our visit to the Little White House.

We passed many vessels on our way to the island nature reserve for our kayaking adventure

Our Kayaking guide looking for a spot to drop anchor

Back seat driver 

The frontman is responsible for steering

"They only sting a little bit" says our kayaking guide

Still dry after an hour on the water

He drives this big boat better than he steers a kayak

Traditional Rum Punch after a successful ocean journey

Goodbye nature reserve  (left) that we circumnavigated in our kayaks

Our magical day ended with Dinner at The Captain's Table

Floridian Four Year Old

I usually have no trouble handling 4 year olds but this Floridian wasn't so easy.

GatoRide

21 April, 2013

As we had already done the only other tour on offer in our port today, a space themed visit to Cape Canaveral, we opted for the airboat ride.

A short bus ride took us to the town of Christmas, Florida and the very modest headquarters of Midway Airboat Rides. After having an opportunity to visit the gift shop 12 of our group boarded the boat for an adventure with our Captain. We had done an airboat ride in the Florida Everglades a couple of years ago which we enjoyed; although it was different we enjoyed this experience just as much. On our last trip the environment was different, the driver was more of a cowboy and we saw more wildlife.

For today's ride on the St Johns River we had a more experienced Captain with better knowledge of wildlife, our tour was twice as long and we had noise-cancelling headphones with microphones that allowed us to ask questions and  interact with other adventurers. Perhaps our more sedate ride was in deference to the number of silver-haired passengers in our group!

Lots of birdllife

Captain at the helm

Pretty in pink 

First gator sighting

Apparently the gators don't bother the cows

US emblem - Bald Eagle

There weren't many alligators on the bank - no sun for baking

The reeds lead to  different environment

Peaceful cypress grove

Adventurers

Full speed ahead 

Midway Airboats dock

GatorGirl