That boat is going to the birds!

Still Saturday but we are on the ship! And what a delightful ship it is with a wonderful crew and such interesting fellow passengers.

Pelicans

Once Tami managed to chase Mike onto the bus, it was a very short ride to the marina. There were large numbers of pelicans flying all around and  the view back to Panama City was stunning. We went in groups of eight to nine people in the skiffs, and even that ride out to the ship was a kick. Many other boats and ships were anchored around and there was some good chop after we cleared the breakwater. But our crew member was very skillful at negotiating the waves. The ship has an interesting system with a platform at the stern of the ship that the skiff can drive directly onto, then the platform is raised and passengers can disembark the skiff without much danger of getting wet.

Snacks and champagne – Mike’s a happy man!

We were immediately taken to our cabin and shown around, then directed to the lounge for snacks, champagne and cocktails, and the obligatory but necessary emergency drill. By FAR the most pleasant and painless emergency drill we have ever done!

Rain clouds over Panama City

At last we had a chance to stop and take a look around and appreciate the views. The sun and clouds were also celebrating the imminent departure of the Safari Voyager and put on a beautiful light show. There were dramatic rain clouds hovering over Panama City that made us appreciate that we were not walking the city streets at that moment, and the setting sun through the clouds added some wonderful orange illumination to it all.

Given such a small ship we immediately started meeting our fellow passengers and learning their names. So many nice people, and we all started bonding immediately. We were talking to one couple and Mike happened to ask what about what they had done before retiring. The husband said he had been a law school professor. So Mike naturally asked which law school. When he replied “Hastings”, we both reacted with surprised looks and had to explain that Mike had graduated from Hastings! We figured out that he had likely been one of Mike’s professors.

As the sun set we finished our cocktails and headed to the dining room for a wonderful dinner of fresh grouper. We had some great sounding choices, but after hearing that they source all their seafood locally through a sushi chef in Costa RIca, from sustainable fisheries, we couldn’t pass up on it. Dinner was followed up with dessert back in the lounge as we listened to our week’s itinerary. This is truly going to be a special cruise with some fantastic stops. We can hardly wait to share it all!

One thing that is different from a big cruise ship is that the big ships have stabilizers. Those stabilizers keep you from noticing hardly any motion. Most of the time a big ship just feels like a hotel on land. A small ship like this, however, actually rolls with the swell, so here we are in bed enjoying a gentle rock and roll to help us get to sleep!