Cruise - Tortola - #3..

This is the sight that greeted us as the ship was docking in Tortola.

it was raining!

Pouring down in fact.

I didn't care though because today I was about to fulfil one of my dreams.

We had breakfast at 7 a.m. and by 8 a.m. the ship had docked and we were allowed to disembark.  I had to meet for the trip I'd booked on the dockside at 8.50 a.m., so I kissed MWM farewell saying 'see you at lunchtime' and walked down the gangplank.  MWM went up onto deck 14 to wave me off.

MWM didn't want to share my adventure as it involved water - he doesn't swim, so he was quite happy for me to go without him whilst he read his book.   My adventure was just a short bus ride away and I sat next to a lovely lady called Pushpa, who was just as excited as I was.

We arrived at our destination and were given instructions on what would be happening, then we were given a life jacket before being led to the water, where we entered in single file waiting to be introduced to 'Galileo'.

Have you guessed yet?

Galileo is a dolphin!

Here's a short video of me fulfilling my dream of swimming with a dolphin.

I cried each time I touched Galileo, he was just so beautiful, his skin was velvety to the touch and he talked to us.   We were in the water with him for over an hour and it was the most magical time, I could have stayed there forever, unfortunately our time was up and we had to return to the ship.

MWM was waiting for me when I got back and I told him all about it during lunch, unfortunately he had to wait until we got home to see what I'd experienced.    MWM copied and edited the DVD I'd bought to what you see above.

After lunch we took the umbrella from our suite and took a walk into Road Town (the port at Tortola).  It was such a grey day that we didn't take any photos - besides I'd had my excitement for the day.   At least the rain was warm.

By the time we got back onboard it was time for the general knowledge quiz in Connexions where we scored 130/200, which wasn't bad considering there were only two of us and the other teams were all teams of 4 and 6.

We set sail around 5 p.m. and the ship was rockin'n'rollin let me tell you.  It was funny watching people at dinner (including us) starting off with a full bowl of soup only to find most of it on the tray by the time we got to our table!

That night's show was an Abba tribute, which was excellent - everyone joined in singing, then we watched the comedian at Connexions.     We retired to our cabin to sleep and looked forward to our next stop on the cruise.   The rockin'n'rollin didn't bother us and I think I dreamed of dolphins!

PS Did I mention that the ship's captain, Charlie Carr, was born in Wigan, Lancashire, about 20 miles from where I live?

Join me next time for St. Maarten.