20 - 10/21/2021 - At Sea 1/2 day to Half Moon Cay

Today would be a short 1/2 day at sea before we reached the anchoring point at Half Moon Cay (HMC).  We arose at our customary time of 8am so we could attend the coffee chat.  I ate my customary breakfast of 2 eggs over broken, a sausage patty, one potato cake, and lox with a small glass of cranberry juice.  Afterwards, I obtained a couple of sticky cinnamon rolls along with a cup of green tea and went down to the BB King area for the coffee chat where I shared one of the rolls with Angela.  Tricia Kelly, the vocal impressionist, was the guest and she was also a hoot with lots of stories about her life and career.  We had our last COVID 19 test immediately after the end of the coffee chat.  They are performed quickly and the chocolate reward at the end was a nice touch.

 

Afterwards, I went out to try more photography but it continued to be poor conditions.  With our projected arrival at HMC at 1pm, we ate our customary lunch in the LIDO and then assembled our snorkeling gear and cameras.  With a short day here, there would be no food on the island.  After the ship's position was set and held in place by the bow thrusters and azipods in the rear, the shore tenders were used to transport passengers to shore.  They are much larger than the customary lifeboats that we use and most of the seats are out in the open on the top deck.  They are actually a delight to use!  Once we were on shore we headed for the marked snorkeling area which is just behind the docking area.  It's located next to a volcanic wall and there were a few fish there.  While I was adjusting my GoPro camera, another snorkeler mentioned that a ray had just passed by my feet.  However, I didn't see it.  We snorkeled a bit more before returning to the beach.  We ended up engaging in conversation with Bob, another passenger who was also from the Seattle area and had been snorkeling.  He mentioned to us that he was scheduled to go out on the HAL snorkeling trip, but it was cancelled by the operator.  I mentioned at one point in the conversation that tomorrow we were going to go find another snorkeling location at the other end of the beach.  I spotted it while scouring the beach area from the ship for possible rock formations.

 

We ended up catching one of the last tenders back to the ship where we showered and cleaned up for dinner.  Nobody can stay on the island overnight as all of the workers are ferried home to another island and only a skeleton security crew remains on the island.  Tonight we decided to eat in the Nami, the sushi bar.  There's a special reason for that, but I'll not reveal that until tomorrow's blog entry.  The sushi was excellent and we then went to the 7pm Magic Show on the Main Stage.  I ended up getting selected for one of the tricks and I picked a card out of the deck, asked to keep it a secret, and then the audience ended up guessing what my card was.  After the trick was over, the couple from dinner the previous night came up and explained how the trick worked.  It was pretty fun. 

 

The rest of the evening was spent at the Billboard Online dual pianos (the couple have progressively gotten really good throughout the cruise) and generally just hanging out.  And so ended our short day at HMC. 

 

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