Sat 22 ,' 30° 17.896 N 36° 48.358 W 5pm.

Will do Steve but you must have it as you did this once before . Well here I am in the midst of nowhere . The weather is about 68° and sunny but that is not brill after so long in the mid to hi 70's and the 80's .I can tell that I am going to feel it badly after next Friday .' Toff ' could you please put my heating up to just over 20° on Thursday night please .We had some dancers and a band come on board the other night - very good they were .At the end they got some passengers up to do a 'shimmy ', it was hilarious . They did a sort of 'belly dance ', well what a performance . We 'coffin dodgers ' are not at all like you children and grandchildren think when we shake off the shackles and leave you all behind . I would not say that we are 'rowdy ' but others would . At the end Jo our Entertainments Exec . said ' Lets have a big hand for the SAGA RUBY Formation Dance Team ,otherwise known as The Slipped Disc Company . No I did not get up 'I still remember Kos .I have read that you are experiencing bad weather ,snow , high winds etc. I shall have to go on another cruise to warmer countries next year .I have been to the gym today , to weigh . Joan told me to bring some ' fat clothes ' as she had heard about people on long cruises putting on a lot of weight so I did .It seems that I come on a long cruise to lose weight .My 2 big cotton skirts are now hipsters and everything that was tight fits perfectly . The scales were wobbling too much so I will go up again in port .Seeing so much food ' puts me off '.I ask for small portions of main course and have sorbet instead of soup and no mixed salad with meats as 2nd course .I am surprised that some people can eat 5 courses at every dinner time .So you see Stevie , you told me not to put weight on about a month ago , I laughed as I was losing weight . Can not remember whether I have mentioned Barbados or not . It is another island that I visited last year ,I stayed in an hotel for 2 days before the Fred Olsen cruise and went on a tour of the island . This year I chose a different tour .It is a lovely place ,we went around Bridgetown and to a beautiful beach where we were given a Rum Punch .It tasted like fruit juice until one got half way down then it had the kick of a mule .I wouldn't mind but I had told someone that it was 'only like fruit juice ' . I kept out of her way after that . It brought to mind the Pisco in Chile .Wow .I got a mag with Rhianna on the cover ,she is from Barbados and has just won an award in America . We have a Formal night tonight ,Black and White . Can not decide which to be . love to all XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.

Thursday ?-3-08. 9am. 20° 11.893 N , 50° 46. 774 W

Stevie , will you please cancel all those repeats of the last blog I did . Why ? I do not think that I clicked on 'publish ' more than once ?????. We are at sea today with quite a swell on .Yesterday aft. the crew had games on the deck . Egg and spoon , Wheelbarrows , 3 legged race and Tug of War . Well it was hilarious to say the least . There was a swell even then ,so there were some tumbles , some pushings and cheatings but all good fun .Whilst waiting , the pool started throwing water over its sides , which is always a warning of sorts . After the Captain walked the deck he ordered the pool to be drained which is another warning of sorts .In his talk later he said that the movement of the ship would not be too bad then went on to say that the swell would reach 5mtrs .Oh yeah ! We long timers who have been through the bay of Biscay and especially Drake's Passage know when to grab the salt cellar so we all took a motion sickness pill last night .Quite a few ' newbies ' are conspicuous by their absence today ,I think that it is a pre- requisite for a Captain to be able to ' flannel ' with regards to sea moods .The last time our Captain told us that it' would improve a great deal by 8 pm ', a force 9 gale blew up at approx 10pm .Today ,I see white bags tucked into handrails , unobtrusively of course .I believe that I have got my ' sea legs ' or partially by now, fingers crossed .Our last port in the Caribbean was Barbados ,lovely place .I of course went on a tour , a different one to last year and enjoyed it very much .I bought a Moonstone necklace to keep my pearls company . Specs in case you want Steve 13° 06.154 N , 59° 37.738 W .We shall be at sea now for 3 more days then our final stop before Southampton . It is still warm on deck but very windy which is causing the swell .

Two Ports

Sunday16-3 , 10° 51.940 N , 64° 03.793 W Venezuela again , Isla Margarita this time .I toured the town last year so I thought I would do something diferent this year . This is wearing me out , a diferent port every day , up at 7am ,meeting in the ballroom where we have to go until our tour is called . Then a fast pace down 3 decks to the gangway and a fast 300 yds walk to the coach . I go quickly to get a window seat for videoing .The Captain has been at the bottom of the gangway each time to say cheerio , very good that . Back to my tour , we went out to a little 'pueblo ' which is laid out for tourists with many artifacts collected from all over Venezuela . It is like a minature town and very picturesque . We then visited a so called farm with all the fruit and veg from hereabouts laid out on tables .We were given pieces of melon , pineapple , coconut and some sugar cane . We watched two of the men work the sugar cane press and were all given some liquid to drink in a calabash .We all drunk it as well .Now there is a thing , we all use the sterilising fluid before going into the dining room and there we were drinking out of gourds , clean ? who knows .Anyway it was very pleasant .Monday 17-3 , 12° 03. 109 N , 61° 45.438 W St. George's Grenada . Another day ,another tour .Today of course , being the spice island we went to a Spice Estate . Our guide was really good and told us all about the trees ,nutmeg , mango , avocado , calabash orange etc . They can grow every thing here .Hurricane Ivan really made a mess of estates , ruined the nutmeg crop and in general blew away with everybodys roof . It also ruined the rain forest in many areas . They will take years to recover the guide said .It is sad when you see devastation so many yrs after .Anyway I had a super time .We shall soon be off to cooler climes , worse luck . The news of storms , high winds and 'colds' does not make me want to return , it should have been a 5 month cruise .Hope all the 'colds' are abating and you are all feeling fitter . Love to all XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxx

10° 36.037 N , 66° 56.617 W

Sat 15th March. We are berthed at La Guaira , Venezuela and today I went on a tour in the capital ,Caracas . Now there is one wierd city . It is surrounded by hills which are covered in huts , where the poorer people live , much in the fashion of the 'Favelas ' in Rio , but , there are also many many sky scrapers with thousands of flats also for the less well endowed .One has the feeling of being surrounded by invisible people .The roads are very modern and neatly laid out and the two tunnels we went through excellent .Well firstly we went to a square to see a statue of Simon Bolivar , that is about the fourth statue I have seen which is understandable as he is the liberator of many S. American countries from the Spanish yoke .What a man he was , spending mucho dinero on freeing the poor .Bolivia is named after him .If you did not want a history lesson on an S.A hero , Tuff . Afterwards we went to Mount Avilar ,the highest mountain hereabout .I knew that we were going to the top of said mount and that we were going on the ' teleferico ' but mistakenly assumed that we would drive part of the way and then go up in the cable car , wrong .We were going 7, 358 feet ,all by teleferico .I have been on the teleferique in France , up Sugar Loaf mountain in Rio in one but this one is the daddy of them all . I sat with my back to the station and took a bit of video a couple of times by turning around but after 10 mins I dare not look around my stomach was doing the samba .I could not believe it when we crested a hill and many more cars were revealed going onwards and upwards . It frightened me almost to death .I hated every minute of it. Flipping Venezuelans and their flipping teleferico . I only stayed 15mins then came back down , with my back to the horrible slope . I think I must suffer from vertigo or blue funk or something .We have heard that the ' casevac ' lady is sitting up in bed in hospital and feeling a little better . Our dear Alan took a dive yesterday in Curacao .He was taken to hospital and checked out , treated and is back on board .He has high blood pressure and the tablets he takes depleted his level of potassium making his BP very low and he passed out . What a thing !! He is now eating 4 bananas a day .This brought up a discussion on our dinner table about who is taking what .It is amazing , both Barbara and Hazel take 3 drugs per day Rita 2 and Mau 1 ,I feel so lucky ,I did not know things like that were the norm .I had to admit to taking paracetamol now and again and was laughed under the table . Well , what else can I say ! Bed time now , love to all ,XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.