Grand Turk....??
Trip Start
Sep 26, 2008
1
20
21
Trip End
Nov 10, 2008
Cockburn Town,
Grand Turk,
Turks and Caicos Isl.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
GRAND TURK....just one more sea day!
Back in the 60's or 70's...I think...the folks of the Turks & Caicos Islands seriously considered joining Canada rather than take their own independence from the British. They didn't...and that's all I know about Grand Turk...the main island and government seat for the Turks & Caicos!
I'd probably know more about Grand Turk if we had made our scheduled port call there today...but we didn't...so I don't! The Captain took a run at the pier but at the last minute decided the wind and seas would have beat the hell out of the ship if he tied up to the pier in the gale force winds...so he just turned around and headed north towards out next stop...Half Moon Cay, Bahamas.
It's too bad that we couldn't make the stop if only because Grand Turk depends on the tourist industry and it took a really nasty beating from Hurricane Ike that all but wiped out the tourism infrastructure on the island. Deb and I hadn't planned on doing a lot on the island...but we did want to go ashore and spend a little money in the pier market and have lunch at Margaritaville on the pier just to help out a little bit.
The Half Moon Cay is really just a beach stop. Carnival Cruises, the corporation that owns Holland America Lines, owns the beach property and has set up some cabanas and things...all the stuff Deb and I live for...so that stop will be a ship day for us...and opportunity to get a headstart on packing and organized for disembarking in Tampa on Saturday.
It seems impossible that 36 days has passed so quickly...but time flies when you're having fun.
We'll add more with some general thoughts and observations of our cruise, then write one last chapter when we reach Tampa.
