11/21, Maasdam HMC

[sk8teacher]

The weather wasn't great, but we did enjoy the break from the sea.

 

1/21/06, Half Moon Cay

 

The winds were good to us and we arrived at HMC shortly after 10am. The day was overcast, and the temperature was in the low 70’s with a brisk wind. The sea was calm however so tendering was not a problem. Sharon and I did our normal 1 mile walk followed by a trip to the Thermal Suite. I think this will become a habit.

 

As we didn’t have to be there until 12:30 for our Swim with the Stingrays, we let the eager folks go ashore and caught a tender around 11:15. The new tenders are quite nice and can carry about 250-300 people so getting folks ashore really doesn’t take very long.

 

We wandered about for a while and checked in for our stingray swim. Upon arriving at Stingray Cove we found out that there was only three of us signed up for the 1pm swim. As the outside temperature was rather chilly with a brisk wind, we all opted to done wetsuits. We were very glad that we did. While the water temperature wasn’t really that bad, I am sure that without the wetsuits we could not have stayed in the water very long.

 

Because there was only the three of us, we got some really quality time with the rays and the local diver assisting us. It was really amazing being surrounded by rays, feeding them from our hands and actually handling them. I had purchased an underwater housing for my camera and managed to get some great pictures while there.

 

After leaving the cove the tram stopped by the dining area. We thought about getting off but we all were a little chilled from our swim so we opted to simply go back to the landing and return to the ship.

 

We got back onboard around 2:30 and decided to make another trip to the Thermal Suite. Unfortunately, while we were ashore, it seems they needed to cut off the water supply to the spa area, and while it was back on, neither steam room was working. Hopefully it will be fixed by our morning journey there tomorrow.

 

Dinner was casual and we opted to eat in the Lido. Had a great meal, did some wandering around the ship for a bit, and decided to make an early evening of it. We went back to our cabin and we asleep shortly after 9pm.s

 

Cheers!