Blue Planet Journey

What the bridge officers see.  This is from a presentation on ship navigation given by the captain. In general, the larger the ship, the more activities there are to keep you busy on a sea day (cruising between ports).  Right now I'm on the Celebrity Summit , and in a few minutes the Captain will make his 10 AM announcement on our location, sea conditions (we are 190 miles from St. Croix), and weather.  We left the island of Aruba last night, headed toward St. Croix.   I thought I would use this day as my "life on a cruise ship" example. My morning started with me heading out of our Deck 7 stateroom at 6 AM for a session in the gym on Deck 10.  I like hitting the gym early because there are no crowds... some free weights, machines, then 4 miles on the treadmill.  The ship was rolling slightly this morning, which makes running interesting as you sway. I have to hold on to the safety bar with one hand as I run, which is an acquired skill....

Small green sea turtle in St. Kitts.  Note the flipper tags.  It also seems like this turtle may have suffered an earlier injury, with a "bite-like" portion of the carapace missing. As we've visited the eastern and western Caribbean island nations and territories, Caroline and I have seen numerous references to or signs of sea turtles.  Cruise ships take advantage of the widespread interest, advertising excursions noting the possibility of seeing turtles while snorkeling. Note who Celebrity chooses to feature on their excursion brochures! This is a summary of the sea turtle observations we made. Puerto Rico In San Juan, we came across numerous signs indicating that turtles nest on the beach.  Obviously, we were there prior to the start of the nesting season.   Aruba Our first dive was in Aruba.  We saw a variety of sea creatures, and two airplanes that were sunk to make an artificial reef, but no sea turtles. C...