Feb 4 - Barbados

SANDY SHORE : I will never be able to be sick at home ever again. I’m ruined. The sadness of staying on board today and not going to see the cool Caribbean island of Barbados is fleeting quickly as I welcome in my new best friend, Savio, the Cabin steward. This poor guy and his assistant have had to clean up a gazillion waded up tissues in every trash receptacle in our cabin every day this week… but they don’t seem to care. These two are always in a positive mood, they make the room more civilized in a matter of seconds and they always leave me with fresh ice in the bucket. Did I mention that they do this twice daily! God I love them. ~ss

DONNA KAY PHILLIPS : 4x4 Green Monkey Tour aborted in favor of R&R on the ship's back deck for me today while Sandy get's better. I've never been to Barbados but have been sailing to the various Caribbean Islands my entire childhood of summer breaks. Not that each island doesn't have it's own unique version of Rum ;-) - well you get my point. An almost empty ship has a great deal of value as well.

Since neither one of could make it on shore, our rock-star dining room server and photographic ingenúe, Martina, has graciously let us borrow a few of her shots to enhance the visual portion of the Travel Log.

There was something very significant about today's departure - from parts known... We watched as the Bridgetown Pilot escorted us out of the Channel, picked up their Customs agent and waved goodbye. As we began to turn south, we noticed the Carnival Freedom peeling off on it's northward course back to Ft Lauderdale to complete the second half of the 7 day island hopping cruise.

I finally made it, I don't have to turn back... I'm on the ship that's going to keep on going... down the Brazilian coast through the tracherous waters of Cape Horn, sailing in the slipstreams of many vessels throughout history who took the long way to reach the West Coast. I've done it in a car a few times, left the East Coast for my home on the West Coast, now I can do it for real, I can take the long way home. ~dkp