Tuesday 31st March 2020

This has been another day at sea. We are heading north across the Caribbean to the gap between the Cancun Peninsula (Mexico) and Cuba.

If this was our regular cruise around now we would have been calling in at a piece of the Netherlands off the coast of Venezuela, namely the islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. The natural landscape is stark and very dry and is heavily wind eroded. In contrast the human landscape is very colourful with Dutch built gabled buildings along their waterfronts.

The Spanish discovered the islands in 1499 and according to the records they couldn’t make things work for them. The oranges they thought were too bitter and there was no gold. The Dutch West India Company seized the islands in the 17th century and never looked back. The oranges are still used to make the world famous liqueur.

Around 9 o’clock the Captain announced that we were going to Fort Lauderdale, arriving Thursday but that getting off may be another day. This was followed by glasses of sparkling wine outside each cabin and the Captain proposing a toast on the TV but he didn’t have any.

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