From Seattle to Scotland and Beyond

Today we went into Cobh Ireland. I was up, dressed, and on the Sun Deck (at the top of the ship) first thing in the morning to watch the ship dock.  It was misty and refreshing and only a few people were out on the decks.   I was able to get some great shots of the port and surrounding islands as the ship came in and docked without even a bump.  As I was coming back down the stairs to meet up with Kerry for breakfast, and to get ready for our excersion, I commented to a gentleman sitting out on the deck in a hot tub (brilliant) about how good our captain was and he told me that our captain didn't land the ship. The ship was landed by a "pilot" (captain). He said that pilots come on board at each port to pilot the ships into the port safely, since our captain is not familiar with the individual ports. Evidentally they also pilot them safely out of the ports.  Then once the ship is on its way the Pilot leaves the ship on a sma...

Today we went to St. Peter Port, Guernsey. After breakfast we queued up in the "tender" line to get a ride into port. The Cruise ship is too big to pull into port so to get there we got to ride small orange boats called Tenders.  There were some large swells so the ride was fairly bumpy but quite fun. Once we were back on solid land we had a lovely time exploring the port, shopping and enjoying the beautiful flowers that were everywhere. Then we grabbed a coffee to enjoy in a cute little park. This park is where we hid our first bottle of the day.  Kerry battled the sharp fronds of a palm and in the end won the battle but ended up with several wounds for her effort.  We had a pleasant chat with a Guernsey native and were visited by a small chocolate brown bird that was about the size of a robin. After our coffee we decided to walk out to Castle Cornet. On our walk it began to lightly rain but being from Se...