The Grand Med voyage was very port-of-call heavy.   Once we crossed the Atlantic we were in port four or five days in a row before we had a ‘sea’ day.  Knowing this we took lazy advantage of the eight days at sea from Ft. Lauderdale to our first port in Funchal, Madeira.  Once we got to our first port we were on the go pretty steady until we headed back across the Atlantic over a month and a half later.

When we boarded the Prinsendam we were happy to discover we had been given an upgrade from a lower cabin to a veranda suite.  John was especially pleased as he loves to sit on the veranda and watch the water. Another pleasant surprise was the number of fellow passengers that we recognized from the 2009 Grand World Voyage.  There were also several crew members that were on Rotterdam in ’09.  It was like a family reunion of sorts.Our second day out of Florida we came across a sailboat that did not answer radio calls.  The ship diverted course to check on the vessel and discovered it to be abandoned.  We found out later that the Captain had contacted the Bermuda Coast Guard and learned the boat had been participating in a 2011 race when it was struck by a 32′ wave and the woman was washed overboard.  Her husband had been rescued two days later by a freighter and since then the $200,000 sailboat was adrift in the Atlantic. Later the same day the Captain had to divert course once more for a medical emergency.  We made a very brief stop in Bermuda before continuing our voyage.

March 14 was the first formal night on board so it was time to get gussied up again.

St. Patrick’s Day was celebrated in glorious green on March 17. We had some calm sea days and some stormy ones, but overall – for mid-March – the water and the weather was not too bad.

While sorting my many, many, many photographs for this blog series I noticed several patterns.  I like taking pictures of flowers.  Which is not a new flash for anyone that has read any of my other blogs.  I also like photographing outdoor restaurant tables, stone carvings and pots, vases or other accent pieces.  Architectural details and doors are frequent themes as well.  So don’t be surprised to see these things crop up in many blog posts.

I also realized while photo sorting that we saw A LOT of historic places, museums, churches, countryside, etc. and many of my port files contained several hundred pictures.  Choosing the pics I thought the best or most interesting narrowed things quite a bit, but there are still LOT of photos set aside for my blogs.  And, since I love history and trivia and information I will have some long blogs or more than one posting for many of the ports.  I will see which option I decide upon as I proceed.

Let the journey begin….