I’m writing this in Notepad, because I’m not planning to get online tonight - it’s almost 11pm already. Our excursion tomorrow isn’t until 11:15am so I will probably just bring my laptop to breakfast so I can upload this entry and check my e-mail - I didn’t do that today either.

Today we did the “aquaboat safari and snorkel” tour. We were supposed to meet the tour at the Hertz rental counter, so we went over there and were immediately solicited by the other rental agencies. (I’m not sure what exactly we were solicited for…definitely for rental cars, but it felt like something else.) Anyway, we ended up joining a tour that was actually a Jeep-driving AND aquaboat tour. I assume this one was through the ship; ours was booked independently. Because we weren’t driving a Jeep to the aquaboat site, another guy working for the same company drove us over there. We got ready by putting our stuff in a drybag and putting on life vests, then once everyone else arrived we climbed onto our aquaboats. It was interesting to hear the explanations, because they were done in three languages - English, French for some Canadians who were along, and Spanish for some other people. Our guide also spoke Dutch and Papiamento but he didn’t demonstrate any of that for us. His assistant only spoke French, though - practically no English.

In the beginning, A drove the aquaboat. We started at Simpson Bay on the Dutch side, and went under a bridge to the French side where we ended up at Happy Bay, at least I think that’s what it was called. I had fun riding behind A; the aquaboat is kind of a combination jet-ski and dinghy. We bounced along like ducklings in a row behind the guide, two people per vehicle. I chided A for not staying within the wake of the boats ahead of us, but she said she just wasn’t very good at operating the boat - on the way back, I discovered what she was talking about! Anyway, when we got to the stopping point, the guides passed out masks with attached snorkels. I think I was the first one in the water, which I did with my usual count-to-5 trick. I had forgotten what seawater tastes like, though - it is beautiful and blue and deceptively gentle-looking, but it tastes AWFUL. It had also been a long time since I’d used a snorkel, and I tried to remember to breathe slowly but it was nervewracking because I kept tasting water. I got out on the shore and walked around a little - a naked guy walked by, hello there! - and then got back in the water. I had a little bit of difficulty getting back out into the ocean because the currents at the shore were so strong, and I found myself spinning around on my butt more than once. (It was fun, though.) I went back to our boat to toss my snorkel and mask back in, since they weren’t helping me, but I ended up getting back into the boat. The French-speaking assistant helped haul me in, and I said “Merci” and he said “you speak French!” I said “un peu” (a little) and we had a brief conversation…he was very impressed, said I spoke without any mistakes, and the couple from Montreal was right next to us and they were surprised too. The main guide laughed about “elle parle plus de français qu’il parle d’anglais!” (She speaks more French than he speaks English!) So that was amusing.

It was my turn to drive the boat on the way back, and it was hard. I wanted to give A a nice smooth ride but I think I tossed us around a little bit. When we got back to shore, it was agreed that we would go along with the guide in his Jeep, even though we hadn’t paid for that part of the excursion, so we got not only an extra tour, but basically a private tour because we had the guide right there! We ate lunch at a place on Orient Bay, and they charged me $10 for a damn cheese sandwich. After stopping at Oyster Pond for a brief talk from the guide, we went back to the ship. Because A and I had both gone swimming in the ocean, we picked up a bottle of conditioner from the sundries shop before we got back on the boat. It was well worth it! I took my shower first, and when I peeled off my swimsuit, about half the beach came with it. There was a TON of sand in the shower. Fortunately the head was on a hose and I took it down and washed the sand from the floor down the drain, off my body onto the floor and down the drain, and off my swimsuit onto the floor and down the drain. It wasn’t nearly as easy to rinse the swimsuit as I had been hoping…I’m not sure my nice (formerly new) expensive Speedo suit will ever be the same, but we’ll see how it is when it dries.

Tonight was formal night, so I put on my dress and some makeup, but I didn’t feel pretty at all. The main reason is because I got a huge sunburn on my upper arms and upper back, despite putting on sunblock. It is pretty bad and it hurts, and I am at very high risk for skin cancer so it’s dangerous too. But mostly it’s just ugly and I hate it. Oh well, it’s done, right? We went to the Pied Piper meetup at 7:30, before dinner. I was surprised to find out that we had a table for two, I had forgotten that I’d made that request. It was odd though, we were seated at a table for six, but there were only our two chairs! Tonight’s dinner was much better than last night’s, so I am looking forward to the usual good food I’ve come to expect from Celebrity. There was even fake meat in my stuffed red pepper! Yummy.

Tomorrow is Dominica, where we are going tubing at 11:15am. There’s also an 8:15 departure but we said screw that! So I will have plenty of time to post this and check my e-mail. Now I’m going to read some of the latest Sue Grafton (hey, I read my Gender textbook earlier!) and pass out for the night.