Mon, Jan 29th – Key West with Gordon

Currently, my life revolves around the simple detail that I have had port manning duty in Tampa (our US port) the last 3 times we’ve been there – and I’m running low on important things… like deodorant!

Well, the good news is that we’d be in Key West today. But to get an external hard drive for my laptop (which I have learned the importance of after it crashed a little over a week ago), I would have to sojourn about four miles up the length of the island. To complicate matters, Veendam is only scheduled to be in port for a total of 5 hours, and I have a Lido set for 2 hours out of that five, and I have to be back onboard in time to get ready for a Sailaway set at the end of that five hours. Oh yeah, and we’re porting at the Naval Base, which requires us to take a 10-minute trolley ride through the base to downtown. Long story short: I’ve got just 2 hours to get four miles out to Radio Shack and Kmart, get all my shopping done and get back to the ship.

So I enlisted the help of my groovy friend, Gordon. And what a hero! He got off the ship about a half-hour before me and arranged the rental of a couple of bicycles for us. $10 each for the day – not bad! As soon as my set was over, I ran to my cabin, changed from my singing clothes into my riding clothes, grabbed my backpack, took the trolley to the post office to mail a package (the line at the Key West post office is ALWAYS long, but I’m never in the US on a weekday otherwise!), and RAN to meet him where he was waiting with the bikes.

At about 2:10 we set out towards the Key Plaza that held all the stores I needed. It was a mad dash! Even though it was a cool overcast day in Florida, we were sweating by the time we made it there – four miles in about 20 minutes! It was even more fun for Gordon, who’s from South Africa where they usually traverse on the LEFT side of the road.


By 3 o’clock I had all my shopping done – praise the Lord! And Gordon even got me a good deal on the external hard drive at Radio Shack - $100 for 200 GB. Great teamwork!

We took a more leisurely route getting back to the ship. Since he just got word he’s being transferred to another ship at end of this cruise, this was going to be his last time in Key West, so we took the time to get some pics around the island.



Best wishes to Gordon as he joins the Royal Caribbean fleet next week. Cheers, mate! You’re gonna be “awesome!”