Back Cruising: Aruba & Curacao

[Jim Kelly-Evans]

Covid be damned, Dan and I are on board the Celebrity Millennium due at Aruba this morning ex Ft. Lauderdale. We bough the cabin in a private transaction before Omicron hit so our choice was either cruise or lose. We are impressed with the safety measures on board. We understand that there are currently no Covid cases among the crew and four cases among the passengers. I'm scheduled for a two tank dive today. The weather is fine. Life goes on.

 

[JEK]

Enjoy! We have friends on the Seven Seas Explorer going from Miami to San Diego.

 

[GramChop]

Bon voyage, gentlemen! Wishing you smooth travels, gentle breezes and LOTS of sea life as you venture underwater. I look forward to your fabulous photos, Jim!

 

[cec1]

Enjoy! And, as Missy says . . . looking forward to photos!

 

[Jim Kelly-Evans]

Last fall I asked Dan if we could go on this Southern Caribbean cruise for my 73rd birthda, January 9, 2022. So on Thursday in Aruba I made two dives. First we dove the 400foot sponge and coral covered Antilla ship, sunk by the Germans in WWII. She lies on her side mostly intact at about 60 feet. Then we dove a shallow wreck of an oil tanker that was torpedoed in World War II. The wreck is scattered and the debris field is home to a wide variety of sea life. The water temperature was about 80, and the visibility was good, but not drinking water clear as I'm used to in SBH. Here are a few photos.

 

[amyb]

Cool shots..

And belated happy birthday. 🎂

 

[JEK]

Beautiful shots! Nice bd treat!

 

[cec1]

Belated birthday wishes! Sounds & looks like a great celebration! What kind of camera do you use? A special underwater camera?

 

[JEK]

Belated birthday wishes! Sounds & looks like a great celebration! What kind of camera do you use? A special underwater camera?

Jim talks about his camera here

 

[GMP62]

Enjoy your lovely cruise! And happy birthday to you! Love the diving photos, but the 1983 and 2018 photos are really special. Thanks for sharing!

 

[cec1]

Jim talks about his camera here

Thank you!

 

[GramChop]

Puffers, Angels and turtles...oh my!

Thank you, Jim, for the underwater fix!

I dove with my daughter and granddaughter, who got certified in Cozumel last summer; what an amazing experience! Her instructor also certified me in the 1980s, my daughters in the 1990s and now my granddaughter in 2021. She now has the SCUBA bug!

 

[Jim Kelly-Evans]

Belated birthday wishes! Sounds & looks like a great celebration! What kind of camera do you use? A special underwater camera?

Thanks to John for the link to my prior response. Here's a photo of my rig.

 

[cec1]

Thanks to John for the link to my prior response. Here's a photo of my rig.

View attachment 60495

Impressive to see . . . and always great results! Thanks!

 

[NancySC]

Belated birthday wishes ! loved your pix, especially the massive meeting of yellow fish, would be perfect on fabric ! Stay well onboard & beyond !

 

[Jim Kelly-Evans]

The cruise is winding down. We dock in Ft. Lauderdale Monday morning. Then Dan and I fly back to chilly PHL. The number of Covid cases on board has been increasing judging by the posts from quarantined or isolated passengers on Facebook, the mask-wearing requirement announcements, and the cruise company security details doing contact tracing on board. This is the reality you have to deal with if you want to cruise. We visited lovely Curacao on Friday. Willemstad is a gorgeous port town, a little Amsterdam in the Caribbean. I did get to enjoy one dive in Curacao. Most of the scuba diving in these parts is done right off of the beach with entry and exits in the sand and a swim out to and back from the offshore reef or wall. This was a bit tough for me as my arthritic knees make trudging through the sand with heavy scuba gear a difficult task. The dive I did was a wall dive with an almost vertical drop off into the unseen depths. The wall was covered with hard and soft corals and populated with fish but not as densely as was the case in Aruba. After the dive I had enough time left over to visit the quaint town. The visit was all too short, and we hope to return some day for a longer stay.









Smooth Trunkfish



Golden Spotted Eel



Sand Diver



Banded Butterflyfish



Giant Anemone



Smooth Flower Coral and Anemone



4-Eyed Buttterflyfish

 

[amyb]

More terrific sea life. The architecture is unique and colorful…again thanks. Keep safe fellas.

 

[JEK]

Thanks for taking us along! 16° in VA right now!

 

[Jim Kelly-Evans]

Thanks for taking us along! 16° in VA right now!

Ugh! Not looking forward to those temperatures!

 

[Jim Kelly-Evans]

Epilogue: I tested positive for C-19 three days after disembarking the ship and our flight home. I had symptoms similar to a bad head cold: runny nose, upper respiratory congestion, chills, fatigue. Dan tested negative. So I went into isolation in my office with a pull out bed and began popping Tylenols. Today, the fourth day post onset of symptoms, I have some residual congestion but I feel almost back to normal. Was it worth it? You bet. Now I have some additional antibodies. I'll just need to test negative in order to fly Tradewind in four weeks. That will be an antigen test.