Section 5; Day 4 Martinique

Nice, misty morning in another beautiful port. A stunning double rainbow followed P & O Victoria as it docked next to us. A very well-kept, tidy ship, although about half the size of the Dawn. She was formerly the Sea Princess but had to be renamed anticipating the November launching of the newSea Princess. She is the oldest commissioned vessel in the P & O line, so we had the oldest and the newest side by side. No verandah rooms or even many with other than portholes and the passengers seem a bit older; even the lifeboats were dated, with no power other than a collapsible mast and a furled sail A mystery Celebrity ship followed us in - they are kind of sinister, with the black and the big X and the invisible (at least to me) ship name. They also seem to disappear into the mist, as I can't see her anywhere. I think she must have sailed on to St. Lucia.

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We did the rainforest/butterfly tour in the A.M. to fair success. The bus driver on the seaside leg chattered endlessly in his frenglish until we all wanted to tell him to shut up, but his intentions were good and he was very helpful. After we stopped at a picturesque fishing village - you know the one, brightly colored fishing boats, nets, etc., we were dropped off at the butterfly farm, an enclosure with butterflies, what more can I say. It would be nice if you didn't file in slowly past the toilets, the odor of which kind of reminded us of the lion cage at the zoo, when zoos still had lion cages. I thought the butterflies were somewhat lacking in number and variety and there was a giant sprinkler that showered you at maddeningly regular intervals.

The tour wound along the seacoast to the old capital city of St. Pierre. It lies at the foot of Mt. Pelee, a still active volcano which destroyed the town and all inhabitants save a poor besotted soul in his jail cell. A lovely overlook with the Caribbean below, looking downward on Poinciana trees populated by tiny insectivorous birds and larger hummingbirds.There is a small museum of the volcano, but with several busses disgorging sheeplike tourists, we forewent the museum for native shops selling produce, drinks and fabrics. Little English spoken, but friendliness conquered the language barrier sufficiently that we got cokes and fresh vanilla beans which perfumed the rest of the voyage. We then entered a taxicab piloted by a gentleman who did not burden us with talk but was friendly. The reason we transferred to a cab was soon discovered, as the roads made the famed road to Hana on Maui look like the Autobahn. A damp stop at an old church and we were deposited, dizzied and slightly queasy, on the quay.

Lunch in the Florentine was the usual. I had deviled eggs with Portugese sardines, Susan had an Italian air-dried kind of carpaccio that was outstanding. Two of the group had hamburgers but I held firm, with a super-rich kind of lobster croquette and Matt opted for two servings of rigatoni quattro fromaggi (kind of an upscale macaroni and cheese.) Desserts were peppermint ice cream, strawberry shortcake (not even close to the Ozark version) and a gooey maple syrup cream pie.

Yup, I've been set down. While the fam is off , hard at the OTHER GROUP at trivia, I'm confined to quarters to continue this effort and to retrieve laundry when it is dried. Dawn (and Sun) have a couple of machines on each deck - much overused and the reported scene of some legendary skirmishes, supposedly the occasional dumping of clean laundry if you aren't there to make the dryer transfer. I haven't witnessed any of these but will surely be there when my batch is done. A couple more machines would be great - about this time on the cruise, a ride in the elevator with some of the more European passengers (read: wash and use deodorant, people!) can be an olfactory assault nonpareil.

Semiformal dinner was French, (menu) with French onion soup, vichysoisse, escargot, pate' de fois gras (the real thing), canard la 'orange, entrecote steak, coquilles St. Jacques, creme brulee and cherries jubilee flambee at table side. All carried off well and of excellent freshness and quality. We all considered a show but declined in favor of collapsing in our cabins.