When we headed out on our amazing cruise vacation, the only sand we were thinking about was supposed to be between our toes and maybe washed out of our bathing suits. When we woke up last Tuesday morning to hear about Tropical Storm Sandy making its way to Jamaica and working its way up to hurricane status, I was (more than) a little worried, but although we passed within 150 miles of the storm it never really got too stormy. I think we crossed in front of it just in time to miss most of the rain and by the time we skirted south of Cuba on Thursday morning, the winds were incredibly strong but the skies had mostly cleared.
Imagine my surprise when I went to check the weather back home in Ottawa on the internet on Saturday and saw the ‘storm of the century’ warnings. Who the heck gets hit by the same hurricane twice?
From a weather perspective, our trip ended better than it started. Our first day at sea was a mixture of sun and cloud, and our day in Labadee Haiti was more cloud than sun, but we only saw a sprinkling of rain. In fact, considering we passed so close to a hurricane, we really didn’t see much precipitation at all. And the last few days were sunny and clear – exactly the kind of weather you’d want for a Caribbean cruise.
The seas were very rough (well, they seemed rough to me!) in the middle of the week, but with the ship running full steam ahead to get away from the storm, I think the Allure just plowed through most of the waves. I understand the waves were in the 12ft range, which is pretty impressive to watch as long as you don’t mind a bit of a ride! We could certainly feel the ship rocking but it was never enough to be disconcerting. The roughest ride of all was the last night as we approached Fort Lauderdale. The wind was howling and spraying mist from the prow all the way to the aft of the ship – for a while I was trying to figure out how I was feeling rain and seeing the moon and stars at the same time! I don’t know whether the seas were particularly rough because of Sandy farther north, or if the captain just wanted to give us a memorable ride, but that last night the ship was rocking and lurching so much it was hard to sleep – doors were swinging and hangers clinking in the closet and the ship itself was making alarming creaking and groaning noises. If that last night had been the first night, I may have decided to stay on land at Haiti and just catch the next flight home instead!!
According to the latest forecasts, Hurricane Sandy will now pass mostly south of Ottawa and then hook back up over us again in a few days. I’ve been watching reports of rain and wind from friends in Toronto today, but the wind is relatively calm here and though the skies are grey, no rain is yet falling. I can’t quite tear myself away from the news reports and am sending all my best wishes for everyone in harm’s way tonight.
I’ve got a few more posts yet to write about our amazing time on the Allure even though we’re now firmly back on dry land. But really, I feel like I never left the ship. Since when does my living room rock and sway like the ship? And that’s without a storm raging outside!
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