We enjoyed our Enrichment At Sea day after leaving Panama as a time to rest and reflect. Just kidding, the hours were packed with activities, parties, dancing and the captain’s formal dinner. We stayed up much too late and probably didn’t drink any water. So I recall quite a haggard morning (unpictured) as we disembarked in Montego Bay and loaded onto what felt like, but was not by half, the longest bus ride of the entire voyage.
Our destination was the Appleton Estate Distillery based at the center of a 400-hectare sugar plantation for an afternoon rum tour. Everyone knows the best cure for a hangover is a two hour bus ride and a sampling of unfinished rum. We learned about the history of the buildings, saw a demonstration of processing sugar cane, and got a taste of raw molasses. After a tour of the barreling warehouse and a presentation about the aging of rum, we got to sampling the product at various stages of finishing. I believe the lightest color was compared to jet fuel.
The ride back to Montego Bay was quite interesting since I was actually taking note (and photos) of the landmarks, towns, an scenery along the route. The bright sunny day that had bust from the sky during our rum tour suddenly turned. A darkened sky rolled through and a sudden torrent opened testing the limit of roadway drainage. Then just as quickly it was gone.
Back on board the ship, I believe we treated ourselves to a well deserved nap. After our departure at 6pm we were playing cards in the midships lounge when I happened to look out one of the windows and saw the water absolutely churning past. I noted that this was significant additional speed than we’d seen previously on board and we located a ship’s status monitor that showed a read-out of 30 knots.
The story we gleaned later that night was that one of the passengers had fallen and seriously injured their hip after our departure. Given the choice of returning to Jamaica for medical treatment vs pressing on ahead to Grand Cayman, they chose the latter option. So presented with a medical emergency, the crew was able to stretch the MV Explorer‘s “legs” and show us the cruising speeds typically found in ships with twice her waterline.
The next port of call is: