What's The Difference Between The Commodores And The Alligators

 

One is a band, and one has sharp teeth.

Our voyage got started last night with a Gala Dinner and then a performance from The Commodores (Next Generation). We got to hear Nightshift, Three Times A Lady, easy, and a finale of Brick House. They were pretty good, although the lead singer was a bit out on both rhythm and pitch. (And if I notice bum singing, well then ..) 

It was, nevertheless, a nice start to the voyage. This morning (Sunday Jan 7th), I took a tour of the Florida Everglades by airboat. The weather was a little dodgy, so Allison (wisely) decided to stay on board the Mariner. There are apparently over 250,000 gators in the Everglades, and we got to see maybe 25 of them. Not too bad at all. 

Also listened to a Gator lecture and learned some interesting facts. The top speed for a gator is about 16mph in both water and on land. That's faster than most of us can run and certainly swim. BUT .. if you survive the first 4-5 seconds without being caught, they give up. I think that means it's the same philosophy as being chased by a bear. You don't have to be the fastest, but never be the slowest. As there were a fine collection of septugenerians and older on the boat, I felt relatively safe.


We left Miami at about 1:30pm this afternoon in wet, drizzly weather. The port was packed. There were 7 monster ships embarking passengers, and we estimated there were about 30,000 people jammed into the northern end of the terminal.

We sailed past Fisher Island and Starr Island (home to David Beckham) on the way out and are now heading south towards Cartagena, Columbia. We have two sea days ahead of us to explore the boat and make new friends. I've already become best buds with Amanda and Manuel, who open the coffee bar at 6.30am every morning. 


(Lastly - there has been an issue with leaving comments. Think that's fixed and you can comment anonymously. Just tell us who you are!!)

Comments

  1. StevenJanuary 7, 2024 at 6:47 PM

    Love it! Keep on posting..

    ReplyDelete
  2. AugustoJanuary 7, 2024 at 10:10 PM

    I’ve heard to run zig zagging to prevent getting caught by an alligator. Some movie that I can’t remember. I’m glad that I remember how to runaway though

    ReplyDelete
  3. AlexJanuary 8, 2024 at 1:18 PM

    So glad that none of the "how to run away from gators" training was needed at this time....LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JohnJanuary 9, 2024 at 7:09 PM

      As Gus, mentions - you run in a zig-zag pattern so they can't reach top speed. Plan B is that you push someone else into their path.

      Delete

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