Grande Caribe New England Islands 7/71-22/12

[rafinmd]

Greetings. I am currently on a train from Baltimore to Providence. Tomorrow I will board the Grand Caribe of Blount Small Ship Adventures for a 5 night Islands of New England cruise. I'll be posting more here as the voyage continues.

 

There will be a companion blog with pictures here:

 

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/rafinmd/4/tpod.html

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

I set the alarm for 5am. I had counted on boarding a 6:40 local bus to BWI's Amtrack station but things went well and I caught the 5:40 instead. I arrived at BWI about 7:10. My ticket was scheduled for 9:07 but I was able to exchange it for an earlier train at 7:52. Unfortunately things ran somewhat downhill (but not really badly) from there. My train arrived 5 minutes early in New York, left on time, and then started losing a bit of time, arriving 10 minutes late in Providence. I had 20 minutes time for a 10-minute walk to Providence's transit center, but then my bus was 15 minutes late. When nobody on the bus knew exactly where my B&B was, when I knew we were in the area I said "next stop", and amazingly the Candlewick Inn was just 100 feet away. Unfortunately, there was a misunderstanding about my arrival (1 day earlier than she thought) and I sat on the front porch for over an hour until a very apologetic innkeeper drove up. It was a good thing I had planned to go on to Newport for dinner as the room, while very nice, had not yet had the air conditioning turned on.

 

A drenching rain developed as I was leaving for Newport. I was able to see up the street from the Inn's porch and made a mad dash for the stop as the bus approached. By the time we reached Newport the sun was back out. Things were pretty quiet in Newport although the local baseball team was just starting a game.

 

The Candlewick Inn is less than a quarter mile from Blount headquarters. On returning to Warren I walked down to the dock where the Grande Caribe awaits our arrival tomorrow, purchased some snacks for the evening, and returned to the Inn about 8:30.

 

Boarding will be at noon tomorrow.

 

Roy

[LHT28]

Interested to now what upgrades were done

Soundproofing, beds, doors with locks etc...??

[rafinmd]

Lynn, I know you have asked some questions and I'll get back to you. I normally compose entries off line and go online only briefly. I get an email subscription to the thread and will read your questions when the mail arrives, and answer with the next post.

 

I slept until about 6, and then did some computer and other work. Breakfast was very nice with orange juice, roasted peach, bacon and muffins. I went out around 10 and did some walking in Warren, crossing the Warren river by the main bridge and returning on a rail trail. Warren is the home of Samsonite luggage. The factory is quite vacant but still boasts a company store. I did some browsing there but did not end up buying anything. The temperature was pleasant for breakfast but heat built up during the morning, and I was suffering from the heat by the end of the walk.

 

Boarding was at noon and I left the Candlewick about that time for the 5-minute to the dock. I am a very experienced Blount cruiser and it showed from the moment I approached the ship. A crewman called out to me by name and took my luggage to my room. Jen the Cruise Director greeted me while barely looking up to see who it was. While most of the passengers were lined up waiting for the next stewardess to escort them to their rooms and explain all the features, Jen basically said "you know everything, go ahead to your room". By the time we left the dock, about 1/3 of the crew had welcomed me back by name.

 

I am in 10A, one of the stranger cabins on the ship. It is far forward, and at that point the wall of the ship slants inward at close to a 45-degree angle. The beds are bunks, but the inboard of the edge is directly above the outer edge of the lower, which I expect would make an awkward climb to the upper if the lower is occupied. Fortunately, as a solo that does not concern me. There is a chest of drawers next to the door, and a rack with hangers above the foot of the bed. There are also 5 coat hooks mounted on the wall. This room has been spruced up but it is in pretty much the original configuration.

 

We had a buffet lunch a little after 12:30, a mandatory safety briefing at 1:30, and backed into the Warren River about 2:00. I have sailed out of Warren a number of times but there was a twist this time. As we approached Aquidnick Island (Newport) we turned east and went around the back side of the island. While hot today it was also quite windy, with breezes around 25 knots on the upper deck.

 

When we got out from behind Aquidnick Island we felt the full effects of the wind and rolled significantly as we passed through Rhode Island Sound.

 

Cuttyhunk is the westernmost of a chain of islands which includes Martha's Vineyard. It has served as a whaling station among other purposes but is now quite quiet. It has a winter population of 100 that swells to 250 in the summer. Most residents use private boats but there is daily ferry service in the summer. We sailed up a narrow entrance to the ferry dock, arriving as dinner started at 6:30, and the crew prepared for us to go ashore during the meal.

 

Cuttyhunk can best be described as quaint. It served mostly as a place to spend the night and to get our land legs back. The village was perhaps a half mile away, not a bad walk but the uneven streets are not conducive to walking after dark. There was a Coast Guard station here but the sign says it was de-activated in the 60's. Not far from the dock there is a strange set of chairs set up and labeled Joe's Funeral Pyre.

 

There was one new thing at dinner. Meals have always been a set menu, posted in the early morning. If you were not comfortable with the items offered we would speak to the chef a meal ahead and a substitute will be arranged. Now everyone gets a choice of 2 selections for dinner. A substitute can still be arranged but it should be needed less often. There was no set entertainment this evening and people seem to be retiring fairly early.

 

 

There is another white board nest to the main stairway with the day's schedule of activities. I plan to post the schedule and the menu each day at:

 

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/rafinmd/4/tpod.html

 

Roy

[Love Cruises]

Hi Roy,

 

Enjoying your blog.

 

A few questions...

How many passengers are onboard for this cruise?

Is anyone booked in any one of our favorite cabins down below (Cabins 20A, 20B, 22B)?

Is Little Jen, Michelle or Wil a steward?

Who is the cook?

 

Too bad Blount raised their fares so much the last couple of years. We really love this cruiseline but the cheapest fare for a couple is currently running $680 a day. A little too much for our taste. This is triple what we pay for other cruiselines.

 

Let the crew know we are thinking of them and really miss cruising with them. They are a top notch staff and we were always very grateful for their excellent service.

 

 

Barbara and Dan

[rafinmd]

“Posted by: LHT28

On: July 17th, 2012 10:58 AM

 

Interested to now what upgrades were done

Soundproofing, beds, doors with locks etc...??

************”

 

For a little background here I’ll repeat a post I made on the Crystal forum when I did a circle from New York to Montreal through the Erie Canal and returned to New York on the Crystal Symphony:

 

QUOTE=rafinmd;30816005]We have a crew of 17 with Captain (Mike Kiernan), 1st and 2nd officers, engineer, CD (Jennifer McDaniel), Chef and assistant, 6 stewardesses and 4 deck hands. Jennifer has been working on the Niagara Prince but due to it's being caught on the wrong side of the canal break and the Lake Champlain voyages being cancelled she moved over to the Grande Caribe. 15 of the 17 are from New England; one stewardess is from Arizona and Jennifer the Virgin Islands. Unlike larger ships there are really no anonymous crew behind the scenes, we pretty much get to know all 17.

 

Terms like "family atmosphere" are sometimes used to describe life on smaller ships. Here, it is carried to the extreme. I think "be careful what you wish for” carries a bit on an ominous tone, I would say "be aware of what you wish for". About the only way to make this more of a family atmosphere would be to assign "chores" to everybody, fortunately things don't go quite that far (although Barbara and Dan might disagree).

 

As an example, at meals even on most small ships there is a menu with perhaps 5 or 6 choices of entrees. That's never the way things worked in my family, and that's not how it works here. Each morning the chef posts the day's menu on a white board outside the galley. If one of the meals does not appeal to you, a discussion with the chef a meal in advance will provide a substitution. Meals are in one seating at pretty much fixed times, 8, 12:30, and 6:30, although they may be changed by the Captain or Cruise Director as necessary for scenery, port and excursion conflicts, or rough seas. All meals are served in the main (and only) dining room with "Southwest style" seating where you pick any open table as you enter (of course there are no dreaded middle seats). In the course of a cruise I will usually share at least one meal with pretty much every other passenger. It's not a system I could imagine working with Crystal but in this environment I love it.

 

The other major culture shock is that the rooms do not lock from the outside. You pretty much know and trust everyone. It seems a bit strange at first but I've never heard of any problems. I do, however, early in a cruise sometimes say to myself "do you have your keycard" when leaving my cabin, only to realize that there is none. I have only had my room entered by another passenger once. My first cruise was in 1996 on much this itinerary but in mid-summer. In Montreal we docked right next to the jet boats which run the Lachine Rapids. I was in line to board the jet boat when I realized I was wearing my watch which was probably not a good idea in such a wet environment. A fellow passenger was disembarking the jet boat as I waited to board, and I asked him to take the watch. When I returned to the ship my watch was sitting prominently in the middle of my bed.

 

I have often described Blount creature comforts as "somewhere between basic and spartan". I am in a single cabin, and it is tiny but well laid out. To it's credit Blount refers to them as "cabins", the term stateroom does not seem fitting, even for a company based in Rhode Island. This cabin is about 7'2 by 8'9". The bed is along the back wall. Between the door and the bed one side has the bath facilities and the other has a bureau and closet. While tiny, the room has quite a bit of storage and is actually comfortable.

 

Crystal's "no announcement" policy has no effect here. The Captain's daily update comes about 7:30 as a wakeup call, and he comes on regularly to describe the points of interest and history as we pass the sights.

 

Blount's answer to "Reflections" is another white board next to the main staircase. Each day's schedule highlights are posted there by the cruise director. On either side of the white board there are bulletin boards with information on the upcoming ports. Note that my enumeration of the crew did not include any entertainers. The daily evening entertainment may be a lecture, a performance by local entertainers at some ports, or a movie played in the lounge.

 

Roy

 

Most of that remains true although we are a crew of 16 (no second officer) and all but the CD are New Englanders. The other change is having a choice of 2 entrees for dinner.

 

The beds (at least mine are about an 8-inch mattress on top of a plywood frame. I’m not sure what the soundproofing issue is but I doubt that anything there has changed. I’ve encountered a couple sources of noise. The AC units are equivalent to residental window units and have the typical associated sounds but those sounds are within the cabin. The bow thrusters also can be quite noisy but are only used for a minute or so when entering or leaving a port. I must have slept very well last night because I never heard them when leaving Cuttyhunk at 2AM, and I'm in the most forward cabin. I’ve never heard noise from adjoining cabins or other noise issues. THe raising of the anchor chain was quite loud in my cabin as we left Nantucket.

 

The lack of door locks (as described in the above post) I think is part of the Blount culture. The CD did discuss it and there are locks on the doors but she was quite specific that keys were not available. The folding fabric doors of the old days are gone. She does have a safe available for any valuables.

 

Roy

[LHT28]

Well good to see the fabric doors are gone

The noise in the cabin we had behind the dining room ..you could not hear the person in the cabin unless you were standing next to them

The a/c was like a jet engine all the time

[rafinmd]

I don't think the seas overnight were as rough as we expected but I can't be sure. I was one of the last passengers in bed at 10:45 and slept very soundly, not even noticing when we left Cuttyhunk at 2AM. I slept until about 6 which is fairly late for me, and we dropped anchor in Nantucket harbor about 7.

 

This is one of Blount's very few tender ports on the northern itineraries. The ship is really not equipped for tendering. We carry a small skiff on the back but today relied on a harbor launch service based in Nantucket.

 

Our planned stop today was 8 to 6 but this small ship does make allowances for the weather. An afternoon storm was expected and we left 2 hours early so we would be in the safety of the harbor at our dinner time. There were 2 tours in Nantucket, a general tour in the morning and an afternoon historic homes walk. The first launches at 8:45 were for people on the morning tour; everybody was ashore by about 9:15. I walked around Nantucket on my own for about an hour but spent much of the time visiting a person I've chatted with on Cruise Critic. Shiela runs a very nice B&B (Centre Street Inn). We chatted for about an hour over a cup of coffee before I left to visit the Whaling Museum. There were displays of ships, the life of whalers, the processing of whale products, some skeletal remains, and a rooftop observation deck overlooking the harbor.

 

I found a shady bench to enjoy the bag lunch the ship prepared for us, and then met my walking tour of Nantucket. The historic homes tour visited 3 homes run by the Nantucket Historical Society representing the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The Macy-Christian house was built in the mid 18th century and was quite a plain dwelling that had started as a modest 2-room saltbox and was expanded to several times it's original size as the owners family grew. The elegant Hadwen house was built in the mid 19th century and was a beautiful representation of Greek Revival architecture. The 20th century house was a bit of a misnomer. It was actually built much earlier as a barn. When the town outgrew agriculture around 1930, the place was sold to 2 artist sisters as a summer residence. They rehabilitated the structure and built lovely gardens almost as an extension of the house.

 

The tour ended about 3 and we were back on the Grande Caribe around 3:30. At 4 we pulled up the anchor and set off on the 3-hour sail to Martha's Vineyard. The weather got quite blustery and the seas quite choppy but we managed to find an opening in the line of squalls. The welcome aboard Cocktail Party was at 6 and we pulled up to the dock in Vineyard Haven just in time for dinner. Wine was served with the elegant meal and at the end the Captain introduced the entire crew of 16. The evening ended with a movie in the lounge.

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

This comment comes from the HAL forum. The person I visited is a regular HAL cruiser, and I commented on my visit there. RuthC is also a HAL cruiser and lives in Rhode Island.

 

You dodged an incredibly violent storm that came through the area. Yeah, you got lucky. That's the right word. It would not have been fun being tossed around on the Caribe. :eek:

 

Our tour guide today claims the Cape Cod Canal always breaks up those storms. I frankly don't believe her and agree that we were lucky. If the storm had hit us it would have been during the Captain's Welcome aboard cocktail party. That combination would have led to some interesting staggering.

 

Roy

Posted by: Love Cruises

On: July 18th, 2012 01:24 PM

 

"Hi Roy,

 

Enjoying your blog.

 

A few questions...

How many passengers are onboard for this cruise?

Is anyone booked in any one of our favorite cabins down below (Cabins 20A, 20B, 22B)?

Is Little Jen, Michelle or Wil a steward?

Who is the cook?

 

Too bad Blount raised their fares so much the last couple of years. We really love this cruiseline but the cheapest fare for a couple is currently running $680 a day. A little too much for our taste. This is triple what we pay for other cruiselines.

 

Let the crew know we are thinking of them and really miss cruising with them. They are a top notch staff and we were always very grateful for their excellent service.

 

 

Barbara and Dan"

 

Barbara, we have about 64 on board. I'm not sure about the lower cabins. We have Little Jen with us. The Chef is Alin, new to me, assisted by Meagan who sailed with us last year as a stewardess. I was talking to the Captain last night and Captain Dave is currently on the Mariner and should arrive in Warren tomorrow.

 

Posted by: LHT28

On: July 18th, 2012 09:04 PM

 

"Well good to see the fabric doors are gone

The noise in the cabin we had behind the dining room ..you could not hear the person in the cabin unless you were standing next to them

The a/c was like a jet engine all the time"

 

The doors on the Grande Caribe were replaced in 2010. Captain says the Grande Mariner had the steel doors from the beginning.

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

I slept late again today, arising at 7. I had a morning tour pretty much around the island. Leslie was full of stories and humor and very entertaining as well as informative. Me made a clockwise circle of the Island.

 

The hub of activity is Vineyard Haven with most of the year round stores, the main ferry terminal, and our dock. It is the northernmost tip of the island. A bit to the East is Oak Bluffs. It was established as a Methodist Tent Camp and became a popular summer meeting ground with the tents eventually being replaced by houses. Most of the houses are narrow as they were built on the spots where the tents were pitched. There are about 300 of these houses from the camp meeting days, but only 3 have been winterized.

 

Edgarton sits on the East of the island and is the gateway to Chappaquiddick. It is mostly off limits to tour busses, but the Whaling Church was quite impressive. The 12 miles across the South side of the island from Edgarton to Chilmark is relatively rustic, although there is development along the shore out of sight of the highway. The Western peninsula is quite hilly and ends at Aquinnah, formerly Gay Head. The Gay Head light is open and about 40 steps lead to the top level and beautiful views. A rotating red and white beacon still functions and the beam is noticeably warm as it passes. It marks shoals where the City of Columbus sank in 1884 with a loss of 103 lives. I was not familiar with the incident, which sounded to me very akin to the Costa Concordia, but the local book shop had the story which I will read when time permits.

 

We had 45 minutes at the light and bluffs. On the way back along the Northwest shore of the island a rain storm developed and was quite heavy when we returned to the ship. There had been plans today for a cookout on the top deck but it became a cook-in with the usual picnic items.

 

I spent the afternoon browsing Vineyard Haven and doing a bit of shopping. After dinner we had an appearance by Mark Lovenell, a newsman by trade who performs sea shantys and stories of the sea and whaling. Our photographer is experimenting with flashlight writing in time lapse photography. Five of us went out to a dark corner of the dock where we spelled out letters of words by moving flashlights in a pattern. In a tribute to our Captain we started with MIKEK along with HAPPY HOUR! and SEA SHANTYS in honor of our entertainer. Most came out pretty well although on the last one the person doing the N realized midway that it was backwards so the finished result looked a little bit drunken.

 

We leave Martha's Vineyard tomorrow at 5AM

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

This was pretty much an early day. We left Martha's Vineyard at 5AM. As we passed Woods Hole (5:45) the Captain left the pilot house and pointed out the features of the area, primarily the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Their deep diving submarine has just been updated to be capable of even deeper dives. It is actually a US Navy submarine, operated by the Navy but with it's missions managed by the scientific community. Leaving Woods Hole we go through a gap between 2 islands known as "the strait", a narrow passage that was quite a challenge especially for sail powered vessels with tricky currents. We had probably 15 people up on the top deck while most of the ship continued sleeping.

 

We arrived at our only mainland port, New Bedford MA just before 8. Our tour was titled "The City that Lit the World" and I was thinking electricity. The light in question was actually all from products of whaling. The standard in candles was spermacelli, derived from a fluid in the heads of sperm whales. These candles produced a very white light and left no residue when burning. The term "candle power" is based on the light produced by a spermacelli candle.

 

A National Park guide met us at the dock and led us 4 blocks to the New Bedford Visitors Center and pointed out the historic buildings on the way, along with the tall ship Ernestine, currently getting a new mast and not looking so tall. The whaling museum was across the street where there was a half scale model of the whaling ship Lagoda. By the 18th century the Atlantic stock of whales was declining and most of the whaling ships were making long journeys around Cape Horn to the Pacific. Most of these voyages were 2 years or more. The ships evolved from simple hunting vessels to complete whale processing factories. New Bedford whaling pretty much ended after the civil war when petroleum was discovered, and textiles became the mainstay of the town for about a century. New Bedford has somewhat returned to it's roots as it has become headquarters of a large fishing fleet. While Dutch Harbor Alaska is the largest fishing port in tonnage, New Bedford is the largest in terms of cash crop value.

 

The tour ended around noon and I made an ice cream/internet stop, not venturing too far in a drizzle. We left New Bedford at 3 for about a 5-hour sail to Block Island.

 

This was our "Celebration Dinner", a Blount tradition where passengers create a list of things they want to celebrate and we end the dinner with a reading of the list and cake for desert. It did not come off as planned we hit choppy seas and perhaps half the passengers showed up for dinner and half of them left mid-meal. I ate most of my food but moved mid-meal from my window seat to a table midships, and saved my cake to enjoy later. The reading of the list was put off for 24-hours at a combined farewell-celebration dinner.

 

On the way to Block Island our photographer John Lovgren gave a presentation on composing photographs. We arrived in Block Island about 8:30, timed so we could occupy the dock vacated by the 8:10 fast ferry to the mainland.

 

Moneyball was shown in the lounge but I think most passengers (myself included) retired early for the evening.

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

I rose just before 6 to a sunny but somewhat windy morning. Our tour was at 9. Block Island is shaped somewhat like a pork chop, somewhere near 10 miles long and 6 miles wide. There are several "ponds", I think a few are fresh water but most are actually mostly enclosed bays. There are 2 harbors. The main one is Old Harbor to the East with ferry service to Connecticut and Rhode Island. New Harbor (with service from Long Island) is on a large pond with the inlet opposite Old Harbor and the 2 harbors are only about a mile apart. We saw 2 light houses, on the North and Southwest ends of the island. We stopped at the Southeast light. It is open for guided tours but our time did not allow that. Our tour was supposed to be an hour but our guide moved quite slowly and it was 10:30 when we returned. The Grande Caribe left the dock to allow the fast ferry to come in. It was supposed to be gone 9:15 to 10:15 with passengers back on board at 10:45 and departure at 11. Our late return only left us with 15 minutes to explore downtown. Actually, the fast ferry was still docked when we returned and we could not board until 10:50. We left about 11:05. The crossing to Newport was a bit choppy but not as rough as the trip to Block Island.

 

We have 2 docking points (center of town or Fort Adams) in Newport, depending on other vessels in town. Today we docked in Fort Adams. I took a walk into town. It is about a mile and a half directly but by road just about double that, making it quite a lengthy round trip. There is also a harbor shuttle, but I just missed one boat on the return and arrived just after the next shuttle. I did a bit of shopping but have seen the sights of Newport and it was mostly the walk.

 

The final evening was the Captain's farewell dinner combined with the rescheduled celebration night. Most people enjoyed the Lobster dinner, we got a last look at the assembled crew, and celebrated birthdays, anniversaries (up to 50th) and a few other things.

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

I rose about 5:30. We left Newport for Warren at 6:15, and again Captain Kiernan met passengers on the Sun deck to point out the sights we passed rather than using the PA system. We passed the Newport Navy Base, no longer a port for ships but still active as a war college and schools for JAG and Chaplains. A bit further up we passed the site of the Quonset Naval Air Station, the place where Quonset huts were named. The site is now a terminal for arriving new cars. We continued up Naragansett Bay and began meandering up the Warren River. If you did not see the line of buoys you would easily have assumed the Captain was drunk. We pulled into Blount dock at 8 as breakfast was served. I must have been the last passenger to leave the ship at 9. Walking up to Main Street I took the 9:30 bus to Providence, dropped my bags at the Hampton Inn, and stopped at Matthewson Street Methodist Church.

 

I explored downtown Providence for much of the afternoon. An "Independence Trail" around the central area is marked with a green line and has markers where you can call a number for information about the sites. Unfortunately, it didn't work with my cell phone.

 

Roy