St. Martin

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I didn’t do much sketching on the islands since time was limited and we were always on the move. When the Celebrity Eclipse docked in Puerto Rico, we hiked from the cruise ship towards Castillo San Filipe del Morro. There was a path, called Paseo del Morro, that followed the shoreline. 20 foot high cliffs covered with foliage were on our right and the rocky shore of San Juan Bay was on our left. Kites were everywhere, their strings winding among the vines, lost in the foliage. A fortress wall was at the top of the cliff. The path lead us to the foot of the fortress but there was no way to get up to it. We had to hike all the way back and find another route through Old San Juan. We eventually did explore the fortification. Cannonball shrapnel was still lodged in the walls from a battle hundreds of years ago.

In St. Martin, we rented a jeep and Terry drove around the whole perimeter of the island.  We drove up to Pic Paradis, the highest point on the island then got lost in the city of St. James. This sketch was done when we stopped at the beach. We sat under an umbrella and a local immediately asked us for $10. Rather than pay, I walked back to the shade under a tree to sketch and Terry went for a walk on the beach. I sketched quickly to try and finish by the time she got back. When the sketch was done, we went to a beachfront bar and ordered Pina Coladas. Terry had things she needed to say. I was speechless. The waves crashed and the gorgeous aqua water sparkled behind the bright yellow umbrellas.

Ice Sculptor

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On the deck of the Celebrity Eclipse, near the pool, an ice sculptor demonstrated his techniques. The activities coordinator had a microphone and she kept the crowd guessing as to what he was sculpting.  Large chunks crashed to the deck and then he chipped away, refining the shapes. I never caught the sculptors name but he was from the Philippines. Another crew member had a squeegee and he collected the pile of shavings and chips. Children were discouraged from taking any of the ice chips since there was salt in it.  The first sculpture, completed in less than 15 minutes was of a parrot. The second sculpture I believe, ended up being a turtle riding a wave.

Within half an hour, the sculptures were done. Parents posed their children next to the new creations and then the kids grabbed large chunks of ice and ran to the pool or hot tub. The parents were too relaxed to care.

Eclipse Theater

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On the Celebrity Eclipse, I took the glass elevator down to deck five. Dropping down I watched the library slip by and I watched people in the opposite elevator as they rose up. I walked down a long hallway past flashy boutiques, the Molecular Bar and the flashing lights of the Fortunes Casino. Terry was in our cabin reading, while I made my way to the Eclipse Theater to see an Iron Chef style cook off. I sat in the nose bleed section of the upper level to try and capture some sense of the enormous space.

The chipper activities coordinator announced the contestants. Two passengers had been picked to compete against each other with the help of some of the ships chefs. I believe they only had 15 minutes to prepare their dish using the raw produce available on the back tables. The female contestant talked smack by saying her opponent wasn’t even working his pans over the burners. She had a point, the crew chef was helping out quite a bit.

When it came time for the judging, an oval platform rose up with three passenger judges. One judge was from France and she said that the female contestants dish reminded her of her childhood. The male contestants dish however had too much spice. Every judge actually didn’t like the male contestants dish. They didn’t hold back their criticisms. The female contestant won.

I was still working on the sketch as everyone rushed out of the theater. It seems that these cruise ship activities are designed for audiences with short attention spans. A tech came out of the sound booth and approached me. He told me I would have to leave the theater. I can’t believe it. This was the second time I had been interrupted while trying to finish a sketch on the cruise. I asked why. He said they had to rehearse that evenings performance. I asked if I could do another sketch of the rehearsal. No, he had rules to follow and I left fuming. I don’t like being herded around like cattle. The final color washes were added in the cabin. We never returned to the theater to see the show.

Hot Glass Show

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On the top deck of the Celebrity Eclipse, next to a grass lawn and between the two huge smoke stacks sat a glass blower’s studio. The Corning Museum of Glass partnered with the cruise line to bring this working glass blowing studio to the high seas. Several ovens were burning brightly to heat the glass on metal rods. Three glass artisans were at work creating an octopus from a child’s drawing. Children on board the ship had entered a competition to see who’s sketch would become a glass menagerie.  Bob Swederball and Dan Alexander worked as a team while Tom narrated the process for a crowd of passengers on bleachers. Bob sat at the work bench forming the body of the creature while Dan heated some glass that would be used for tentacles.

Large air ducts blew cool air which was used to cool the glass on occasion. The molten glass glowed orange as they worked. One oven had multiple doors allowing for larger openings as the glass was formed. There was a four foot high glass wall around the working studio to make sure passengers didn’t get burned and the reflections made it a challenge to sketch at times. The octopus was created in a matter of about an hour. With a gentle tap, the glass sculpture was broken free of its iron rod. Once it was finished, all the children in the bleachers filed out and the craftsmen then started to create an ornate vase by folding the glass and twisting several different colors together. The three craftsmen all came from fine arts colleges where they first started molding glass. Their fine artwork used glass in unique ways. Not a bad gig for a working artist.

Eclipse Southside Band

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Anytime the Celebrity Eclipse left port, there was a party on deck. The dance floor doubled as a fountain with a small stream of water shooting up from each floor panel. The streams were illuminated from below as well making a colorful display at night. The stage and fountain both looked out over the pool. Terry always wanted to be on deck when we departed. This group, called The Southside Band, from the Philippines was performing covers of pop tunes just about anywhere we went on board. Sand bags held the music stands in place and once a musicians music was swept away by a strong wind. A passenger helped him grab it before it blew overboard.

Every day there was a four page pamphlet that outlined the activities for that day on the ship. Every minute of every day at sea there were activities. There were fitness classes, seminars, dance classes, Texas Hold’em Poker Tournaments and movie screenings. They actually had a screening of “Contagion” in the movie theater on board. That movie is about a virus that was spread do to contact with some infected food. That virus spread causing world wide panic. Anytime we entered the dining hall, crew members insisted that we use a hand sanitizer lotion. Perhaps the virus was on board.What genius decided to run that movie? Did they screen “Titanic” or “The Poseidon Adventure” as well?  One of the Canadians at dinner confirmed that they did indeed screen “The Poseidon Adventure.”  There was a huge central chandelier in the dining hall and I kept wondering how it might shatter when a passenger fell head over heals into it. Terry and I went to the movie theater just once, to see a much tamer movie called “Mr Popper’s Penguins.” It was a light hearted way to kill two hours.

Terry took a line dance class while I sketched. Later that evening I saw her on TV dancing along with a dozen or so other passengers. This sort of voyeuristic video surveillance seemed like a good idea. I studied her every move as I relaxed in our cabin.

Saint Kitts

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When the Celebrity Eclipse pulled into port at Saint Kitts, we were still asleep. We had a quick breakfast and then gladly set foot on solid land. We decided to hire a driver. There was a crowd of men busy corralling tourists for rides. Clement Williams was our driver for the day. I sketched quickly as we drove over bumpy roads. Clement talked non-stop as we started off. He spoke of the slave trade in the public square. Terry just wanted to get to the Brimstone Fortress so she had to interrupt his monologue to let him know we just wanted a lift to the fort.

He was happy to just drive. The steering wheel was on the opposite side and everyone drove on the wrong side of the road so we were happy that he was behind the wheel of the Hiace family van. Clement had been a school teacher for years but now he made his living driving. A billboard showed a volleyball team. Everyone on the island was proud that Saint Kitts had a  volleyball team that would compete in the next Olympic games.

Getting to the fortress involved driving up narrow one lane roads. The entrance was very narrow, cutting through a thick black volcanic rock wall. Four cannons surrounded the entrance making it even narrower. Clement inched the vehicle through the entry slowly.  I asked how many time he drove through that narrow space and he laughed and said “Thousands of times by now.” The Brimstone fortress has incredible panoramic views of the island’s coastline. It is 800 feet above sea level. A worker was cutting a vast hillside of wild grass with a weed eater. We wandered the abandoned fort where 130 cannons once defended the island.

On the drive back we stopped to see  the Romney Manor  which is an old plantation estate that houses the Caribelle Batik works. Inside the plantation a woman explained how the tie died batik fabrics were created using wax to isolate where colors would stain the fabrics. I was hoping to see a factory setting with dozens of workers but for the most part the place was just a tourist store. Outside there was a lush tropical garden and a 350-year-old Saman tree.

Eclipse Pool

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While my wife, Terry, was working on crossword puzzles and reading in our stateroom, I went on deck to sketch the main pool. There was another indoor pool as well near the workout rooms. I stood on a walkway between the outdoor bar and a burger stand. I starred off in the shade but the boat must have shifted it’s course because I soon was in the full sun. The pool had four jacuzzis. Two of the jacuzzis were almost always filled with children. There was a stage at the foot of the shallow end of the pool and there was often live music.

In the lounge chairs, passengers fingered their iPads, read actual paper books and soaked up the sun. Terry and I talked about getting in a jacuzzi, but we never got around to it. A mom snapped photos of her kids in the jacuzzi. A woman in a hijab stood at the edge of the pool but she never got in the water. I noticed her later in a lounge chair with only the oval of her face exposed to the sun.

In the evenings, Terry and I would take walks on deck, doing full laps around the perimeter of the ship. The Celebrity Eclipse was 1,033 feet long and 121 feet wide. There were 2850 guests on board. In the evening, the pool and jacuzzis were closed. Nets were secured over the waters surface to keep people out. I never noticed a life guard but some crew member must have been watching.

Easter Brunch

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The first night out I drifted off to sleep to the gentle rocking of the boat. I rather liked being rocked to sleep. In the morning Terry and I went to the main dining hall where a lavish Easter brunch was stationed. There were ice sculptures of bunnies, and there was an ice tower with blood red lobsters perched at every level. With so many choices, it was close to impossible to decide what to eat. People circled, backed up and bumped into each other in their quest for food. They swayed as they walked since no one had their “sea legs” yet. The noisy clanking of plates and the rush of the crowd made me uneasy. There were dozens of solid foot high chocolate bunnies on display and one woman plopped one on her plate and walked off. As a young child, I remember trying to eat a whole chocolate bunny in one sitting. The result wasn’t pretty and I refused to eat any chocolate for years afterwards.

All of the excess must have resulted in people gorging themselves. There were certainly plenty of overweight passengers. It had the opposite affect on me. I ate light. I believe I scooped some scrambled eggs on my plate, picked up a yogurt, a cup of orange juice and then went upstairs.  This was to be a full day at sea and I didn’t need to have anything sloshing around inside me. A porter tried to seat me near a port hole overlooking the ocean, but I insisted on overlooking the lavish madness.  Terry struck up a conversation with a lady at the table next to us as I sketched. Out of the blue the woman told Terry that she had a book in her. Terry was shocked since she has just begun toying with the notion of writing a book. The woman said she was clairvoyant.

We returned to this huge dining hall each evening to sit at a table with three Canadians and two women from Miami. I would say that cruising is much like trying to survive a week long wedding reception with its lock stepped schedule of planned events and formal dining.

Celebrity Eclipse

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Elaine Pasekoff and Derek Hewitt drove Terry and I to the Miami docks where our cruise ship was docked. There was some paperwork to fill out and the passports had to be checked, but getting on to the ship was a fairly painless process. There were maps of the ship near the elevators and we decided to go to the Ocean View Bar at the back of the ship to wait for embarkation. We ordered drinks and I relaxed into my first sketch on the voyage. Half way into this sketch the loud speakers crackled on and we were told that everyone had to report to an evacuation station point. I always finish a sketch yet here on vacation there were more interruptions than ever.

At the evacuation point we had to see a film and listen to crew members much like stewardesses on an airplane. Terry sat on my artist stool as the room grew hot from all the people pressing into a small space. After the film, Terry went to our cabin and I hiked back to the Ocean View Bar to finish my sketch. Signs that said, “Private Party” were blocking the entrance to the bar. I ignored them and made my way back to the bar. The Brits sipping their drinks with umbrellas must have been exclusive VlP’s.

I finished the sketch just as the boat started to move. Loud horn blasts announced our departure. Terry texted me to let me know she was coming to meet me. She got lost so I went on deck to find her. She was easy to find, since she was a few yards from where I exited the bar and went on deck. The water churned as the huge ship backed out of the dock. Everything moved in slow motion. It started to drizzle so I went to our cabin for the first time. My luggage was in the hall, so I rolled it inside and looked around. I relaxed on the balcony and watched the Miami skyline slide by as we went out to sea. The Celebrity Eclipse had set sail.