December 16, 2008 – Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos, BWI

There was plenty of wind and the ship had rolled around all night but we slept comfortably through it all. The wind kept up all day and it made deck walking difficult. We arrived at Grand Turk at 2:00pm and had a difficult time docking because a 30+ knot wind blew the ship sideways into the pier before we were far enough forward and it took several minutes of working the thrusters to position us properly. There is a new docking pier and shopping complex there that was built by Carnival Cruise Lines and it had a lot of the typical Caribbean shops. The wind kept the temperatures in the low 70s but the sun was shining and it was pleasant. After wandering around the shops we joined another couple and walked a couple of miles down the road to Governor’s Beach and spent over an hour there. A hurricane had hit the island in September and the damage was still in evidence. There were several buildings with blue tarp roofs and the power station had some portable diesel generator trailers alongside the building. We didn’t sail until 10:00pm and there was a pool deck BBQ for dinner with a huge spread of choices and after the meal the orchestra played with Regent singers singing rock songs for dancing on the deck. The music was too loud so several of us went to Galileo’s where the duo was playing quietly enough that we could talk.