Kayaking and Snorkelling, Curacao

A long journey from Granada to Curacao, sailing for 22 hours and arriving at 1200 today. We had a snorkelling and kayaking booked and headed out across Curacao, an island far more developed and 'western' than any we'd been to as yet.

We kayaked out of the bay (after a stupidly long 'safety' brief which had little safety information despite it's longevity, largely due to the guide believing he was a comedian) and into quite a strong swell. We were able to kayak right up to the oil refinery logistics in the sea as well as to more forts, before beaching up for some snorkelling amongst a small shipwreck. The fish here were equally as incredible and impressive as any we had yet seen and they certainly weren't shy.

The trip was great fun, but we ended up speaking to Thomson about it as it appeared rather unsafe for a great portion of the trip, including kayaking all around mooring lines and rusted stantions with little direction - in the swell, some of the more inexperienced kayakers did seem to struggle. A shame, as it was a really excellent trip, but a little more thought needed, given that prior experience was not required to sign up.

Back in Willemstad, we did a spot of shopping in the floating market, got caught in a Caribbean downpour and enjoyed the Queen Emma swing bridge before returning to the boat. We were victorious in this evening's trivia, helped by the fact the questions were a repeat of a set from last week! But the best entertainment of the evening was the fifteen minute faff watching the pilot boat try to collect the pilot from our ship - in the swell the pilot made a few attempts to get off our ship, before the pilot boat having to go around the other side of our ship to escape the swell and finally recover the pilot, to a great cheer from all the passengers and crew on deck!Read more