World Cruise | FindPenguins

Date ascending

Jim and Nancy Kleinschmidt World Cruise
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Dec 14, 2014
- ⛅ 11 °C
- Altitude: 807 ft
- United States Virginia Shenandoah County Woodstock 38.881553, -78.50922838°52’54” N 78°30’33” W
Woodstock, Virginia
December 14, 2014 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C
We have done all we can to get ready for the trip. The boat is out of the water and safe. Max and Tookie are safe with Emelia and Yvonne and other then all our appliance in the kitchen deciding to break just before we leave the house is ready for winter. We picked up Jeff and Ali and stuffed all the luggage in the MaxMobile and took off south.Read more
0 likes
Jim and Nancy Kleinschmidt World Cruise
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Dec 15, 2014
- ⛅ 17 °C
- Altitude: 16 ft
- United States Georgia Chatham County Henderson 32.007366, -81.28329332°0’27” N 81°16’60” W
Day 1
The Shell House Restaurant, Savannah
December 15, 2014 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
Stopping in Savannah on the way to Florida. We ate a restaurant that had an interesting menu. We, of course, had to sample the "exotic" desserts and they were pretty special. The most interesting thing about the place was that the table had a big hole in the middle of it and you just threw your shells and trash into a big waste can under the table. It was convenient if not completely sanitary. :-)Read more
0 likes
Jim and Nancy Kleinschmidt World Cruise
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Dec 18, 2014, 6:04pm
- 🌙 21 °C
- Altitude: 33 ft
- United States Florida Broward County Harbor Heights Mayan Lake 26.100094, -80.10704826°6’0” N 80°6’25” W
Day 4
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
December 18, 2014 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 21 °C
For those of you who know us, you will remember we set out just about 19 years ago to go around the world on our 38 foot sailboat Phantasie. We left from San Francisco and headed south to Mexico. When we arrived at Bahia de Navidad (the usual hopping off spot for those crossing the Pacific) we realized that we were going much too slow to go around the world in the two years that we had allowed. We knew that we couldn't speed up without ruining the great experience we were having so far. We decided to put it off until we went cruising again.
Well, times have changed. The Indian Ocean is not really safe for cruisers and we really want to spend time in the Med but the nagging wonder of what was out there and what we would have seen persists.
A little over a year ago we found a cruise line and a particular itinerary that really interested us. We also convinced (with very little prodding) some great friends to go with us. So began the odyssey we just labeled "The World Cruise".
From Woodstock, VA we set out to go around the world without flying. Our journey begins on water here in Ft. Lauderdale.
Today we will board the Silver Whisper and travel for 4.5 months until we arrive back at Ft. Lauderdale. We will see some 50+ countries and make around 120 ports. We, and our traveling companions Jeff and Ali Carithers, will bring you the highlights here.
To start here is a shot of South Beach, Miami. Beautiful weather, scenery and art deco buildings made a great pre-cruise vacation even better.
See you along the way.

JimRead more
0 likes
Jim and Nancy Kleinschmidt World Cruise
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Dec 19, 2014
- ⛅ 24 °C
- Altitude: 36 ft
- United States Florida Broward County Harbor Heights Mayan Lake 26.101505, -80.10636526°6’5” N 80°6’23” W
Day 5
Lago Mar, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
December 19, 2014 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
We stayed in Lago Mar on the beach in Fort Lauderdale with our good friends Jane and Mike Beasley. They came to see us off. We waved at them from the ship. They were sitting on the rocks waving their iPhones on flashlight so we could see them. They swore they had no liquor with them but we were doubtful. There was certainly liqour involved onboard as we toasted the trip with the signature drink of the cruise line the "Silver Spirit". It is basically all booze except for the squeeze of lime they use at the end. We call that "the mixer".
We had a great first dinner after unpacking and figuring out where to stow all the luggage (under the bed). More drinks and a show and we are feeling very "at home" on board.
Mike and Jane also helped shuttle the MaxMobile to the Kozy Kamper motorhome park for winter storage. It is a nice place and other then maybe having a low battery when we get back it should be fine.
It was really great to have such a send off. Thank you Jane and Mike.Read more
0 likes
Jim and Nancy Kleinschmidt World Cruise
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Dec 20, 2014
- ⛅ 25 °C
- Altitude: Sea level
- United States Florida Monroe County Key West Chalks Key West Seaplane Base 24.552592, -81.80917124°33’9” N 81°48’33” W
Day 6
Key West, Florida
December 20, 2014 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
Not much to say about one of our favorite spots. We had a morning bike ride around town as the town was waking up and did some last minute shopping for things like a power strip to hold all the dang chargers and gadgets we have. The one plug in just isn't going to do it.
After lunch we were off again for two days at sea.Read more
1 like
Jim and Nancy Kleinschmidt World Cruise
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Dec 23, 2014
- ⛅ 24 °C
- Altitude: Sea level
- Caribbean Sea 16.293953, -74.79722216°17’38” N 74°47’50” W
Day 9
At Sea, Caribbean
December 23, 2014, Caribbean Sea ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
We had rough weather after we passed out of Haiti's wind shadow. Seas 10-12 and winds almost 40 at times. Jeff and Nancy are a little queasy and I am really tired from all the motion. But lounging around and reading seemed to be a perfectly reasonable activity anyway so I guess no harm done this time. Hopefully we get less seas when we get closer to Columbia. We couldn't stand up long enough to do the Rumba lessons so I think they will have to wait. :-)Read more
0 likes
Jim and Nancy Kleinschmidt World Cruise
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Dec 23, 2014, 4:42pm
- 🌬 39 °C
- Altitude: 46 ft
- Colombia Departamento del Magdalena Santa Marta Barrio Norte Morro Chico 11.250302, -74.2160811°15’1” N 74°12’58” W
Day 9
Santa Marta, Columbia
December 23, 2014 in Colombia ⋅ 🌬 39 °C
It took us two days at sea (a very rough sea at that) to get to this little town that is trying hard to become a tourist attraction. Unfortunately it doesn't quite make it. It has a pleasant downtown and waterfront and not much else. I suspect that the 94 degree heat didn't make it any more attractive.
The best thing about being here was being still. I did still sway down the dock a little though but we weren't sure if it was me or if it was just some serious "continental drift" :-)
Off the Cartagena tonight. Seas should be a little better around the point.Read more
1 like
Jim and Nancy Kleinschmidt World Cruise
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Dec 24, 2014
- ☀️ 31 °C
- Altitude: 13 ft
- Colombia Departamento de Bolívar Cartagena Manga Sociedad Portuaria de Cartagena 10.403404, -75.53237910°24’12” N 75°31’57” W
Day 10
Cartagena, Columbia
December 24, 2014 in Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
Cartagena Old Town was about 2 miles from the cruise termiinal. We took a good walk along the waterfront. We revisited our old anchorage off of Club Nautica and got run off the docks at Club de Pesca for trying to sneak into the "banos" without owning one of the rather large expensive motor yachts on display there. The Old Town was worth it though as the little streets were coming alive as we got there right about the time everything was starting to open up. After a little confusion in the coffee shop where we hadn't ordered enough to use a credit card and had no pesos we finally ate enough that they let us pay with the "tarjeto de credito" and left with several waters more then we really needed but the heat was serious and we were sweating pretty good on arrival back at the ship.
The town was interesting in that the tourist area was fairly quite but just a few blocks away the local people were swarming a neat little area of town doing all their last minute Christmas shopping. I say last minute but I suspect Christmas doesn't start in October down here so this may have just been a good day to shop.
Everywhere we passed they were having a Christmas party (the dock workers, the police station, etc) We only stayed until 1PM but I suspect that things closed down pretty early so that people could get ready for the night time festivities that, if the amount of decorations on everything was a sign, looked to be quite a party.
We sailed early to meet our schedule at the Panama Canal on Christmas Day. We are transiting early in the morning so Santa will have to find us at sea.Read more
0 likes
Jim and Nancy Kleinschmidt World Cruise
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Dec 25, 2014, 9:23am
- ⛅ 28 °C
- Altitude: 92 ft
- Panama Provincia de Panamá Bella Vista 8.97868, -79.5327768°58’43” N 79°31’58” W
Day 11
Panama Canal, Panama
December 25, 2014 in Panama ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
Christmas in Panama. We awoke to see the jungle going by as we slipped into the first lock of the Gatun Locks on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal. We were locked up beside a huge chemical tanker and had a local guide narrating the trip from the bridge. We took our morning walk around the deck while we rose 85 feet to the level of the Gatun Lake. The canal is 100 years old the year and it is amazing in it's efficiency and simplicity.
We anchored in the Lake for several hours while we waited to travel to the other side. We took advantage of that to open Christmas presents and rest up for the Christmas feast that awaited us at brunch.
Full from lunch and having opened all our presents we set sail across the peninsula toward the Pacific Ocean. Down the locks at Pedro Miguel and Miraflores and now in the Pacific. We have a day to travel to Puntarenas tomorrow in Costa Rica. Should be fun.
For now we have formal night and Christmas dinner so I will leave you here and pick up after I recover.Read more
Linda Coburn It looks like fun and a great way to spend Christmas!
12/25/14Reply
Roland Zimmerman Very interesting. Thanks for the narrative!
12/26/14Reply
1 like
Jim and Nancy Kleinschmidt World Cruise
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Dec 26, 2014
- ⛅ 5 °C
- Altitude: Sea level
- North Pacific Ocean 7.128327, -80.696887°7’42” N 80°41’49” W
1
Day 12
At Sea
December 26, 2014, North Pacific Ocean ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C
Much calmer seas on this side of Central America. We are coasting along in 3-4 foot seas which probably would be a pain on Kalliope but up here on the 5th floor it kind of rocks you to sleep. Christmas was a success. Jeff was a hit in his family tartan kilts. Ali and Nancy were quite beautiful but as Ali says "she could walk into the room stark naked and everyone would still be looking at Jeff's kilts". Great dinner. We need a little detox today to recover.
We took a lesson on using the sextant today and Nancy and I both got a position from a single sun sight that was somewhere in the area that we could see from the boat so that was at least comforting to know. Tonight was also our dancing "debut". We had been taking dance lessons and had a great time doing some fun swing, foxtrot and rumba dancing in the Panarama lounge. Our tango needs some work and we need to learn to recover better when the boat lurches but it made for some good exercise and a lot of fun.
Tonight we get an extra hour of sleep. There is an advantage to going west. The days keep getting longer as you roll the clock back. Well it is off to Costa Rica in the morning and a tour of the rain forest.Read more
Roland Zimmerman Very sharp looking couples!?
1/2/15Reply
1 like