Cruise Log 2016-2020
See here for details of my first 50 cruises from 2005-2016.
Below are the cruises on which I was priviledged to serve as a speaker from my 51st cruise in November 2016 until the outbreak of Covid brought cruising to a temporary halt.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016: Two back-to-back cruises on Seven Seas Navigator as a Smithsonian Journeys speaker for Regent, the first from Cape Verde to Cape Town, via West Africa including first visits to The Gambia and Cote D'Ivoire and a return visit to Sao Tome, followed by a Cape Town to Cape Town South African cruise including Richard's Bay, Durban, East London and Walvis Bay. *
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017: Two more back-to-back cruises as a Smithsonian Speaker for Regent Seven Seas Cruises on Seven Seas Voyager, including our first visits to New Zealand with 9 ports of call including Milford Sound, plus Burnie in Tasmania, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns and Darwin in Australia, Komodo Island and Bali in Indonesia and ending in Singapore.
MAY/JUNE 2017: Back on Seven Seas Navigator for Regent on a round-trip from Miami visiting four of the key ports in the Amazon, including Manaus, as well as seven Caribbean Islands and Ile de Salut ('Devil's Island') off French Guiana, including first visits for Michael to St Barts and Puerto Rico. *
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2017: On Seven Seas Navigator again, from Montreal via Quebec, Saguenay, Corner Brook and St John's (Newfoundland) in Canada and St Pierre & Miquelon to Greenland (Nuuk, Paamiut, Qaqortoq and Prins Christian Sund) and Reykjavik in Iceland, then on to Isafjordur and Akureyri (Iceland) and Torshavn (Faroe Islands) before ending in Ålesund, Norway.
[SEPTEMBER 2017: Michael was 'host', with Sue, for an 'overland' Smithsonian Journey trip to Machu Picchu and the Galapagos, including visits also to Lima, Cusco and Quito in Peru and Ecuador.]
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017: Miami to Los Angeles, via Grand Cayman, Cartagena in Columbia, the Panama Canal, Golfito and Puntarenas in Costa Rica, Corinto in Nicaragua, Puerto Quetzal in Guatemala and Acapulco and Cabo San Lucas in Mexico on Seven Seas Navigator. * (cruise 60)
MARCH/APRIL 2018: We joined Seven Seas Navigator for 51 nights of her World Cruise, on legs from Singapore to Rio, visiting Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi in Malaysia; Phuket, Thailand; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Malé in the Maldives; Mahé in the Seychelles, Port Louis, Mauritius; Pointe de Galets, Réunion; then Richards Bay, Durban, East London and Cape Town in South Africa; Luderitz and Walvis Bay in Namibia; then 9 days at sea (sadly without the scheduled visit to Tristan da Cunha) to Montevideo and Punta del Este in Uruguay; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santos in Brazil and ending in Rio de Janeiro.
JUNE 2018: New York to Reykjavik on Seven Seas Navigator, via Martha's Vineyard, Boston and Bar Harbour, then Halifax and Corner Brook in Canada, Nuuk and Paamiut in Greenland, a transit of Prins Christian Sund, and Isafjordur in Iceland.
JULY 2018: A return to Viking Ocean Cruises for a cruise visiting Bergen, Geiranger, Molde, Tromso, Honningsvag, and Leknes in Norway, Shetland and Orkney and ending in Rosyth for Edinburgh.
AUGUST 2018: North again to Arctic Russia, including Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, with a first visit to Lysekil in Sweden and a variety of Norwegian ports on Seven Seas Navigator. *
OCTOBER 2018: Miami to Honolulu on Seven Seas Mariner, with stops in several Central American ports and first visits for us to Havana in Cuba and to Hawaii, with time on Maui and Oahu.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018: We rejoined Seven Seas Mariner for a return visit to New Zealand, cruising from Auckland to Sydney, including our first visits to Wellington and Lyttleton Harbour (for Christchurch) and Gelong and Eden in Australia.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019: A first visit to Arctic Norway in winter, (very) successfully In Search of the Northern Lights for Viking Ocean Cruises on Viking Sky, with ports including Narvik, Alta and Tromsø.
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019: Three back-to-back cruises on Seven Seas Explorer took Michael from Guayaquil in Ecuador to Lisbon, via changeovers in Los Angeles and Miami. As well as mutliple visits to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mexico, and a 4th transit of the Panama Canal, the trip included welcome returns to Georgetown on Grand Cayman and Faial and Sao Miguel in the Azores, and a first visit to Bermuda. *
MAY 2019: North Pacific Passage on Viking Orion took us to Japan for the first time, then on to Korsakov and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Far East of Russia and across the International Date Line to Alaska. New ports for us here included Dutch Harbor, Kodiak, Seward, Valdez, Icy Strait Point, other 'Inside Passage' ports and Vancouver. This was followed by Alaska & The Inside Passage which added a first visit to Skagway as we got to know Alaska much better.
JULY 2019: We returned to the fjords and far north of Norway and Murmansk on Seven Seas Navigator. Hurricane force winds stopped us entering the White Sea, but the bonus was unscheduled visits to Tromsø, Narvik (in summer) and a first time ashore in Bodø.
SEPTEMBER 2019: We enjoyed three short cruises to the Inside Passage of Alaska and its wonderful wildlife on board Seven Seas Mariner, visiting Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Sitka, the Hubbard Glacier and Seward, as well as Vancouver. The last cruise travelled on to Los Angeles, via Victoria on Vancouver Island, Astoria in Oregon and San Francisco.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019: The South of South America on Viking Sun, starting from Buenos Aires and visiting Montevideo, Stanley in the Falkland Islands, Ushuaia in Argentina, my 3rd transit of Cape Horn, then Punta Arenas, Puerto Chacabuco and Valparaiso in Chile *.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020: Circle Australia cruise on Seven Seas Navigator, an amazing 36-night cruise covering 8,771nm, Sydney-Sydney, stopping at Brisbane, Airlie Beach, Cairns, Alotau and Port Moresby (our first visit to Papua New Guinea), Darwin, Komodo, Benoa on Bali, Exmouth, Geraldton, Fremantle, Adelaide, Kangaroo Island, Portland, Melbourne, Phillip Island, Burnie in Tasmania, and Eden.
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2020: We then stayed on Seven Seas Navigator for New Zealand Splendors, stopping again at Melbourne and Burnie. Return visits then followed to Milford Sound, Dunedin, Akaroa, Wellington, Napier, Tauranga and Bay of Islands in New Zealand, and we flew safely home from Auckland on March 13th, just as the coronavirus was starting to lockdown the world. (Cruise 80 - an appropriate time for a break!).
* = with Michael on sole speaking duty; on all others Sue joined me on wildlife-watching duties on deck.
COVID INTERVENES: In 2020-21, I estimate that we missed over 120 days booked at sea as a result of the Covid shutdown.