Cruise Round-Up

The week's cruise we just completed was a little different, in that it was based mostly along the Californian coast.  Of course, as foreign ships are not allowed to ply among US ports we had to tack on a trip to Ensenada, thereby permitting Princess to avoid all the US labor laws and the huge price of doing business here as a US company.  I think it's the Jones Act of 1920, but I might be wrong on that.

This is our third trip aboard the Sapphire Princess and it is a very beautiful boat.  It is 116,000 tons and caters to 1900 passengers.  Cruising has sometimes cruelly been called an activity for the "newly wed, or the nearly dead!"  And there were not too many of the former category on board.  In fact this was the oldest cruise we've ever taken in terms of the age of the other passengers.  I would say that at least 80% were over 80 and many of these weren't carrying it too well.  As such the company had modified their programs to deal with the habits of the passengers.  Very few late night shows in the theater as most of the audience had retired.  At least they weren't overweight!
Santa Barbara, San Francisco, San Diego all gave me material for future columns and I've already got two of them written.
The food was terrific and the service excellent.  The weather was superb and we missed a storm that swept through and blew our fence down. Now repaired.

This is Francisco our cocktail waiter.  He worked very hard serving the obligatory drinks before dinner.  If you look carefully, you can see his wallet is on fire.  He used to do small conjuring tricks to keep every one amused.  Mostly I'm not fond of such stuff, but he was pretty good.

One evening show they put on was done by the crew and they were all very talented - naturally Francisco was on the bill.

We had a wonderful day in Santa Barbara, a day at sea next and then arrived in San Francisco, where we made a return trip to Alcatraz where we had been 25 years ago.  Not much has changed I can assure you.  It's a very popular site even though it has been nearly fifty years since they had any prisoners there.  The last one, Frank Weatherby, left in 1963 from the prison which had held the worst of the worst since 1934.  This was where Al Capone was held for evading taxes, which goes to show you don't mess with the IRS!

Looking out across the bay with San Francisco being only

1.25 miles away, one can only imagine the sense of isolation felt

by the 1576 prisoners who were incarcerated there in its history.

The movie, Escape From Alcatraz, starring Clint Eastwood gives perhaps the best understanding of life on The Rock.  Playing the role of Frank Morris he and two others dug their way out of their cells using spoons.  It took a year and they managed to get into the passage behind where the pipes ran up to the roof.

The cell number 152 shows the dummy's head that Morris used to fool the night guard while they ran across the roof, down the wall and onto the beach.  They used inflated macintosh's to help them float across the bay.  They were never heard of again and there is still controversy as to whether they made it.  Personally I doubt it as I'm sure someone would have sung like the proverbial canary after so long.  I think it's human nature.  Part two of the report to follow soon.