Next day was spent at sea, even though our next port was only a few hours away. We cruised all night, all the next day & the following night, apparently cruise passengers like this as its the time to relax - I just wanted to land somewhere.

Around 3000 passengers were on board & sunbeds had to be packed like sardines although some poolside areas looked more like seal colonies. I've never seen so many overweight, tatooed folk in one place. Our cabin is excellent & the balcony is a  neccessity after seeing some inside ones.

This is a great time of year to be visiting the Caribbean - at least that's what most of the PR blurbs say. Instead of my usual - making my own way - I'm going the tourist way and taking a cruise. I've wanted to explore Caribbean islands for ages but its not the simplist of options when you hate sailing as much as I do.

Island hopping by plane becomes expensive and I'm guessing it would be a hassle at airports. So I'm doing what I never imagined I would - joining a massive P&O cruise ship (the Ventura) in Barbados and cruising to:

St Vincent - Dominica  - St Lucia - Antigua - St Kitts - Gran Turk – Tortola - Barbados.

I have just one day on each of the nine islands, which is obviously insufficient to glean anything really meaningful about the island but what I hope to do is find one special thing about each island. Although that one thing might just be - great beach bar nine times over.

I've already ruled out almost everything that's offered on the usual tourist excursion menus - driving around the island in a minibus, the church, the ruins of an old colonial fortification, shopping, a heritage whatever, and one rum distillery should be more than enough for anyone.

So it looks like my island exploration might involve - getting in a taxi and saying "take me to the best beach bar on the island".

If anyone has been to any of these islands & has any useful suggestion I would love to hear them?