It seems my travel this year has been heavy on places starting with “C.” Soon I’ll add Caribbean Cruise on one of the Windstar sailing vessels.
The “C” places have included Costa Rica, Cuba, Charleston, Coatesville, Chicago, and Chasing Abraham Lincoln (a road tour of Lincoln sites in Illinois). The upcoming Caribbean cruise will take me to Curacao (and all the ABC islands) with touches in Colombia and Colon (Panama). Yes, more “C”s.
This will be my fourth Windstar cruise, and by coincidence my fourth ship of their six-ship fleet. My first trip with them was on their flagship Wind Surf, a five-mast sailing vessel carrying just over 300 passengers. The smaller – more intimate and more luxurious – experience was far more appealing than the big hotel ships stuffed with 2000-4000 passengers. Wind Surf took us to several islands between St. Maarten and St. Lucia. The upcoming cruise is on the company’s namesake ship, Wind Star, a four-mast sailing ship about half the size (148 passengers). Both ships (and the Wind Star‘s sister ship, the Wind Spirit) have a signature “sail away” song they broadcast on the outside speakers as they hoist the full sails to everyone’s delight, both on deck and on shore.
In between the two sailing cruises we traveled on two of their three yachts without sails, Star Breeze and Star Legend. These took us to the Baltic Sea and the Philippines, the latter including dinner with the captain. All three of their sail-less yachts are in the process of being enlarged, upping their capacity from 212 to 312 guests. We thoroughly enjoyed the larger cabins and yacht club and look forward to trying out the new Star Pride in the future. Eventually the plan is to cruise on all six of Windstar’s ships.
As my science traveling adventures continue I realize there are so many more places yet to see (and surprisingly, not all begin with the letter “C”). My travel list seems to get longer rather than shorter, but I’m working on it. I might even write a book about my travels some day.
David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.
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