Sea day/Ocho Rios

Feb 26th-27th
Sea day/Ocho Rios

The 26th was spent at sea, nothing too exciting. The only interesting thing is that our guest artist that night what Cheryl Sinclair. I actually know Cheryl from my first ship, the Navigator, from when she was a singer in the production cast. She’s since quit production shows and moved on to doing her own guest artist act. It was good to play her show and see a friend from an old ship!
I visited Ocho Rios on the 27th, a Jamaican port that I’ve visited in the past. There was never a lot to do in the actual port, and the thing I remember most about my past visits was a local beach that no one knew about, so that’s where I went. Maybe you remember it from a post 2 years ago, but this beach is just a locally run area, they have a shack they sell drinks out of, and there are waterfalls you can climb up and have fun in. The weather was cloudy, which made it not the best beach day, but it’s always cool going back to a place you weren’t sure you’d see again.
The beach had slightly changed though. Apparently, some locals that “ran” it had been putting some time and effort into cleaning it and trying to make it slightly more profitable for themselves (via a tip jar). It was nice that it became slightly more legit simply cause it felt less nervous about people going through my backpack, but when I know that my tips will go to little more than helping the locals fuel an overwhelming marijuana habit, I get mixed feelings. Bu so what, “one love, mon”.
I spent some time there with John and Jukka before heading back to the ship to visit a café Jukka frequents for their Blue mountain coffee. This time around, the coffee wasn’t quite as good as he remembered, but John did order some jerk chicken, so I at least got to try and enjoy some of that. A little more time was wasted going into some shops and looking around, but we eventually headed back to the ship.
The show that night was Colin “fingers” Henry, a pianist comedian, who blew my mind. “Fingers” would do this trick where he’d play the piano while doing a headstand, and this guy’s 63 years old! I saw him do it at rehearsal and was amazed, and tried it myself when everyone had left. I failed miserably. I was able to get into the appropriate inverted position, but the mount of weight on my head was just so overwhelming that I couldn’t even focus enough to get my fingers positioned on the piano the right way. Maybe it’ll be a goal to work towards during this contract, but till then, I have massive respect for this guy. Check it out on YouTube, it should be posted. Otherwise, I did get a video of it that I’d be happy to show anyone when I get home.
And that’s about it, so thanks for reading, and remember: You can’t choose your face, but you can pick your nose. (thanks Fingers)