
MS Enchantment of the Seas beneath sunnier skies
As Hurricane Irma proceeds toward South Florida with apocalyptic fury, it is getting harder and harder to find a place of safety or a way to escape. Gasoline and supplies are in short supply. The few north-south roads out of the state are clogged with traffic. Shelters are filling rapidly. Royal Caribbean International took a different approach to evacuating its 1,500 employees in Port Miami. Yesterday, it put them aboard the 2,252-passenger Enchantment of the Seas and sailed out of the Port of Miami, away from the path of Hurricane Irma.
The Miami Herald reports: Royal Caribbean canceled Enchantment’s regular sailing scheduled for Friday earlier in the week, said spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez, and decided to offer the ship to employees and their families — free of charge. “Felt that was the right thing to do,” Martinez said in an email.
Guests from the Enchantment’s previous sailings who wished to stay aboard because they could not leave Florida were allowed to do so, she said. No one will be charged for staterooms, food, entertainment or gratuities. Continue reading


Two Scottish brothers, eight-year-old, Ollie and five-year-old, Harry Ferguson, are too young to go to sea themselves, so instead, they sent their toy pirate sailing ship on a voyage from the fine old port of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire earlier this year. The toy was a plastic Playmobil ship, named suitably Adventure. With the help of their father, the boys modified Adventure to make more a seaworthy craft. They added ballast and polystyrene foam to help it stay afloat. They also included a note asking anyone who finds the boat to send them a picture and launch Adventure back into the sea.
The
I recently learned that
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