My fifth cruise, my third transatlantic repositioning cruise from the Caribbean to the mediterranean on Voyager, my first journey on her.

Once again we were starting from Barbados, a long haul flight from Birmingham Uk and finishing with a relatively short hop  from Palma Majorca to home.

Bridgetown Barbados is  a curious  mix of the ramshackle old town with an obvious drive to reinvent the waterfront as a trendy modern area, basking in the late  April summer sun. The only shame is that an afternoon was not nearly enough time to do it justice

Next up was the beautiful island of St Lucia,, my third visit and this time we partook of some whale and dolphin watching which was excellent

the following day was the island of Dominica, not to be confused with the much larger Dominican republic, small, underdeveloped poor and a set for the film “Pirates of the Caribbean”- there was no sign of Johhny Depp.

our final Caribbean stop was a favourite, Antigua at which we island hopped from beach to beautiful beach on a small boat

Seven full sea days then took us to the big surprise of the holiday for m, the glorious island of Maderira, great cake, great wined, great seafoof. Reids Hotel where Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher have stayed ( not at the same time) was superb

I had been to Cadiz before, it remains a wonderful city

Concluding in palma- it was a memorable cruise with madeira the highlight