- Former England cricket captain units sail from the sunshine island of Antigua
- Voyage takes in main Caribbean outcrops akin to St Lucia and Barbados
- Gower exhibits his talent in a recreation of seashore cricket on the little isle of Mayreau
There may be at all times that worry about cruising. Who else might be on board? Will leaping into the ocean be the one possibility when cornered by a double-glazing salesman struggling to satisfy his goal?
The answer is to select a ship stuffed with fans certain by a typical and acquainted theme.
Higher nonetheless, let the ship choose you.
At times: David with spouse Thorunn (left), and in his halcyon days captaining the England cricket group (proper)
That’s what occurred to my spouse, Thorunn, and me.
ITC Sports activities has been working cricket cruises within the Caribbean for some years, and we have now drifted out and in of most of them. This time, we had been on for the length – two weeks on Sea Dream 1, which sits on the boutique finish of cruising (or ‘yachting’, as they prefer to name it).
We had been some 80 friends in whole, together with Every day Mail columnist David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd – and Paul Allott, with whom I performed cricket by the Eighties.
In these days, our lodging on abroad excursions lacked one thing in comparison with the luxuries and companies of Sea Dream – the place we had been by no means removed from a rum punch.
A little bit slice of paradise: David sailed aboard the Sea Dream 1 – a small ship good for the Caribbean
My job as one of many hosts was easy.
I needed to be convivial with a blended bunch of cricket lovers from all walks of life.
Once I was pretending to captain England within the mid-Eighties, the Kensington Oval in Barbados was a unique beast. The bottom was rebuilt for the 2007 World Cup, and is now a superb stadium.
When the good Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenidge had been blasting my bowlers to the boundary, the principle stand regarded like an extended rooster shed.
On this journey, three days of T20 cricket had been extra of an interlude to the remainder of the voyage. The itinerary had us selecting up the ship in Antigua – from the place we headed to St Barths, Barbados, Canouan, Mayreau, the Tobago Cays (the setting for among the Pirates Of The Caribbean movies), Petit St Vincent, St Lucia and Martinique.
A spot you may discover tough to go away: The cruise set sail from the sunshine island of Antigua
Though Barbados has been a constructing website for the previous 30 years, it’s nonetheless a favorite of mine.
My recommendation it to move north in direction of Speightstown, the place the tempo is slower and the costs decrease.
This was a day without work from our duties on board, and we lingered till we realised we had been on account of host a desk again on Sea Dream for dinner – one thing that’s at all times an event.
Afterwards, these with unquenchable thirsts head to the highest deck and the open-air bar for additional refreshment. Or, if the climate was not so truthful, to the piano bar a deck under.
Both method, there’s at all times somebody with a cocktail shaker on the prepared.
Our most outrageous meal was on Mayreau — at Robert Righteous and De Youths Seafood Restaurant and Bar. What a day that was.
Mayreau shouldn’t be a lot bigger than the large cruise liners so widespread within the Caribbean.
A special aspect of the Caribbean: David is particularly keen on Speightstown, within the north-west of Barbados
We anchored off the seashore, and had been ferried ashore. The primary deal with was caviar and prosecco within the shallows simply off the seashore – with the crew, some nonetheless in uniform, and Franck, the ever-handy head sommelier, in his floral seashore shirt, allotting Beluga caviar and blinis off a surfboard.
No sooner had the large pot of Beluga been emptied than it was time for a barbecue lunch, with the ship’s cooks in full cry.
This was a meal that wanted working off, so within the afternoon it was time for seashore cricket.
I survived on the crease for an unusually very long time, because of half the bowling not reaching my finish, and since LBW was dominated out.
Now you should consider me once I say such a voyage isn’t simply in regards to the consuming and consuming. The itinerary was structured in order that lots of the crusing between islands was carried out in a single day.
Day job: David on commentary duties with fellow England cricket legend Ian Botham (left)
On a number of mornings, we had been already anchored within the subsequent beautiful little bay by the point the alarm roused me from my slumbers. There have been sun-loungers on the highest deck (and on the pool deck for these in want of Vitamin D) – and even indoor golf for many who haven’t, like me, sworn off the dreaded recreation. There have been additionally quiet areas, a library with greater than sufficient books for even essentially the most anti-social traveller – and charts to indicate you the place you’d been – and had been going subsequent.
Inevitably, our two weeks disappeared all too rapidly.
However in that point, we renewed our friendships with these loyal ITC clients with whom we had travelled earlier than – and we loved the corporate of latest faces.
I hope to be invited again. This kind of cricket tour is one which I can absorb my stride.
Caribbean dream: Plan your individual sunshine escape
ITC Sports activities (01244 355 527; www.itcsports.co.uk) provides a Caribbean package deal based mostly round England’s tour of the West Indies in April 2015.
Costs from £2,995 per individual for eight nights in Barbados, together with economic system flights, welcome drinks, farewell dinner, ITC Tour supervisor and match-day stadium transfers.
ITC Luxurious Journey additionally provides a collection of cruises. Extra particulars: www.itcluxurytravel.co.uk.
