ON CRUISE OF THE CARIBBEAN SEA
By Bob Van Leer

  (SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 1997) - This afternoon we boarded the Legend of the Seas, a cruise ship of the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, at San Juan. Betty and I are taking a ten-day cruise with my sister and husband Bud and June Pallardy of St. Louis.

  The cruise will take us to several Caribbean islands, through the Panama Canal and end in Acapulco, Mexico.

  We left Gold Beach Tuesday and planned to fly out of North Bend to Portland from where we fly to San Juan by way of Atlanta.

  The weather was foggy all the way up. At North Bend the airport was clear, but the fog bank was at the edge of the airport and it was still a couple of hours before our plane was due. We elected to play it safe and drive on to Eugene to leave.

  After that, the trip was uneventful except we were flying all night. Puerto Rico is four time zones ahead of home. The temperature was 83 degrees when we arrived and it was sunny.
We were processed and led aboard the ship and to our stateroom which is snug but adequate. 

  The ship is the largest cruise ship we've been on. It is 867 feet long with a beam of 105 feet, a draft of 24.5 feet and cruises at 24 knots. It appears to be a quite new ship.

 For this trip, Capt. Bengt Ronsen said it has a full load of 1803 passengers and a crew of 735. Combined, this is larger than the population of Gold Beach.

  Our first dinner was excellent and after dinner in the theater a Spanish guitarist entertained us with a program of Latin American music and dance.

  About 10:15 p.m. we got underway. We'd have liked to spend more time on Puerto Rico. This was our first visit. This island of 3.6 million people has the status of a commonwealth. It is part of the United States and the people are United States citizens, but the people have no representation in congress. On the other hand, they don't have to pay U.S. income taxes. There is a movement for statehood which appears to be getting stronger.

  Tomorrow we will arrive at St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, 74 nautical miles from San Juan (one nautical mile is equal to 1.15 statute miles).