One of the problems of being on a ship with so few passengers (I'm on Windstar Cruises' ship Wind Surf in the Caribbean with another 68 people instead of the full complement of 315) is that most of the shore excursions have been cancelled because they haven't reached the minimum numbers.
It has been very disappointing, so full marks to Leia, the shore excursions manager, for finding out that we would be in Grenada alongside Princess Cruises' Emerald Princess on Friday - and for getting in touch with the ship to see if they happened to do the river tubing trip I wanted to do.
They did - and so full marks to Princess also, for allowing me to infiltrate the group.
It was great fun - you sit in a big tube and float down river, through rapids, bouncing off boulders, going backwards, forwards, spinning; really just as the water and tube takes you because you don't have any control.
I felt rather like a human pinball. But a lot wetter. Especially after the guys from the company running the trip - Adventure River Tubing - got us all corralled at one of the ropes strung across the river where they collect everyone every so often, surrounded us and let loose a barrage of splashing.
Until then I had just been wet; after that I was drowned!
These guys - there were lots of them - did a fantastic job making sure we were all absolutely safe, and rescuing us when we got beached, which happened to several of us a few times. As I said, you have no control on these tubes.
Jude, the guy on the right here, said ours was the second group of the day; sometimes they have four.
All too soon it was over and we were back on dry land for a rum punch (it is the Caribbean after all). "Was it good?" the guy with the bottle asked. I said I had only one complaint. It was over too soon.
By the look on his face I got the impression that was not very original.
Jane Archer
