January 10th – Meeting His Excellency in Road Town, Tortola

Our first stop on the World Cruise is in the British Virgin Islands, on the beautiful island of Tortola. Unfortunately, no-one had told the BVIs that we wanted our first call to be an exclusive one, so Road Town's cruise terminal was taken up with two monster cruise ships, disgorging about 5,000 passengers at once, while we had to tender into port.

So, it was a good thing that we were heading out of town on our "Eco Safari and Kayak Tour", as we went to a protected piece of coastline to visit a mangrove swamp and coral reef. Here, we wobbled into our double kayaks and paddled off into the mangroves. Unfortunately, my kayak partner and I constantly veered off to the left - and so, every 30 seconds, we'd have to stop and change course, to catch up with our kayaking comrades who were heading off in a different direction. I think we must have kayaked at least twice as far as anyone else.

We stopped to listen to our guide explain how these endangered mangroves are so vital to the health of the marine environment; although it wasn't easy to concentrate on what we were being told, because my partner and I kept on inadvertently crashing into either the delicate mangroves (trying not to poke our eyes out on the branches), or crashing into our fellow kayakers, who didn't seem to have any problem staying still.

Next, we went to a deserted beach to have a snorkel on the reef – there were all kinds of different coral on show, visited by lots of colourful fish (no particularly big ones, but many different shapes and sizes). Maybe the big ones were eaten by the pelicans who were circling overhead and kept on divebombing into the water in a spectacular show for us. On the way back, we found that we'd miraculously cured our leftward tendencies, but we were now more rightward leaning than a Fox News broadcaster, and narrowly missed a couple of stationary yachts as we veered back to port.

Once we'd be delivered back to Road Town, it was time to explore Tortola's bustling little capital. Fortunately, most of the big ship passengers had all trooped back to their vessels for lunch, so the town wasn't as overwhelmed as you might think. We headed to the island's museum, housed in the old Governor's Residence on the edge of town – here the lovely attendant told us a bit more about her island, and we explored the old colonial house.

As we left the museum, Tracy spotted a gentleman in a shirt and tie coming out of the new Governor's Residence – we reasoned that he was either the caretaker or the Queen's representative on the island, so we asked him if he was the governor. It turned out that indeed he was, so we had a little chat with him about the island. It was interesting to talk to him about the impact of cruise ships on the island – he said he wasn't sure how much financial benefit that they brought to the BVIs, seeing as almost everyone goes back on the ship to eat for lunch. Certainly, the atmosphere in Road Town changes when there's so many people getting off the ship; although he did acknowledge that the taxi drivers were very keen for the cruise trade to continue.

After our meeting with His Excellency, we went back into town to explore its little back streets – even the main street (helpfully called Main Street) was pretty quiet by now, as all the Princess and P&O passengers were back onboard for their sundowners.

I wonder if we'll meet the Prime Minister of Dominica tomorrow?

World Cruise - Day 1

After the usual delays and fun and games with US immigration at Miami Airport, we are on the Silver Whisper and ready for our World Cruise Odyssey - just 129 days until we arrive back in Southampton in May. As we look around the port and see 6 monster ships with their thousands of passengers on, we feel very privileged to be doing this trip on such a beautiful small ship (max 380 passengers).

After just 16 days off the ship and in the UK for Christmas, I have already been told by two crew members that I've put on weight. Not many people go cruising to lose weight, but hopefully I can shape up a bit in the coming months.

Our short time in Fort Lauderdale has given us the chance to have an all too short catch up with our lovely friends Marty and Anita - there was a craft fair on Las Olas Blvd which we mooched round, followed by a delicious and huge lunch (the new diet hasn't started well).

So, 2 (hopefully calm) days at sea until we get to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.

http://www.silversea.com/destinations/plan-voyage/?voyage=4201-09&voyagetype=CRUISE&year=2012

December 19th – Final Day!

So, after 60 days at sea, 37 lectures on 32 different ports, today it was time for my final lecture.

We fly home tomorrow for just 16 days, before we fly back to Fort Lauderdale for the World Cruise beginning the 7th January on the Silver Whisper.

Have a great Christmas, and I'll see you all in January.

December 18th – Puerto Montt

As we sailed into Puerto Montt's vast natural harbour, overlooked by snow-capped mountains, it was obvious that this again was a place where natural sights were a higher priority than urban sights. It is quite a large town (160,000 people live here), but it was almost totally flattened in a huge earthquake in 1960, so there's very little history that's survived here.

So, I went on a tour to the Ayaltue Park – a private park that's only been open a couple of years, that endeavours to show off the various environments in the area, and to introduce you to the local culture of the native peoples, and the settlers who took over their lands. It's all on a small scale, but a lot of thought has gone into it, and it's done with imagination and an endearing enthusiasm.

The woodland was very unspoilt and again the air felt so incredibly pure – so it was a nice way to end off a lovely cruise around Chile. One of the best bits was the food – some fantastic smoked salmon (Puerto Montt claims to be the Number 1 salmon-producing town in the world), washed down with some lovely wine too.

After the tour, Tracy and I went to the Angelmo Craft Market, which was brimming with arts and crafts (loads of woollen stuff and carved souvenirs), but we're now running out of space in our suitcases, so we didn't go overboard; while the fish market was full of smoked salmon which would have been great to bring back for Christmas if only we were allowed to bring it onboard.

A very nice final port to end the cruise.

December 17th – Puerto Chacabuco

Someone described Puerto Chacabuco, in beautiful Chilean Patagonia, as a one horse town that even the horse had left – which is a little unkind, but there certainly wasn't much going on here on a sleepy Saturday afternoon.

So, it was a good thing that we were doing a tour to the beautiful Aiken del Sur Park, because it's for the natural sights rather than the local culture that everyone comes here. In a misty green environment, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and picturesque fjords, the air here is incredibly clean and fresh.

Our tour consisted of a gentle hike through the verdant countryside, past a twinkling river to a bubbling waterfall – accompanied by the background music of bird song and kingfisher calls. On a rare sunny day like today it felt like paradise, but with over 200 days of rain a year, we were pretty lucky to be enjoying the best of the region's weather.

At the end of our hike, we were treated to a folkloric show of traditional singing and dancing – with much waving of hankies and gentle movements, it was like a Hispanic version of morris dancing, although the entertainment factor increased proportionately to the number of super-strong pisco sours consumed by the audience, some of whom felt emboldened enough to join in (I stationed myself right at the back, and had the excuse of the shrapnel in my knee from the first Iraq War playing up, just in case I was asked to dance).

Dec 16th – On The Ice at Laguna San Rafael

After two days of sailing in amongst the beautiful Chilean fjords (looking not too dissimilar to the Norwegian fjords), we arrived at Laguna San Rafael for our chance to sail up to the San Valentin Glacier, to get up close and personal with this vast river of ice.

We transferred onto a Catamaran that would take us down the narrow channel to the Laguna; and as we sailed towards the ice field, we were treated to champagne and caviar on the boat – a surreal experience to be sailing through such a barren environment in such luxurious circumstances. As we got closer, we began passing small lumps of ice floating in the water, the excitement mounting as the icebergs gradually increased in size. The most remarkable thing about the ice is that it's so ridiculously blue – everything tells us that ice should be white, not blue; but here, the ice absorbs most of the light and only leaves the blue.

The cobalt blue icebergs were spectacular enough, but nothing can prepare you for the sight of the vast wall of ice of the glacier when you come face-to-face with it. The glacier is over a mile wide as it meets the sea, the ice in various shades of blue, with vast chunks of it periodically breaking away and crashing into the water – a process called "calving".

The previous excursion had apparently seen very little calving, but as soon as we arrived, as if to order, the glacier began to calve all over the place. It's an amazing experience to witness – there's a distant crack, then a deep rumble like thunder, and then big chunks spontaneously break away and thud into the soupy water – it's difficult to explain why it's so exciting, but there was a real adrenalin rush that went around the boat.

The sad thing is that this is a sight that might not be available to watch for much longer – due to global warming, the glacier is retreating by over 100 metres every year. And so, in a few years time, the ice may not come down to the sea any more. Maybe it was this fact, and the feeling that we were so incredibly privileged to be witnessing it, that made this one of the real highlights of the cruise. Fantastic!

December 13th – Windswept in Punta Arenas

In summer, Punta Arenas is just about liveable – if you ignored the cold winds constantly blowing up from the Antarctic, this low-rise town overlooking the Magellan Straits is quite attractive, while daylight keeps going till about 11 at night. In winter, it must be pretty bleak down here at the end of the world, in the planet's most Southern city – they have a couple of days of sunlight, everything's covered in snow, and those winds just get stronger and colder. From walking around the town's shops, the clothes on offer tell you all you need to know about the weather here – fleeces and woolly hats are everywhere, scarcely a t-shirt or flip flop is on offer.

At the turn of the century, incredibly, this was one of the world's boom towns, as this was one of the major stopping off points on the world trading routes (the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 put a stop to that), and the region's enormous sheep farms brought in huge amounts of cash for their wool (which was so valuable back then, that it was known as "white gold").

As a result, Punta Arenas has a surprising array of grand mansions and commercial institutions, built in opulent belle epoch style that don't quite fit into the town's overall frontier atmosphere. We visited the grandest of the lot, the Palacio Sara Braun, which wouldn't have looked out of place in Paris. We also visited the town's atmospheric cemetery (a kind of mini-version of La Recoleta in Buenos Aires), where the size of the mausoleums and tombs with a view on offer, again showed how rich the town was at the turn of the century. It was also striking to see how many graves were of people who came here from Britain and Croatia – the town feels very Hispanic nowadays, but it must have been a very cosmopolitan place 100 years ago.