Sunday, October 16, 2016

Saturday, October 15 - Another Day at Sea


Blaise Says . . .

As you know we write our respective blog entries in arrears so I’m writing our final sea day in Australia while we’re physically docked in Darwin. 

One confirmation and one observation during our trips to Darwin, first we were down in Guest Relations, on Deck 3, doing some inane something or another and we finished up; we headed over to the elevator, more on AJ’s cruise ship “rules” in a moment but it suffices to say that we’ve put a moratorium on them since the accident, and noted that there are five, not one, two or three or four, no five people standing in front of the elevator.  I look at the status of the elevator, you know is everyone going my way and its been pushed or not, no lights at all!!!!  Five people all standing there and nobody pushed any button, I pushed the up button and a lady says “Oh that’s why the elevator hasn’t come”, I just can’t believe it, where have these people been, is an elevator a recent development, I thought I remember Mr. Otis created it back in the 1880’s, don’t quote me on the year, I have no internet to fact check that information!!  It does make me wonder how they get through life when they’re not on a ship, and are they just this way onboard because they know that they can be?  I hope we never get there…

As for the other point that I missed during our whirlwind adventure, I was told while renting the car at Hertz that you can’t drive at night, I said huh?  She said that there are too many large animals in Australia that make it extremely dangerous to drive at night and that if you have a night accident you have no insurance so don’t do it.  After driving from Arlie Beach to Cairns I knew what she meant, we passed two or three kangaroos on the side of the road that would surely have made a mess of a car’s front end so I totally understood after the fact but just in case you’re ever on holiday down under you may want to factor that into your plans.  On to the sea day…

I awoke at 5:15am, after changing the time once again by 30 minutes, I had never heard of moving your clock by 30 minutes but we’ve done it twice now so I consider it commonplace now; not really but I’ll go with it.  I had discovered yet another first on this cruise, I was sick.  Nothing significant I thought, scratchy throat, and a runny nose.  I immediately thought I am going to sequester myself in this room until I feel better, I am not going to get us thrown off this boat a second time!!  Fortunately by the end of the day I was feeling quite a bit better, still have a dry cough but nothing beyond that with the help of some Mucinex, who comes up with these horrible medication names anyway, a panel of underemployed Mensa folk?  I can’t think of a single one I think is even remotely cool, and the one I take for my blood pressure was so ridiculous that I wrote it down and stuffed yet another piece of paper into my George Kastanza wallet, just because that question comes up that often. 

The book continues but I didn’t get a lot of reading in due to the illness, I feel bad saying that after what poor AJ has gone through so I’ve kept my whining to a minimum; she’s been a trooper through her trials and she’s looking much better, the Virginia Slim’s black eyes are almost gone, after having gone through a couple of yellow eye days, and most of the dried blood has all been washed away.  She’s still very self conscious but I do my best to own it with her and stare down anyone I see that spends more than the requisite amount of time looking.  Tomorrow she gets her stiches out and she’ll feel much better I’m sure, she’s apprehensive that it will hurt, and of course I’ve played that up, she’ll find out that there’s nothing to it soon enough.  J

More on Darwin tomorrow, looking forward to spending some time on shore after two and a half days on the high seas.



Ami Says . . .

Today was a sea day.  Not a great deal to say about today.  I started a new book.  It is a fast read – a new one from Brett Battles.

I watched the talk by the guy about sailing through the Great Barrier Reef.  He had lots of pictures of ships/boats run aground on sand bars, reef, and islands.  The Great Barrier Reef is peppered with islands – over 900 actually.  One boat had run aground because the pilot or captain, I can’t remember which, was on his cell phone. Oops!

I also learned the captain of the ship is always the captain and always the one in charge.  The pilot is the one who comes aboard to help navigate specific waters – like the Great Barrier Reef or getting in or out of a specific port or waterway.

Still no sign of our dinner neighbors, the Curmudgeons or the other couple.  It’s nice but I wonder if the waiter is concerned it is something he has done.

Blaise has not been feeling well – a cough and runny nose. Nothing serious but I did find some Musinex that seemed to help.
Tomorrow is Darwin.  Although I know it will be a bit warm, I am ready to see a new place.

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