our balcony suite. I think it's just magical how, no matter where one
stands, the moon road leads right to your feet.... lovely. The stars
are bright and glittering and the ocean rushes by at least six stories
below my feet. Our cabin is right in the bows of the boat where the
wake is first born before heading down the length of the ship, so we
have this constant roaring of water which is just lovely. Makes us use
the bathroom often too :)
Earlier we spotted what we thought were little birds..... I thought is
strange that they were this far out but Frank took a closer look and
discovered that they are flying fish....... they come in groups, always
off the bow and fly for a good while before diving straight into a wave,
sometimes just skimming through the very tip of a whitecap and on to the
next one - and then they are gone. Yes, I tried catching them with the
camera - but that did not work, not with the boat and the fish
moving.... but I did give it a good few, no - a good many, tries .
Right now its pitch dark outside, the moon's road is just beautiful and
way in the distance on the horizon, I can see a ship. Other than that -
nothing. Its glorious! There is a tv channel that tells us where we
are and we are about to head between Cuba and Haiti - I might just go to
the top deck to see what I can see.
This morning feels so long ago already...... after breakfast we went to
the auditorium to listen to a talk on the different tours one can take
in the ports we will be stopping at... and I am happy with what I picked
:) Then we walked through the casino, the shopping area and found some
more favorite places to sit and and enjoy the people watching and the
ocean. In the one restaurant there are big round glass holes in the
floor and we can see the ocean going by about 8 stories down..... This
part of the boat hangs out over the water and the views are just
wonderful from all angles.
One one of our walks around the lower deck, an elderly gentleman asked
whether we would like our photo taken together.... that was sweet of
him. And after wards we got chatting. He has been on many many cruises,
but was not enjoying this one much at all. His name was also Frank and
he had lost his wife just a few years ago..... And he told us this
story - after she closed her eyes, he says, and after the cremation, he
took her ashes out East and though some carbon process had her ashes
turned into a diamond... He now wears the diamond in a ring on his
finger and has the ring set so that it is impossible to get it off. She
was his dancing partner through 60 years of marriage and we could tell
that he was lost without her. Recently he had found a letter from her
in a drawer at home that said that he was to keep cruising - and so he
was. But we could tell that it was not the same. I hope we meet up
with him again sometime.
Every time we leave the room, someone goes in and straightens up after
us..... wow, I could get used to this! We have a little fridge stocked
with all sorts of drinks, but had them changed out for some beers - we
are too easy to please sometimes. Its lovely sitting on the balcony at
the end of a day, beer in hand and just relaxing.
The water was turquoise blue today - see? I can still spell after a few
glasses of wine! :) We have spent a good amount of time just watching
the water. The ship does not move much at all, well apart from forward,
of course! But there is just a gentle swaying and every now and again
we can feel that she dug into a wave a bit harder. I love the motion,
the gentle sway and every now and again, even the bow wave stops and
everything goes quiet - just amazing.... that quiet moment always makes
me smile. Waves are only around 3 foot now, but the spray still reaches
the balcony and my computer screen is dotted with seawater. It's
probably not the greatest idea to sit out here and type - but is just so
incredible. I can see no one, just the stars and the moon, can hear
nothing other than the ocean breaking against the bows and smell only
the ocean spray (ok and the wine in my glass). I feel absolutely alone
and its not a bad feeling at all......just measured the smile on my face
- its great! Every now and again I put the computer down and lean look
out over the balcony into the darkness....... oh boy, how fortunate I
am! The white caps dot the darkness for miles around - its a different
kind of silence - not quiet at all, but peaceful. Different.
The food on board is good, and everywhere, and all the time. Tonight
was "fancy dress" night - no, not costumes - but tuxedo's, dresses and
heels. Well, we don't own any of those, so we headed out to the back
deck to the casual eatery and filled up there and enjoyed a really good
margarita too. I really love the wake from the propellers that stretch
for miles behind the ship like roads into the past. We have no birds out
here and I missed seeing them wheeling around the back as the do closer
to shore - but that did not take away from the enjoyment at all. Most
people were inside, squished into their fancies while we sat barefoot on
the back deck feeling really spoiled and really really happy.
There is almost any type of food here and its all really good - trying
to stay under 100 words here, Esther :). The different breads are
wonderful, and my downfall too....... but we are walking a lot during
the day. Deck 10 has a walking path all marked out and is in the open
air which is just great and more often than not, we climb the stairs
from floor to floor. There is so much to see and we are just starting
to figure out the layout of the ship.... I am sure there are places we
have not yet discovered.
Anyway - time to stop for the day - tomorrow is another whole day at sea
and then .....what day is it now? The day after tomorrow we will be in
Cartegena Colombia - pronounced Cart - a - heina. But more about that
later.
ok - just got back from the top deck. I went for a walk and to listen
to some of the music playing. Oh it was glorious! Its almost deserted
up there.
love and light
Annie
And now its today - Monday the 20th, according to my computer..... and
its almost over already. We had another absolutely amazing day weather
wise, with slightly bigger swells. It is funny when walking down a
corridor and the person in front of us is slightly self conscious and
then the boat sways and theeere they go, gently sliding from one side to
the other. When we were waiting this evening for the dinner room to
open, it was weird seeing all the heads swishing slowly back and
forth... No one looked green, so all was fine. Apparently the last
cruise about 3 weeks ago, had some 12 foot waves that put a good few
people in their cabins, very unhappily heaving, for the day :(
Today we learned to be still. We spent the day savoring our back yard -
its huge and goes on for miles in all directions almost un-endingly. :)
After a late breakfast, a sit on the balcony, our walk around and
discovery of even more new places on the ship, we found ourselves
following the food smells again. Somehow almost 5 hours had passed by
already - so we gave in and had some delicious salads and stuff as we
ploughed happily through the Caribbean Sea. I like knowing where I am
and the tv really helps...... we could see that after leaving Fort
Lauderdale, we headed south through the Florida Straights, past Bermuda,
between Cuba and Haiti, then past Jamaica and right now we are closing
in on Colombia. We should dock at around 7am, but I think we might get
there earlier by the looks of it.
We have our tickets, passports and are ready to spend the day on solid
ground again. One of the guys at out table at dinner time knows
Cartegena well and says its lovely. My camera is rearing to go, all
charged and all.
Tonight we went to see the Cabaret show - it was really great fun. Greg
Bonham was the guy that entertained and he was good! He has a new song
out, "I am here to love" and it about moved me to tears.... so when I
get home, please remind me to download it! We really did have fun
singing along and yes, I got photos. One of the ladies he got to sing
and dance along with him, was from Tennessee too, and after the show I
told her to contact me to get the photos I took of her up there. It was
fun. There is a show on every night - and one even later - but to start
something at 11pm is a bit late - even for me.
We have met a few South Africans on board. Generally everyone is
friendly and people watching is something else. There are very few kids
on the ship and I think they are really well entertained and kept out of
the general population. When we do see them, they are very well
mannered mostly, so no problems there at all. One guy was telling us
that they had a screaming kid on a 4 hour flight - I think I would have
stuck gum in my ears if that was me!
Ok - so its very late, it was another lovely lovely day - the ship is
gently swaying and I need to get sleep for another lovely long day in
Cart-a-heina tomorrow.
Hey everyone - send happy, relaxing thoughts to Steven, Lisa and Laura
who are keeping our shop running while we are out here having fun! This
is amazing - and our back yard is beautiful!
love and light and much laughter too
Annie
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