Canada and New England Re-visited

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So last week was our second week in our Canada/New England run. We spent Monday in Halifax - fighting fires. Day 2 we ported in Bar Harbour, where a bunch of us got off and went for lunch. Lisa’s boyfriend Josh (firefighter on the ship) wanted lobster, and we all laughed when our waitress insisted on schooling Josh in proper-lobster eating. I ordered lobster tail. So fresh and delicious!

Day 3 we ported in St. John, New Brunswick and our only purpose was to get Humberto a birthday present. After running into Humberto that morning at boat drill, he decided that he would come shopping with us. So, we lied and said the hoodie Canada sweater was for my Dad for his birthday (which is in fact approaching! Happy Birthday Dad!) and even had Humberto try it on, saying he was my Dad’s size. We then all went for what seems to now be a ritual of Subway for lunch in St. John.

Day 4 was Boston but we had basic safety training ALL day and didn’t have a chance to get off. We did have fun that night though, as it was the White Hot Party for guests (we had just been given new skirts to wear to it) and it was also Humberto’s birthday! Humberto thought we had forgotten his birthday and then when he asked if we wanted to hang out for his birthday, we told him we had the White Hot Party until at least midnight but could maybe join him in crew bar for a drink later. Well, in actuality, we had painting a big sign, decorated Nicole and Steph’s 4 person cabin (which they had been moved into, and Aunt Donna moved in a few days later for the week) for a surprise birthday party! When Jimy brought Humberto up, he was shocked! He was SOOOO happy. When he opened the sweater, he shouted, “But this is Sarah’s Daddy’s!” We had a few drinks in the room, danced and had fun in the crew bar, then continued the parties in 2 different people’s crew cabins. We ended up partying until 6am! Humberto was SO touched. He kept thanking us, and was almost in tears on many occasions. The next day he found me and told me how happy he was and that no one ever cared so much for him on his birthday. He said he would never forget what we’d done for him. Such a sweetheart. He’s truly become like a brother to me on the ship.

Then we were heading back to Philly. I only got off to call Walt, as we again had been in training. We wrote our test yesterday (Sunday) and I scored 100! Now we’re finished until Nov. 4th, when we have to flip over a liferaft in the waters of Bahamas or Caribbean - anywhere warmer than here!

This week has been off to a rough start. We hit a storm late Saturday night and then tried to get away from it, but it followed. We’ve been in rough seas every since. We’re going about half speed and it’s ROCKY! Being down in a crew cabin on deck 2 forward is SCARY during a storm. All night Katelyn and I were woken up to HUGE rumbles and us feeling airborne. It was supposed to get better yesterday, but that’s when we found out the storm was following us. All of us spent ALL day up in Kid’s Korner, whether we were working or not, as you feel the waves much less up on deck 9 aft (top, and back of the ship). Last night’s sleep was not much better and today is still rough. Because we’re going so slowly, our scheduled arrival time in St. John (itinerary changed this week slightly in order) was AFTER our scheduled departure time, so we’ve had to scratch St. John and are heading straight to Halifax. We should get there tomorrow morning. It’ll be SO nice to be on some stable ground. I haven’t been sick but it would be nice to not have to hold on for dear life while showering or walking up and down stairs. Humberto and Jimy kept bringing us up apples and gingerale to make our tummies settle. Sweet boys.

Stay tuned for our 3rd run to Canada/New England!

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