Blogs from Pacific, Oceans and Seas - page 14

Sunday- Day Nine at Sea on route to Nagasaki We had been warned that we were traveling into a storm building into a typhoon and by midnight you could feel a distinct rocking or as the captain put it "Motion in the Ocean" We awoke to nasty grey skies, dirty looking seas and whitecaps, and for me a distinct queasy feeling. No tai chi was having enough trouble walking upright with the swaying never mind balancing. Our cabin attendant Hitesh was looking a lovely shade of yellow, he's Indian, and was feeling very sick and sorry for himself. This is his first trip on this boat, I'm not sure if he has worked on any others. Breakfast soon fixed me although the scrambled eggs took a little bit of encouragement to stay down. But ... read more

Monday- Day Three Sailing from The Korean Strait into The Sea of Japan Without a light source it is so easy to keep sleeping, so we woke around 8-45am. Quick shower and walk the length of the ship to get to the aft lift to get to Deck 13 and TaiChi. Our cabin is 6527, quite near the front and low, with big seas we would feel quite a bit of movement but up to today it has been like a mill pond. This is a busy piece of ocean, lots of fishing fleets, cargo boats, floating garbage and yesterday huge amounts of jelly fish. They were huge, golf umbrella size and bigger. Think the world is conspiring with me. Our cabin is forward and this is the end of the ship where the ... read more

We awoke early confused about the time as our cell phones were reporting that it was 7:45am and there is no easy way to look outside of an inside cabin. These smart phones are supposed to be, but they had reverted to Eastern Time (their home position) as they were roaming for but not finding service. This was to be a nice leisurely day at sea, and Sharon and I reviewed the Daily Schedule to pick out things for us and our mothers. High Tea popped out as a must for Shirley, though I may have a hard time living up to Shirley’s other son-in-law Dennis in this regard. He has the sole responsibility to escorting Shirley to tea on previous cruises they have shared. Sharon’s not even sure if I have his permission to go ... read more

For those people that think getting out of bed in the middle of the night to drive up a dormant volcano on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean just to watch the sunrise is a waste of time, here's one hell of an argument FOR ! My endeavour with this posting is to give people the inspiration to experience Haleakala in all it's majesty, be it Sunrise OR Sunset. I do love the contrast of the Sunset photos posted. Thanks for doing that as it show people both ends of the spectrum. One must remember that you're at the mercy of Mother Nature and she can be a fickle friend. 2005 was the first time we experienced the Sunrise up there, as part of a bike ride package. The sunrise was great, with ... read more

Well, this is the last day of our cruise per se, a day at sea on the way to the port of Valpariso, Chile. We will have a day in Valpariso and then will head home from Santiago. We sleep in a bit. In the morning, we receive instructions on disembarkation procedures for tomorrow. As mentioned, we have booked a bus tour that will take us through Valpariso and the surrounding area and eventually deposit us at the airport in Santiago. Today we attend three lectures: the history of scurvy, bird ringing (or banding), and magic. The latter deserves some explanation. Devlin, the magician who entertained us previously, puts on an afternoon workshop on simple magic tricks or "actions," as he calls them. He shows us nine different tricks, demonstrating each one first and then explaining ... read more