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Published: January 24th 2013
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Another rough night and day here at sea, but the wind is minimal right now, so it cuts down on the wildness of the ride. Just long, tall rolling swells as we pound through them. It makes it real interesting to run on a treadmill, do exercises on one leg, or lifting free weights while rolling up-and-down through the swells. It is Sunday so short gym workout today (as we will be off the ship tomorrow in Puerto Montt).
Three troubling bits of news reached us today….. Not sure if we mentioned it previously, but the Argentines and the Brits are still not on very good terms regarding “Las Malvinas” (Falkland) Islands, which we are supposed to visit. Our ship, while belonging to an American company, is registered in Hamilton, which is a British protectorate. Rumors abound on the ship, following an announcement from our Captain a few days ago that the Argentine Government may tell us to stay the Hell out of its ports, which begin in Tierra Del Fuego and everywhere else we are supposed dock except Stanley in the Falklands. We are assuming there is a lot of blather going on between the U.S. Department of State
and the Argentine Government in Buenos Aires, so we shall see what we shall see about this diplomatic mess. Saw a second bit of news on the 1700 news from back home (broadcast in our time zone at 2200) is that one of our sister ships was forced to dock in Texas due to major virus outbreak onboard. As unfortunate as that is, we can succinctly state that Princess has its shit together on this issue. There are constant warnings posted all over the ship about hand washing, using paper towels to open public bathroom doors, require us to use alcohol hand sanitizer at all of the restaurants and bars, and nothing goes onto a passenger’s plate unless it was dished up with plastic tongs and such. They even pass out alcohol hand wipes multiple times on our tours. Finally, we saw a piece on the news about a major volcanic eruption happening along the Argentina/Chile border right in the area we are headed into the day-after-Christmas, so more fun abounds on this trek.
Attended our first “Trivia Knowledge Match Play” game, which we had been avoiding because some of these people are WAY TOO Serious about winning (a
Princess ink pen… Seriously). As our family is pretty serious about Jeopardy tournaments at home, we did quite well, but there were people fighting about a lot of nitpicky things (the poor woman who runs the game is from Argentina and her English is limited, so she spends a great deal of time getting her butt chewed by some of these weenies….) We have named ourselves “The Data Nerds,” but not sure if we want to continue attending and hearing anymore whining. I mean, Get a Grip dudes….. It’s just a vacation game!” First formal night of this cruise segment was this evening as well. Our circle of friends has grown from one couple from New Zealand to a table for 8 – 10 every night in the restaurant. We are meeting people from all over the world, and it is really cool to hear about their home lands, as well as their lives and how they come to be in this ship. Dinner now lasts about two hours, but the staff seems alright with it. Caught a musical and a comedy show, and we are now back in our stateroom awaiting the Niner-Seattle game. Steve is deciding whether or
not to head down to Shooter’s Bar with Jack and a Cuban cigar, given the rolling motion of the ship.
Star Princess is 580 miles out of Valparaiso, steaming a course of 177 degrees true at 19 knots in rough sea conditions. We are now at latitude 41 degrees South, and the days are getting longer, with sunrise about 0600 and ENT is at 2212.
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