Blogs from Pacific, Oceans and Seas - page 2

Hello from the Pacific Ocean. This has been another restful and reasonably quiet day at sea. We have actually had terrific weather thus far on the trip, but today has turned cooler. It probably did not get into the 80’s today and with a breeze across the deck of almost 40 knots (20 from the ship’s speed and 20 from the true headwind). For that reason there were practically no people in the pools today and only a few folks in the hot tubs. Around the outside decks there were still some people using the deck chairs, but generally bundled up in several layers of pool towels to keep themselves warm. There certainly were very few people truly sun bathing, even wearing their swimming suits. We got up this morning after a fairly good night’s sleep. ... read more

Today we continue on our steady NNE heading at around 19 knots. We are approaching the Equator but are not scheduled to cross until tomorrow about Noon. The Captain said he would announce it beforehand so nobody would fall down from the bump in the water. In the meantime, it continued to be smooth sailing and very warm since leaving Bora Bora. It’s pretty nice! Today the temp only got up to 88. We got a nice note from Stephanie yesterday. CONGRATULATIONS to Alex for finishing 4th in a Technology Student Association in the AutoCAD competition and for his team finishing 2nd in Technological Design competition. Next they go to the National Competition! Also CONGRATULATIONS to Abigail for her school choir being invited to sing the National Anthem at the Springfield Redbirds ball game. We also ... read more

Today is Tessa’s Birthday! Happy Birthday #11!! We hope you had a very good day and maybe your classmates even sang to you. Anyway, we are thinking about you on your special day. We got some good news from Valerie. Yes, the electricity had gone out for a while but it was working again by this morning. We will have to reset most of the clocks when we get home, but everything is working properly. We usually get dead branches falling from the trees during windy days, so that appears to have been the case too, but there were no reports of any significant damage. YEAH. Back here on the ship they seem to be having more people with Janet’s intestinal distress so the ship has gone into a massive cleaning/disinfecting project. They are following the ... read more

Hello from the South Pacific. It was another beautiful but hot day on the ocean. The seas have been so smooth that Janet has not needed her seasickness patch since before we arrived in Hawaii. Today we did actually get s brief rain shower while we were eating breakfast in the Horizon Court, but that didn’t last long and it was sunny and hot all day. After breakfast Janet went to the Knitters Meeting and David spent the morning relaxing and reading until about 10:30. The official ceremony to get King Neptune’s blessing for crossing the Equator started at Noon, so David went up to stake out a location on the rail about 10:30. The shady places were already gone but he did get a chair so he didn’t have to stand all morning. However David ... read more

This morning we got up at 7:30 after having an extra hour of sleep. We went to the dining room for breakfast. Janet got the Eggs Benedict that she likes so much and David had an omelet with a side of banana nut pancakes. It was a little slower than usual but we were sitting with several other interesting couples. One of the couples has taken this particular cruise 4 times before – we have heard it is a popular “repeater cruise". About 9:15 Janet went to do knitting in the Stargazer Lounge and David went around the ship to take a couple of pictures. Then he settled down in one of the lounges and read his book until 11:15. At that time the port lecturer gave an explanation of our next port – Western Samoa. ... read more