On Friday, December 10th our ship's position is 22 degrees 44.3'N, 148 degrees
54.5'W at noon. The weather is rough and the sky is partly cloudy. The temperature is 23C. Yesterday we had good weather with a cloudy sky and occasional showers and the temp was 21 c. so you can see that the temperature has been steadily rising since our second day out when it reached a high of 16 C.
It's wonderful to be coming into summer! In my part of Canada, December calls for a warm coat and hat but usually it doesn't snow until near the end of the month. Now we are able to wear light clothes again from our summer wardrobes. We
have been at sea for the past four days.
I love it at sea: the beautiful glittering ocean, the rise and fall of the ship,
the fresh sea air. In fact I would even enjoy a cruise that went just off the coast far enough from land that I couldn't see it, and then sailed in large circles! I wonder why somebody doesn't start such a shipboard experience on the ocean
? It would cost much less; people wouldn't be as far from home in an emergency.
A helicopter from land could pluck them off the ship and deliver to them to hospital. You know, sometimes people fall because of the motion of the ship. Occasionally there's a heart attack or something. There is a physician and a nurse
aboard for such situations. One of the men at our table told how he had fallen
backward off a pool ladder when the ship rolled, and hurt his back.
I love the sea, the ship itself and the ship's ambience. It's fun to meet newshipboard friends. Sometimes they become land friends, too, as did Margaret andMaurice, two years ago, but usually you make a connection and then carom off again when you reach home, like balls in a game of pool.
Now there's a new word for some of you -- "Carom. It means when used in this way, a rebounding, especially at an angle. It originated from an old Spanish word, and is something that happens to the ball in a game of billiards or pool. Dopeople play billiards or pool in China? "Billiards" is a game played on an oblong table by driving small balls against one another or into pockets with a longlong stick. Pool is a variation of the game of billiards.
"Dirty pool" means underhanded or unsportsmanlike behaviour. Sometimes they say "he shoots dirty pool." Meaning he doesn't play fair. They also talk about honest cheating and dirty cheating. Honest cheating is swindling that people areused to, and it often uses money and muscle. Dirty cheating is to speak ironically to speak of something that is actually good, and may be somewhat unusual, such as using the courts to get people to abide by statutes, or to clear up murky
ones. At least that's the way I understand they use the termsironically in the U.S. The English language has such subtleties. You especially have to watch out for irony. I imagine every language has irony? It must make English harder to learn.
Back to the ship. Tomorrow we'll dock in Hilo! For the second time we will pass an international dateline and put the clocks back again by one hour.
We did manage formal dress for dinner on the second night, and staggered safely
to the dining room. All the passageways have railings on each side in case you
suddenly need to save yourself from falling. I wore a lovely deep red and airy
silken jacket from India. It is embroidered on the front panels and the back and sleeves with sequins. Everyone admired it. I like to pick up unusual wardrobe items and keep them for years. This was one such find and I got it for an excellent price because the inner light silk lining had stretched. That was easy to fix! And it needed a good pressing so that the beautiful embroidery would show well which was also easy to do. For such little flaws I got a real gem of a thing! Sometimes I wonder if people know how to iron or sew any more?
I wore a tomato red wool jacket for embarkation. My big cream coloured elephantpin which is cream with coloured balls rimmed in gold all over was pinned to the
lapel. Underneath was a silky black top. And the whole went with a knee length black skirt,
sheer black stocking and high heeled black shoes. The staff of ships love it when people dress appropriately for the occasion and dress well. It makes a difference to them in their jobs. They feel there is respect for what they provide so
caringly. The passengers are a mixed bag. Many are elderly and some are infirm
, but all are very pleasant people when you meet with an opportunity to talk together. We are among the younger ones! There is a sprinkling of people here who
are in their thirties, and there are a very few children.
I bought a wide-brimmed green hat and a pink bracelet at one of the ship's shops
. They usually have hats that are just coming into style. I love hats and lookvery well in them. You can see that I really enjoy pretty clothes --
Right? ;-))
We took in the shipboard talks. One was about Feng Shui and I took fairly complete notes, so I may tell you something about what was said later. After I returned home I used some of the advice. I found that it causes a more pleasant ambience, and I'm always looking for ways to do that to our home. It also causes you to rethink your home from a fresh point of view. That's a useful thing, too.
I moved a plinth holding one of my sculptures from our entry hall and replaced
it with a large plant in front of the window beside the door which almost faces
a staircase. That made the whole area more spacious feeling and is supposed to
block chi from flowing down the stairs and out the window. I also moved some flowering plants in a large pot onto a stand and put it in front of the same window, on the outside. That was a good move, too. So Feng Shui has been helpful to me in such ways. :-)
Hilo has a population of 42,000 people. Ben and I have a visit to a lava tube booked. I was late for dinner tonight, and found myself in the dog-house with Ben. Of course, it puts me out of sinc with the pace of the entire table and waiters find it much easier to order all the same courses at once. The trouble was
that I felt quite uwell. I even considered ordering room service dinner to my room, but I finally pulled myself together and, as I said, wore the Indian jacket
.
I know I described in my earlier set of posts how Ben and I dragged outselves around the bow of the superstructure of the ship, on the top deck, in a 9 gale force wind. This is a VERY strong wind. Winds are rated using the Beaufort Scale
of wind force. It was first devised by British Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort in 1805. A Gale force of 9 is a strong gale with high waves; the sea begins to roll; there are dense streaks of foam; spray may begin to reduce visibility.
The highest gale force is a 12 which is hurricane level.
It was all I could do to make it and I clung to window frames all the way. The
wind was about twice as strong as a memorable wind in Point Barrow when we leaned into the wind like the drawings of the Eskimos when they are bent forward toward the horizontal and whenever we lifted a foot to take a step the foot was almost blown out from under us! I wouldn't want to do anything more risky aboard a
ship at sea than our adventure in that 9 gale force wind. Whew!
Continued in Part A5
