Day 22 - Wednesday Jan 18 At Sea

Day 22 photos

position at 7:00 am: S12:32:33 latitude W144:21:32 longitude
(about 490 NE of Papeete, Tahita, our next port)
temperature: 83F and 82% humidity (feels like 100% humidity)
distance since FLL: 8579 miles
blackjack status: Retired - don't ask.

Woke to rough seas again. Of course, after dinner in CR last night with waves slapping up against the windows, this is not too surprising. Our condolences to anyone who has to sail this stretch of seas in the Paul Gauguin. We turned the clocks back another half-hour last night, so lots of early risers today. We had understood Mike to say in his galley tour that Latitudes would soon change to Thai cuisine. In the Daily Passages, it says that as of today it is Tahitian cuisine with the Gorgeous Gauguines and their unique Tahitian charm. But, according to the menus posted at the door and on the TV, the menu is the first Indochine that we ate there. So, who knows.

Other breaking news, Roger broke into his rotating broadcast of port talks on TV to say that Capt. Dag had arranged for Voyager to have a motu day at Bora Bora. It was always a mystery to us from the day we booked this cruise how the Paul Gauguin could have 2 motu days on a 7-day cruise and the WCers in 4 days in FP could have none. So, it looks like either Dag alone, according to Roger Condon, or RSSC have decided that we do deserve a famous motu day and we will have one. We have not booked many ship excursions and in fact in 23 days so far have only gone on one in Costa Rica. But, in an unusual burst of adventurousness, we do have the circle island on waverunners booked in Bora Bora. This will make for a long, watery, sunny day for us but after the long sail in a cloud how can we complain about that! Other news: (we do not do shows, so this makes for odd reporting from us) There has been a performer onboard who has been sick since at least LA. (Because Christine Teague, a singer, was brought onboard there to do substitute shows for the Peter Grey Terhune Singers & Dancers.) We don't know who has been sick or with what, but Jamie has made fairly regular announcements about the one performer still being sick, still recovering, etc. to explain why there have been no PGT shows, as there are no stand-in performers and the shows require all the performers; they cannot do the shows one short. Today the Daily Passages shows that PGT S&Ds will at last be returning to the Constellation Theater for a show. This will not matter to us, but it is news on a sea day.

Debbie was not sure if she was going to make it up this morning after a long rocking and rolling lurching creaking cracking night, and lurching around this morning to get up and around. But, she pulled back the curtains and caught another beautiful sunrise. Took her morning meclizine overdose and grabbed the camera. Up and at 'em. To LaVeranda for breakfast and don't you know... NO chocolate croissants! We don't get it. The chocolate croissant baker is on an at sea vacation, or what? If there were NO chocolate croissants during Tahiti or Australia, or New Zealand or even the Philippines maybe we could understand it the chocolate croissants baker had taken a shore leave. But, hello, we have been at sea for days... is there no substitute baker available? Is the chocolate croissants guy on strike? Is it a public health measure by RSSC? Is this for our own good? It does not feel good to Debbie. When will the regular supply of chocolate croissants return? Debbie switched from coffee to cappucino on day 2 back in December in both Compass Rose and LaVeranda. Yesterday, for the first time she got a cup of cappucino that she called toxic and did not drink. Hoping it was an aberration, she ordered cappucino again today in LaVeranda. She thinks they need to clean, service or thrash that machine to get back the good capuccino, pronto. Oh, the trials of World Cruising.

Step aerobics and toning class at 9:15, Donna can confirm, it was hazardous. You would step up and when you went to step down you would come down a foot away from where you started! It made a challenging class even more so. But, no one got hurt and everyone broke a sweat, so Debbie calls that a success. Very lightly attended lower body toning and now Debbie is free until 3:30pm for Pilates Mat followed by Stretch, Tone and Stabilize on the Fitball. If we are still rocking back and forth, stabilizing on a ball should be a very challenging workout.

Today we have past a milestone. Only double-digits to go. For the first time, Debbie cannot mark the calender and say 100-something days to go. Today it is only 99 days to go! Debbie learned in lower body toning class from Corinne, one of the PGT Singers, that the lead male tenor has had a bad case of bronchitis and has been confined to the infirmary on an IV trying to avoid pneumonia since LA. Lullaby of Broadway for tonight is one of the 3 shows from last segment. We had met Corrine very early in the cruise, in the Caribbean, during one of Capt. Dag's receptions for full WCers. She had told us that they were rotating 3 shows now and that during the Canal they had to learn and rehearse either 5 or 7 new shows to perform during the WC. If the recovered singer does OK tonight, Corinne says that they will learn the new shows starting tomorrow. Just FYI for those who follow PGT show news.

Clay is to start establishing a work routine today. He has gotten a couple of emails from the office regarding this. Now that the longest stretch of seas days has past, Clay needs to get some work done. Everything remains normal, even though we are 10,000 miles from home.

The Pool Grill is having a sandwich bar today. What is special about that? We will go to Compass Rose. We ate most of our lunches on the first segment at the Pool Grill and really enjoyed the special BBQs and the regular grill sandwiches, so we missed most of the Compass Rose menus. We are catching up now. They do have some really special lunches in there and it is casual. We have seen people dressed just about everyway under the sun and no seems to be too concerned with attire during breakfast or lunch.

Tonight is Informal and there is another new menu today for Compass Rose. Clay will probably scan and post another batch of menus within the week. Or not, now that everyone is expecting it!

Debbie's wish is granted! Again! We have not documented this here before probably, but very early on Debbie started making wishes. Sometimes out loud to someone who mattered, relatively, and sometimes to Clay or just to herself. Anyway, sometimes, many times, her wish was granted. If so, she could act all goofy and pleased about it and if not she was still only disappointed to not get her wish anyway. Of course, some wishes are more realistic than others, but anyway... When the Opinion Cards come around, Debbie fills them in as her "Wishlist." She prioritizes the wishes, with her most impossible, unrealistic wish first and finishes with the most possible, realistic wish. Her first wish ever was a channel on the TV with the view from under the ship facing forward! No joy on that one yet! Today, another of Debbie's wishes was granted. Two or 3 nights ago, she wished for sea condition reports. Freddie, the Navigator, just made the noon announcement and he had some extra info. He added to his usual spiel that we are in rough seas, following seas, and wave height of 6 to 11 feet. Hooray, for wishes granted!

Voyager is part of the Cingular Cruise Ship cell phone network. This means you can pay a roaming charge of $2.49 and use your Cingular phone. Clay is using a Cingular-based Blackberry that provides unlimited data (with no roaming charges) for $64.95 per month. Since the ship is acting as a Cingular cell, he has been able to get his email essentially all the way across the Pacific. The only time he was without it since leaving LA was about 30 minutes one day, and when we were in port in Nuku Hiva. (This ship turns the cell signal off when they enter a port.)

We had less than perfect service in Compass Rose tonight. We were there early, and were quickly and efficiently served the two courses that we ordered. (We are reducing the number of courses that we order even though they are usually small.) After our table was cleared of the dishes (including the salt and pepper shakers), we waited about 10 minutes to get the dessert menus. After ordering, we waited another 15 minutes to get desserts ordered directly from the menu, no alterations. And we were never served the Gourmandies tray. In other sections, we saw desserts promptly served and gourmandies delivered promptly. This is actually the third time we have seen less than perfect dessert service in this particular area. We have made a mental note to refuse being seated there again. There is no need for such aggravation.

Day 22 photos