Day 29 - Thursday Jan 26 At Sea Day 3

Day 29 photos

We skipped Wednesday, Jan 25 due to crossing the International Dateline from east to west.

position at 6:00 am: S27:00:14 latitude W168:53:39 longitude
(1200 miles NW of Auckland, New Zealand, our next port)
temperature: 74F and 99% humidity
distance since FLL: 10,548 miles

We had our roughest night yet last night. We thought we would get tipped out of bed! The soap dish fell into the sink on one roll and scared us to death. About 2 to 3am, the fog horn started blow and just kept up, stopping and starting in long blasts. The ship slowed way almost to a stop. We were sure that we had almost had a collision or something and got up and looked, but it didn't seem overly foggy and we couldn't see anything else. We even turned on the TV to the bridge cam and there was nothing to see. Debbie went to stargazing last night with about 100 other people. She said that she saw the milky way and the southern cross as well as other stars we can see at home intermittently as the low clouds obscured and cleared. She said when she first got around the darkened corner at the crew only area that the sight of the Milky Way was breathtaking.

On Voyager Today this morning, Jamie reported that the volleyball game yesterday was postponed to today due to the size of the swells in the pool. (Not looking good for today either.) They did a spoof about a passenger who turned 85 on Jan. 25 wanting his cake and he to had to take his gripe all the way up the chain of command. He started with Jamie, who told him that well, most people plan their vacations better so they would not lose their birthdays when they crossed the dateline. To Patrick, the dining room manager, who told him NO BIRTHDATE, NO CAKE. To Mike, executive chef, who concurred with Patrick, even though the passenger called them cake nazis. To Lars, the hotel director, who got out a big thick 3-ring binder and said, no, these are our corporate policies. The rules say you can only have a cake on the date of your birthday. To Capt. Dag on the bridge, who told him no, you already know the rules and we will not break them for you, there's the door! The passenger rang the ship's bell hard and yelled I want my cake. Jamie intervened and asked the Capt. if he could use the phone in his office to call Mark Conroy. Dag agreed. Jamie sat down in the Capt. desk chair and the ship rolled and Jamie's eyes bugged as he scooted all the way across the office until he hit the wall on the other side. He was surprised! Anyway, of course, after Jamie gave a weather report over the phone, the passenger got his cake. It was very funny. The funniest was unplanned and unscripted though, Jamie rolling across the office with a look of panic on his face. You could hear Capt. Dag laughing off camera.

It is still very rough this morning but we are not getting the steep angles of roll that we had last night. We are getting ready to try going up to LaVeranda for breakfast. Debbie is dressed for exercise class again and still wearing her Relief Band. Yesterday was a Step aerobics class to start and she just couldn't face that. Today she will start with morning stretch followed by aerobic fat burner and if things go well, abs backs and buns on fitball. We'll see how it goes. Debbie did all three exercise classes and feels much better for it. Oh, chocolate croissants for breakfast!!!

At the 9:00AM 'vords of visdom' announcement from the captain, he said they had a leaky pipe problem overnight and had to slow down some to repair it, and that was why the ship was rocking so much overnight. It was one of the pipes that works the fog horn and that was why it kept up the blowing. The guys replacing it were having too much trouble with all the rocking and it wasn't safe for them up there, so he had to stop the ship until the repair was complete. Then, they had to test the pipe and blew the horn some more. He apologized, but said it was fixed now and we were back to speed, and the ship is not swaying as much as it did overnight. Capt. Dag also said that we were running late (due to the slow down and the head winds), and it looked like we would not make Auckland until 11 or 12 instead of 9 am. He said that he would try to make up the time but did not know whether it would be possible or not.

We had email back from the Auckland brewery and they could not book us on the 3pm tour so she had put 12:15 tour instead. We hope that we get there in time. Also, we will need to rethink that if we lose 3 hours in Auckland how we want to spend the time we have remaining. Guess it will depend on what time we actually do arrive. It may all be moot if we don't get in until afternoon.

Well, to the pool deck for lunch. It was pool curry day. Yum. Clay had chicken, lamb, beef and mussel curries with rice and papadams. Debbie had a cuban sandwich and fries. Ice cream today was green tea and vanilla. Bleh! Clay was asked if he would like anything else to drink and asked for a chocolate milkshake. The waiter came back and told him they only had green tea and vanilla ice cream. Debbie told him they could use vanilla ice cream and some of the chocolate syrup topping. He repeated that and looked like she had asked him to perform cold fission. Clay told him to nevermind. Clay went and got some vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup topping. Debbie went inside LaVeranda and got surprised with a lime eclair but enjoyed a chocolate tart. Not big crowds up there today. It was very windy and still a fairly rough ride.

Nap time this afternoon.

Debbie did 2 more classes in the afternoon. Total body toning and stretch tone and stabilize on the fitball. She got back just in time to get changed for our special engagement this evening. A few evenings ago, we got a full-page poem to World Voyagers, from Jamie Logan, the cruise director, delivered to our bed at turndown. It was titled "A Celebration Rotation." It told us to watch for invitations to 3 cocktail parties on the 26th and 30th of January and then into the next segment on 2/12 from 6 to 7pm each time. Well last night we got our first invitation for the 26th's party. We were invited to an "officers only party" on the Navigation Bridge. We were instructed to wear the evening's dress code and also put on any attire we had with a nautical flair. Tonight was casual, so we just wore normal casual clothes. When we arrived at the entrance to the bridge, we were stopped by Dionne, the social hostess, and Dana, the assist cruise director, they taped cardstock, color photocopies of striped epaulets on our shoulders. Debbie got 2-stripes as a navigation officer and Clay got 2 stripes as an electrical engineer. It was very funny. There were lots of people on the bridge all with 2 strips and of different departments. Bob finally made it to the bridge. (We forgot to take him first time we went and we forgot to take him on the galley tour. No wonder he is still holding a grudge over the dunking!) Bob was too small to get stripes! While we were on the bridge we learned that there were 2 other parties going on with other groups of world cruisers. One group was in the engine room and one group was in the laundry. We wore the epaulets out of the party on the way to dinner. We were saluted by various staff and crew along the way and it was very silly. When we got to the dining room, they all jumped to attention and laughed. They told us to look for the people coming from the engine room. They were sweaty and wearing white Tyvek coveralls. They looked like they came from NASA! They all said it was very hot in the engine room. We never did see anyone who had come from the laundry room party. We joked that they must have put them to work and they could not leave until after the final rinse cycle. One imagines it would be hot and sweaty in there too. We look forward to seeing where we go next. We have never been to either the engine room or laundry room of an ocean cruiser.

When we got back to the cabin from dinner we had another surprise. There were two black boxes with a note about how we pass through 21 time zones and the dateline and how these gifts would help us keep track. Inside were round brown zippered leather cases each containing an enormous 2 time-zone watch. The cases were embossed with Seven Seas Voyager World Cruise 2006 and the watches have the lyre logo on each clock face of the watch as well as on the back.

We visited the boutique at some point today and they had several new items with Voyager World Cruise printed on them, different kinds of tote bags and collapsible nylon bags, polo shirts and umbrellas, etc. They had done away with the year. There are several items that they started out with that had Voyager World Cruise 2006 that they have sold out and it looks like as those go they are replacing them with year neutral items.

Day 29 photos