Day 33 - Monday Jan 30 at Sea

Day 33 photos

position at 7:00 am: S34:15:02 latitude E169:28:26 longitude
(1050 E of Sidney, Australia)
temperature: 70F, 100% humidity, cloudy
distance since FLL: 12,173 miles

Some updates: Regarding the delay of arrival in Auckland and at dock in Auckland. Don't know if we logged it here, but we were docked on the starboard side in Auckland. There was still plenty of view from either side, but we did not have the dockside action. We did have the fuel boat tethered to the port side for most of the stay, but not much fun in that. Don't know if we mentioned that when we went ashore there was a truckload of divers and their equipment on dock suiting up to go into the water by the ship. They had welding equipment, etc. So, we have never heard an "official" explanation for what happened that night when we blew the fog hour for an hour between 2 and 3am or whatever time it was supposed to be after midnight that night with the date/time change, but we have heard lots of reasons that other passengers got from their own sources. Two have to do with pipes. One with steam pipes high on the ship that caused the fog horn to blow and blow and we had to stop to fix because the ship was rocking too dangerously at speed. The other was with diesel pipes and was below water and required divers from the ship in the water to repair and that was why we had to stop the ship, no explanation for the hour of fog horn blasting, unless you are just supposed to do that if you stop at sea, who knows. The last explanation was from a passenger who spoke to the divers working on the ship at dock in Auckland. They said they were repairing the stabilizers on that side that had broken in the "big swells" we had experienced on our way there. Clay heard part of the captain's announcement that morning after the stop/fog horn incident. He did not hear the whole thing and was not really paying attention, but the Captain apologized for waking anyone with the foghorns and said they were repairing a diesel pipe. So, we still have no idea. We can't understand why Capt. Dag or Jamie, or someone, didn't just step up and tell us the whole unvarnished truth and that we would be very late arriving in Auckland right up front, rather than giving half-stories and letting the rumor mill run with it and moving the arrival back by 1/2 hour to 2 hour increments at every announcement. It just annoys people and causes false stories to spread and frankly it does not inspire confidence from the passengers should something be really wrong and we are not kept fully informed about it.

So far, the fierce Tasman Sea has been mild compared to the Pacific. There is motion but nothing compared with what we saw in the Pacific. We were making 19 knots with very little wind at all when the Captain gave his vords of visdom this morning, and he said we were making more than sufficient speed to get us to Sydney on schedule. Freddie did not share any marine statistics with us at noon other than the depth of the ocean, but it appears to be about 3-5 foot choppy waves. While in the Pacific, we had ocean depths right on up to 11-12,000 meters (more than 6 miles deep). Today, Freddie said the depth was only 2000 meters.

Debbie was in the laundry room on deck 6 just minutes before 7:00 am and got two washers so she could get the laundry out of the way on this sea day. The machines on deck 7 were already in use. They unlock the rooms sometime after 6:30 am. She met Clay for CHOCOLATE CROISSANTS at the Coffee Corner after getting the washers started. There must be a new choc. croissant baker onboard now. These were not near as good. Before they were light and flaky and airy, with a double roll from either side, so had 2 narrow strips of chocolate running through just off-center. Today they were heavy and chewy with one thick strip of chocolate running right down the center. Oh, well. Clay got his computer from the room and worked, went to LaVeranda. Debbie went back to the laundry room. We had to wait for Mishiel to finish up with our cabin. Got back in the cabin about 10 of 9am. Debbie had time to brush her teeth and change for exercise classes to begin at 9:15am. Aerobic fat burners and absolutely abs, then meet Clay at 11am in Compass Rose for a new wine tasting, New Zealand whites. (Debbie was early enough to sit down outside CR and eat 2 mini-chocolate croissants off a table tray. Clay had one on his way in too. Just to check. Debbie said they were better than the 2 she had for her breakfast.) We tasted Esk Valley Chardonnay 2004 (which was served for dinner last night in Compass Rose), Mission Valley Pinot Gris 2005 (which we learned will be replacing the Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio because they have run out! And it will be served starting tonight in LaVeranda), Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc 2005 (which will be served tonight in Compass Rose) and a sparkling wine, Lindeaur Special Reserve Blancde Blancs N.V. All were good and to our liking, but there were no really special standouts for us. Then upstairs to get the laundry put away and it was time for lunch. There was a New Zealand lunch at the Pool Grill, but it was all lamb and fish. We went up and looked but nothing really screamed eat me at either of us, so we back down to Compass Rose. Debbie had seen on the menu that the dessert there was Chocolate Croissant Pudding with Chocolate Ice Cream. Now, here is a problem. How the heck did they build up such a supply of leftover chocolate croissants that they needed to use them to make bread pudding? Anyway, it was not a spectacular dessert and could have been made with plain croissants and chocolate custard for the pudding part. Clay had the cold sandwich of the day and Debbie had the cold soup of the day and then a made-to-order sandwich. Wheat bread, butter and turkey breast. They got it right and served it with the crusts removed and cut into 2 triangles. Extra points! It hit the spot for Debbie and was a little bit of comfort food for her.

We spent most of the afternoon doing our research on Sydney and making plans for what to do and how to get around. Capt. Dag announced very early in the cruise that we were going to dock first at Darling Harbour and then move at dinner time (1st night, 2nd night?) to Circular Quay, we have not gotten any notice that has changed, so we were trying to work things out with maps. As Debbie was leaving for a 3:30pm exercise class, she noticed we had an invitation to eat with the Hotel Manager, Lars Olsson, this evening at Compass Rose. She came back after classes at 5:30pm and we got dressed for our 2nd in the Rotation Celebration cocktail parties. Tonight was the Laundry Party on deck 2 from 6 to 7pm. We went down and forgot Bob. So, Debbie had to go back for him. Bob is now OUT because Debbie had to explain why she needed to leave deck 2 and she had no pockets in her Informal outfit, so when she returned everyone was looking for Bob and he was exposed. Bob met another mascot while at the cocktail party, a panda. Bob had actually seen a small, white poodle hanging from a woman's purse on the tender yesterday afternoon. Bob is not really very fond of other animals.

Bob came back to the cabin at about 6:35pm and Clay changed for dinner. We were the last to arrive for the 7:15pm dinner with Lars, which was just as well since they were not ready for us. There had been a cancellation and apparently they did not want us to sit with a vacant chair, so they had to change the table to only seat the number who would be present. Anyway, we lingered in front of the maitre d's station for a few seconds admiring the giant New Zealand crawfish (picture an enormous lobster but with no claws!) on a big block of ice. We were seated with a frequent cruising couple who are getting off in Sydney and with another woman who got on in LA for the World Cruise (her husband has a flu/cold and he cancelled) and Lars. We had a pleasant evening with Lars and company. Lars is from Sweden. It is either mostly dark or mostly light there for much of the year!

Executive Chef Mike stopped by and told Lars that only about 100 of the New Zealand crawfish were ordered. Mike thought that people did not understand that it was the biggest lobster tail they would ever be served. Mike said that was fine, that he would be serving it in LaVeranda tomorrow night and bbq'd for lunch and in salad... Debbie will not trust any broth or consomme for a long time. Clay was disappointed that he did not take his camera to dinner because it was one of the most impressive plate presentations of the entire cruise to date. They served the empty, hollow heads resting on a nest of spaghetti. Debbie wonders what happened to the insides of the heads? She will probably worry about this for days.

We turned the clocks back another hour tonight. This is 2 nights in a row, but moving clocks back is better than moving forward. When we crossed the International Date Line, we actually moved our clocks FORWARD 23 hours, but it felt like just moving back another hour. Traveling west feels much easier than traveling east! The seas are the same so far and the ship seems to still be riding pretty smoothly. Lars recounted tales of encountering the storm at about this point in last year's cruise and we hope for no repeats this time around. Lars also told us that the divers we saw in Auckland on the dock were there to scrape barnacle samples from the bottom of Voyager's hull. He said it is part of an ongoing ecological study by a New Zealand University. So, again, we say, who knows.

Day 33 photos