Well...shoot.
G was unhappy; as a celebration of my recovered right eye and the fact that I was able to again start wearing my contact again, we had planned to do the walk to the lighthouse on Eleuthera. I was unhappy because the winds meant that the ship was moving just enough to make me "sick of the sea" again. But the decision had been made, and a whole, long day stretched out in front of us. While this would have been a luxury of unimaginable proportion mid-last October, today it was simply a long stretch of time to fill. Sea days we're not fond of; unexpected sea days even less so.
I started out by doing what I do best: I booked us for yet another cruise, this time a circumnavigation of Australia on the Diamond Princess. Don't get excited; it's far from a done deal. But, though we've been to Australia twice, it's always been our intention to do the circumnavigation... some day. We've never been fans of the Sun Class of Princess ships; now that the beautiful Diamond Princess will be doing the circumnavigation cruises, we're more interested. We'll see...
Meanwhile, G did what he did best: headed to a hot tub. When I had finished my administrative duties, I changed into a swimsuit myself, and went not to a hot tub but to the spa, for a shower in the much roomier shower there. Then I spent some time in the steam room and contemplated how often I've done that this winter. It's probably less than ten times, so, while I'll certainly miss the free steam room and sauna on the Royal Princess, it's not a show stopper.
An amended Patter was published to reflect our new day at sea. Here's what was added: two more bingo games, Wii at Sea, passenger feud gameshow, majority rules gameshow, pool games and golf chipping into a pool. Not too had for short notice, particularly since our cruise director JJ is finishing up today and a new one, Kelvin Joy, is joining the ship tomorrow.
We did score an additional noon update from the bridge, presented by Captain Stenzel, along with the bit of navigational history we've come to expect from him. I was sitting with paper and pen at the ready, just to be able to share this with you. Today's lesson was a dual one: the origin of the terms "between the devil and the deep blue sea", and "devil to pay".
The "devil" is a seam between boards on a ship above the waterline, which were periodically filled with a mixture of oakum and tar to preserve the ship's watertightness. The job of doing this was the least desirable on a ship, because it required a crew member to sit on a bosun's chair off the side of the ship, hanging above the deep blue sea. Ergo, to be between the devil and the deep blue sea meant to be stuck between two situations, both bad.
Devil to pay makes more sense when you learn that to "pay" meant to fill that seam. Generally, it fell upon a crew member who had displeased the captain in some way to hang out on the bosun's chair filling that seam; thus, saying there will be the devil to pay means that there will be a decidedly negative consequence as of the result of some action.
This is fun stuff!
Once again, the DaVinci Dining Room opened for lunch on short notice. We went about 1pm for lunch with Romel from the Philippines and Ahmad from Indonesia. (Something tells me the grilled chicken salad we enjoyed was repurposed chicken from the cancelled Princess Cays BBQ, but Darko later told us that the crew sees lots of burgers and brats and chicken breasts when Princess Cays gets cancelled).
I walked after lunch, on the Promenade Deck, actually found my way to the fitness center to do some weights, and then spent some time in a hot tub myself. It was extra tips night, so I wrote out some thank you notes to accompany them. And all the time the Emerald Princess pitched and rolled, particularly surprising given how unimpressive the seas were. I've heard that there is something about the way a ship moves, as much as the size of the waves, that can cause passenger discomfort; today was proof positive of that.
Dinner with Darko was more simple food; I chose another salad topped with a chicken breast and G ordered the New York Strip steak. The longer we've been away from home, the more we eat like we're at home. Go figure. But after 129 days of cruising, all our clothes still fit perfectly well, so I think it's probably to our advantage to do that.
We had an abundance of entertainment choices tonight, a rare thing on the final night of a cruise. First, we saw vocalist Jacqi Michaels' 7:15pm show in the Princess Theater. Of all the female singers we've seen this winter, she is definitely my favorite, and rocked it out a bit tonight with Stevie Nicks, Gladys Knight and Tina Turner (so, no country. Yay!).
With Kyle from the Emerald Princess orchestra on guitar:
Afterward, we made it to the 8pm Explorers Lounge show by Team Rootberry. Jon and Bill always do a slightly zany show that belies the amount of talent required to do what they do.
In a change, because most of the US is moving ahead an hour to Daylight Savings Time tonight, and the Caribbean stays on Atlantic Standard Time. we are already on EDT and don't have to do anything, clock-wise, before tomorrow morning. Yay!
As for what we're doing tomorrow...well, you'll just have to check back. I started blogging this winter with a bit of secretiveness about our plans, and plan to finish the same way.
Until tomorrow...
:-)
