What stretched ahead of us was a long day with nothing specific to fill it, but I'm not complaining about that. I now know that the end of this cruise into the beginning of the next gives us seven port days in a row; today was a good chance to get a few things done. G started the morning with a walk on Deck 10 where he encountered friend Tracey already doing laps. After breakfast in the Club Restaurant, I took a chance (it was sunny but still windy, and therefore still bouncy) to go to the fitness center on the front of Deck 9 to do weights, then moved outside to walk. (Happily no seasickness). We are at only 11 degrees latitude south of the equator, but the wind kept it comfortable. The water sloshed up and out of the pool, so there were few people using it, but it was good to see people finally venturing out a bit and sitting in the loungers on deck. Still, as G always asks, "Where are all the people on this ship?" It is never, ever crowded, and chairs were available by the pool all morning.
The rest of the day stretched out in a familiar routine: British Pub Lunch in the steakhouse followed by ice cream for dessert in the Club Restaurant, checking on our December 28th cruise availability (sadly, there is still no room at the inn), writing a few thank you notes and sending out e-postcards from the Princess website for free to friends and doing some hand laundry. G participated in the ring toss tournament for this cruise, and I listened to an audiobook on the Promenade Deck for awhile, but, really, that was the extent of our motivation today. I did finally finish Robert Louis Stevenson's In the South Seas (not too impressive...just two books in 44 days) and started a third (Bill Bryson's One Summer: America, 1927). I'm also re-reading, as I do every December, Rosamunde Pilcher's Winter Solstice. G is convinced that my seasickness is brought on by reading at the very front or very back of the ship, and I can't disagree with that as reading always precedes a bout of it. On this small ship, mid-ship is my friend, so I'm either reading in the Club Bar or sitting in the comfy chairs on Deck 4 or in our cabin on Deck 3 when things get rough.
We were early for the Elite Lounge tonight, and so ended up sitting in the back of the buffet with drinks intending to go to the lounge when it opened at 5:30pm, but Captains Circle host Catherine Fullarton stopped in for an early dinner and ended up joining us and we never did make it to the Elite Lounge. Catherine is leaving us after this cruise (weep!) and transferring to the Grand a Princess as Future Cruise Consultant but she has to go home to Australia on Jamuary 24th, so we will just miss her on the Grand. :-(
Dinner was the formal night menu we expected last night, and we quickly had onion soup and beef tenderloins so we could get to comedian Tony Daro's early show at 7pm. Tony is one funny guy; with good non-cruise ship humor. We listened a bit to Great Escape playing the Eagles in the Casino Lounge before returning to our cabin. We are intending to go to tonight's 70s party at 9:45pm but I've also just set the alarm for 5:30am. We know our arrival in Nuku Hiva is a particularly pretty one, and the opportunity to see nearly 100 dolphins as we approach the island might just win out over disco.
