Who's reading along?

The first winter we spent at sea- 74 days with a return home for the holidays- I didn't keep a blog. Family and friends received emails at a rate of about one every two days. They seemed pleased, but I realized, when I returned home, that I had no record of all of what we'd done, or how we'd spent our time at sea. Thus was born this blog, used to keep family and friends informed during our 100 day, second winter at sea and give G and I something to look back on later. When I returned home after that winter, I thought that perhaps someone else might enjoy reading about our cruise, and shared the link on Cruise Critic. Of course, my readership grew.

I remember Sister Mary Rose years ago impressing upon us the need to "know your audience" when it came to writing or speaking.  Last year, I struggled a bit to determine who my audience was...was it still family and friends who never cruise, or Cruise Critic friends who do?  What I decided to do, and will continue to do this year, is blog primarily for Mom and friends at home- which means there's a lot of small talk about how we spend our days on the islands and evenings on board.  However, being on the new Royal Princess and a couple of other new cruise experiences (hint, hint) that we have planned means that I'll be posting my thoughts about them, as well as several ship photos. Obviously readers who cruise will find those bits more interesting.  Overall, though, this is a diary, not a documentary, and its tone will be more personal. 

My usual disclaimers still apply:  I'm two-fingered typing on an iPhone; my photos are iPhone 4S quality only; despite lots of educatin', ain't none of it recent and my grammar, punctuation and language reflect that; and my iPhone's going swimming with me again, dressed in its little Lifeproof lifejacket (I have the Apple Store in Fort Lauderdale on G's speed dial, for the inevitable post-drowning emergency).

I'll confess- I told G last week that I just wasn't sure I had another year of blogging in me. What will I say that I haven't already said?  He looked at me with a shocked expression on his face and said that's never stopped me before.   He's right, and last year as I started blogging again, I remember having the same panicky feeling- how would I fill a blog post every night?  But I start to ramble and eventually it's done and I end up typing far more than I ever imagined I had to say.   Friend Martha tells me I blog just like I talk, and when she reads this she feels like we're chatting across the table over a cup of tea. I hope you'll feel that way too!