As I've mentioned in the past, I am a very good wife, and have graciously shared my cold with G. And then, so he doesn't feel lonely in his suffering, I managed to have to visit Dr. Tim for the first time, as my cold seems to have morphed into bronchitis. We spent the day alternating between the Promenade Deck and our cabin, tucked in with the two extra blankets steward Douglas has kindly brought us. Until sailaway, our meals today were skipped except for the occasional cups of tea or soup we fetched for ourselves from the Panorama Buffet (we are not room service people). We re-lived the bombing of Pearl Harbor at least three times (it just had to be Tora! Tora! Tora! Day on TV, didn't it?) and watched four episodes of The Love Boat.
Even discounting our maladies, we have truly suffered.
Finally, by 4:45pm, and with a fourth viewing of Tora! Tora! Tora! starting, I could bear it no longer and announced I was going up to the back of the Panorama Buffet to watch our final sailaway ever from Rangiroa. G decided that he would join me about 5 minutes later, and we watched as Tiputa Pass disappeared in the distance and the Pacific Princess began to sail west along the north coast of Rangiroa.
We stayed out there for awhile, eating a small dinner from the choices at the buffet (I have consumed enough soup for a lifetime!) and then, just as the opportunity for a good sunset seemed to disappear into a dark cloud, light started appearing on either side of it, and we went up to Deck 11 to sit in two chairs for an hour and watch as the sky changed from one color to another. The sunset alone made this a good day, but even better is the fact that we are both recovered a bit tonight, and are into the less sneeze-y, sniffle-y, cough-y part of our illnesses. Tomorrow is another day at sea (our last for this cruise) so our recovery should be complete by the time we reach our next island (which I think is Raiatea) in two days, and our appetites restored by tomorrow night, when we dine at the steakhouse on board.
And I've already started a shopping list for the Hilo WalMart: Sudafed, guafinisan, dextramathorphan, throat lozenges, nasal saline...and a small box of tissues with lotion would be nice, too.