Today is our last day at sea and on the Noordam – boy these 4 weeks have gone fast! Well, other than skipping a day for the date change overnight, the remaining 27 days have seemed to go fast!
Again, I watched a wonderful sunrise on our veranda while someone else was snoring away!
Today we are just going to relax on the ship and take it all in. We had our last breakfast in the stateroom this morning – served with a smile as always by the Room Service attendants! Soon after, our load of laundry from yesterday was returned and Andrew went out for his daily walk around the decks. I sat on the veranda for some time and then came in and relaxed my eyelids for a while.
At noon, just before we departed for lunch the Captain came on the overhead speakers with his usual noon announcement, followed by the Cruise Director with what was going on. The Captain mentioned that we were going to possibly run into some “tough” weather later today and this evening, so would people please make sure they took care walking around the ship. He also mentioned that the Beaufort Scale, where we had been cruising along at between a 4 and a 5 for the last few days was going up to 8! Yikes! On top of that we were being PUSHED from the stern of the ship, which made the use of the stabilizers less than optimum (I guess they work better when facing waves head on). Now that seems we were going to be in for some fun later today and tonight! I will remind you that the Beaufort Scale of 8 means 18–25 ft (5.5–7.5 m) waves and winds of 39–46 mph or 62–74 km/h. Good thing we are on a BIG SHIP and not a 28 foot Tollycraft named the JoLyn II!
For lunch we went to the Main Dining Room – which funny enough I was looking forward to as I had ordered the calamari strips on the appetizer menu to made gluten free and we shall see what happens! Sure enough, they showed up looking just like regular (but slightly paler due to the corn starch I believe) calamari strips as Andrew had the same appetizer for lunch as me – however his was fully of gluten! I included a picture below with our dinner entertainment pictures!
After lunch I promised Bonolo, one of the Arts and Crafts staff that I would join her at the last crochet class that was being offered in case anyone needed help finishing their duck. I had started a duck, however had no interest in finishing it but happy to help people who wanted to finish theirs! I got there early, and it was Adult colouring that was on at that time, with Franklin leading the session. However, Bonolo was there and she pulled out all the partly crocheted things that she had that she wanted to wind up into balls again. Then she pulled out a ball winder! Holy smokes! Now if I had known she had a ball winder 4 weeks ago that would have been excellent! She was totally surprised when I was shocked that she pulled the ball winder out of its box and asked me why – which I replied that I had been winding wool skeins by hand since we left Seattle and not having a good time of it and would have LOVED to have a ball winder 4 weeks ago! She then said she could wind balls at anytime and why don’t I go get my yarn that I was yet to wind and use the winder? I was off in a flash – down to the 5th Deck to get my left over skeins of wool that I had given up on and back to the Art Studio on Deck 10 in a FLASH!
During this time the seas were starting to swell and Bonolo was not looking, despite being of African decent, that well. So she faced me and did not look out the windows from our perch on the port side of the 10th deck!
Then I started winding…. Now, the skeins I had bought at the yarn store at the Pike Place Market were not being very cooperative when I was hand winding them, I had not completely been able to wind one skein yet into a ball as a tangled mess had occurred! I was determined for the last few skeins this would not happen! Sure enough, the first skein I tried to wind ended up in a pile of knots. Now I know it is NOT ME! I had the skein on the back of a chair and was hand feeding the wool to the ball roller and it still knotted up! That is not nice! I then tried a different version of wool to wind from the same company and guess what? It ended up in a knot too! Bonolo, as no one had shown up for Crochet class, had left to run an errand (I think it was to get some Gravol) and saw the pile of knots and offered to help me with the last skein I had left that was intact, to wind. So we started together to wind it and guess what? AGAIN the thing ended up with knots! We worked at untangling it for about 30 minutes and then I said to Bonolo that I was fine and had wound enough and would deal with the knotted wool later! It was so frustrating to purchase 6 skeins of wool in Pikes Place Market in Seattle and not be able to knit anything with them on the cruise! Oh well, now that I could not hand or use a winder or have Bonolo help me wind a skein, it definitely is in the way that the skein was put together which is not conducive to forming a ball to knit from (which one does for tension purposes).
Also at about 4 pm the Captain came back on the intercom and asked again for people to take care walking around the ship – it was time for me to go back downstairs and leave Bonolo to get some relief down in her cabin below the A deck!
Now of the 6 skeins of one colour I bought, I have one wound cake, which is comprised of 1/2 of 1 skein which I hand wound and 1/4 skeins of 2 others. The rest are in a pile of knots to be sorted out later! I also have 4 skeins of another colour that I bought however as it is thin yard (called lace weight) when the 1st ball did not work, I stopped there! They are all in jail in my suitcase at this moment in time.
Back downstairs, Andrew has already mostly packed and we are off to our last dinner on the ship! Well, what an entertaining night it would be! Andrew and I were surprised that based on previous cruises, where the ship served Baked Alaska and they were paraded around the Dining Room, that we had not seen any of that already – last night had been the Surf and Turf night and generally that is also the Baked Alaska night and nothing happened. This time we chalked it up to the changes due to COVID. Now, some of you might think we might have MISSED the parade I am talking about, however nope. As I read the menus the night before, I get a sneak peek into what is happening the next night! We actually had reservations for the Pinnacle Grill which was turned into the Tamarind Restaurant, which is a new restaurant offering on the newer Holland America ships, however when I saw Surf and Turf on the menu (well mainly the SURF), we canceled the Tamarind reservations and went to the Main Dining Room instead! I just could not miss the free Lobster Tails! If we went to Tamarind, I would have had to pay $20 for 1 Lobster Tail dinner. Hmm. Just did not calculate in my brain….
Anyways, dinner was very good – I had Halibut again with tomato sauce, rice and veggies and it was excellent. However I noticed that Ade, was all alone waiting on us and that April Joy, his Assistant was no where to be found. We had finished dinner and were waiting for our dessert and I saw that she had already delivered them and she was gone! Well, we soon heard from her! This quite but very friendly with an awesome smile, Philippine waitress all of a sudden was addressing the whole dining room and thanking us for sailing with Holland America for the last 4 weeks and that the Dining Room staff had a song that they wanted to sing for us! Then she started singing which was fabulous! She was accompanied by one of the Maitre’d on a ukulele – singing an Indonesian song – as all the wait staff except April Joy and one other female waitress, are Indonesian! Then the parade happened – all the waitstaff and then the kitchen staff came out and walked around the upper Dining Room with the Chef at the end. It was quite a thing to see! Here are my pictures (lunch included) and video of part of the song.
After dinner it was a fun sway walking back to our stateroom at the pointy end of the ship, as it moved through the high waves and wind! Our veranda door was also singing tonight as it had done before when the wind had come up. Time for bed as tomorrow it is going to be an early morning! The Captain announced at the same time he was telling us to hold on at 4pm today, that the bow of the Noordam was going to be open at 5:30 am as we cruised into Sydney Harbour! You know who normally watches sunrises is planning on being there AND the weather is looking good for tomorrow morning!