Today is Andrew and my 42nd anniversary of the day that we met! Most people do not know that! Let’s see what kind of trouble we can get into at sea today!
To start off, YES AGAIN, I had a discussion with the balcony door about wanting to get out to see the sunrise! Today I started the procedure early so I was out on the balcony in plenty of time to see the full sunrise which was great! At 6:30 am it was already about 28 degrees Celsius and humid! Quite nice sitting there and feeling the ship go up and down in the waves – which are really hard to see that they are high however a ship like this does not move like it does if they are not there! Here was my vista this morning while a certain other person was sawing logs or examining the inside of his eyelids – not sure which!
After a delightful breakfast this morning, while Andrew went for his daily walk around the deck, I decided to go listen to one of the Guest Lecturer’s speak on Mutiny at Sea. The focus of his talk was what happened with Captain Bligh and the Bounty as the King had commissioned it to travel to Tahiti to get breadfruit plants to transport to the Caribbean so that people can be better fed. Now Captain Bligh had sailed with Captain Cook previously until Cooks death on the Island of Hawaii, so he understood how to feed his crew well and how to avoid scurvy. However his crew, who were made up of prisoners who were offered the opportunity to work on a ship instead of staying in prison, did not understand this and did not like how Captain Bligh treated them. The lecturer told us various stories of Captain Bligh feeding the crew mutton and other food and it being rejected. They did arrive in Tahiti and tried to dig up breadfruit plants to transport back to the Caribbean, however they kept dying, so the Botanists on board the Bounty, suggested they stay a few more months until Spring and perhaps the plants would transplant better at that time. So they did. However the sailors/crew had free time ashore during this period and then became very fond of the Tahitian ladies!
Finally it was time to sail, and Captain Bligh rounded up all his sailors (who were not happy) and with all the breadfruit transplants on board, they set off. However discontent built up on the ship, and Captain Bligh’s second in command, Lieutenant Christian, seized the ship one night and mutinied Captain Bligh and about 18 followers in a 8 metre long boat (without a compass and barely any food) in the ocean. Captain Bligh made it to Timor about 40 days later by navigating by memory. They only lost one man in this journey which happened when they set down on a hostile island. Timor was under Dutch rule at the time and so Bligh and the mutinied sailors were sent back to Britain and court-martialed by the Royal Navy, due to losing the Bounty. In the end though, he was not charged as he had saved the sailors (who stood up for their Captain) in the longboat.
Interesting enough, Lieutenant Christian, now the Captain of the Bounty, went back to Tahiti where they picked up some Tahitian men and women (who the remaining sailors had met) and then they set sail again, however they knew that the Royal Navy would be after them. They decided to beach the Bounty on Pitcairn Island, where they set it on fire so it could not be found. They chose Pitcairn Island as it had been charted 200 miles from where it actually lay, so they thought that the British Navy would not find them. However the British Navy did find them and while there are differing stories, where some indicate that Christian died on Pitcairn Island, others say he returned to England. The current inhabitants of Pitcairn Island are descendants from those who were on the Bounty ship.
As I was listening to the guest speaker, there was a lady next to me who was napping a bit. She woke up and noticed that I was crocheting so she pulled out her knitting and proceeded to knit along while I crocheted. At the end of the talk she asked me what I was crocheting and I told her dish clothes as I can do them and pay attention to the speaker at the same time. She was knitting a dish cloth herself – it was her first project! I must say, it was a HUGE dishcloth! Once that thing got wet, it would be like a hand towel! I kept that though to myself though. She was from north of Brisbane in Australia and had actually flown Air Canada to Vancouver and then flown to Seattle to get onto the cruise back to Australia – it is a trip she has always wanted to do!
We then had lunch and decided to explore the ship, which we really have not done yet on this cruise. As I previously mentioned, we have been on the Noordam before, however there have been some changes which are nice upgrades! The Noordam had a heavy overhaul last year (2024) to “modernize” it compared to the newer vessels in the fleet such as the Nieuw Statendam and Amsterdam, of which the first one we have sailed on. So come with us as we visit the different areas of the ship on our walkabout today!
Deck 2 – Dining Room (Stern) to the World Stage (Bow)
Now, as they are having an Ice Cream Social on the Lido deck, we decided to proceed there for some after lunch cool inspiration and to check out the rest of Decks 9, 10 and 11 – of which I have posted about the bow portion of Deck 10 previously.
Here is our tour as we walked to the Lido deck, out to the Sea Pool at the stern of the ship on Deck 9, up to Deck 10 (Observation) from the stern back to the forward elevators and then took a single elevator up to Deck 11, Sports Deck thinking we could get to the bow, however only found a sun tanning area instead!
It was a bit warm walking on the decks for this tour, while is probably why you do not see many people sun tanning! I actually was quite surprised with the lack of people up there as the areas are fairly well hidden from the wind and quite nice – if you like being in the hot sun! On another note, I was trying to figure out what was shielded by the blue glass on Deck 11 at the bow and thought maybe it was a crew pool – however I was wrong. The crew actually does not have a pool on this ship! They can use the Sea View pool when we are in port. Only issue? The Sea View pool, which you saw is empty, is under maintenance until October 30th! (2 days). So I guess the day in port tomorrow no staff are relaxing and swimming!
Now, onto a more important task! Getting to the Art area and Origami! I have a secret mission in mind and want to follow through on it! Today we are making hearts. Andrew is downstairs in our stateroom listening to the Blue Jays vs. Dodgers World Series game so he is unaware of what I am up to! I am going to make him a heart bouquet for our anniversary! We can make two different types of origami hearts – I am making the puffy ones and will add straws to the bottom of them to make the bouquet. I hope the bartender will give me some paper straws (only thing that they are good for in my opinion)!
Next up is another painting with Gogh – Starry Night with a Rowboat! Saying I had made this bouquet for Andrew I invited him up to the Art Class to come take a picture of me (the classes were one after another so I could not run down to our stateroom) to take a picture of me painting and to give him his bouquet! Here I am painting my picture!
Wow – so now I have completed 3 paintings and I have one left to go! There is a “package” price if you sign up for 2 at a time. This one was the toughest for me due to the number of dots that needed to be made with the paint brush to mimic the original painting! What do you think of the result? Compare it to the one above – top right corner of the instructors image!
We then went to dinner and caught the evening show called “Solid Gold” which was a tribute to music from the 70’s! Songs from Elton John, ABBA and others. It was also great to see some body positivity with the performers – not just skinny women and men dancing and singing on stage!
Okay, now to bed! We have some time travel to do – fast forward 23 hours at 23:59 pm and we will be in Apia, Samoa at 8 am on Wednesday, October 29th – leaving October 28th in our dreams only! See you then!