cruise

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 5^th 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!

I was fed, dressed and ready to go and in the Pinnacle Bar, the designated meeting place for the Noordam Ship tour at 9:20 am! This was going to be exciting! I have been on a kitchen tour previously – funny enough on the Noordam when it was brand new – however this was going to go to places in the ship that I was really looking forward to seeing! There were 10 other people – 5 couples – gathered in the area too, plus Brendan, the Assistant Cruise Director and Agatha, who also instructs some of the Art Classes. Brendan asked people to gather round and so we did. I sat down on my walker as I thought he was going to talk to us for a bit prior to the tour as he collected our “I am not sick” forms. He had given out lanyards with a little cute orange model of the Noordam on them which actually is a USB stick with photos on it to everyone and then when he got to me, in front of everyone, he asked me why I was there. I saw Agatha’s face fall as it was pretty rude. I told him I was registered for the tour and I believe I am going to take the ADA version of the tour. Brendan was VERY confused at this point. He then left us all and told us to wait while he went to use the phone behind the bar. Soon enough he was back – gave me a lanyard with the Noordam on it and said that I was supposed to be on the tour, however Agatha and I have to wait for someone from Reception to come speak with me. He then took the other tour people to the Deck 2 Galley which is across the hall.

At that point I said to Agatha, why can I not go on the tour? I have been on a kitchen tour on this boat previously and it is accessible. I know there is an escalator to go up, however all I need to do is go out into the hall, up the elevator and back into the dining room and into the kitchen to re-join the tour. She agreed and said that these tours are VERY new – they just started doing them at the end of the Alaska sailings on the last day so perhaps Brendan did not know about that option. At that time a supervisor from Reception showed up and told me that I could watch a video however the only place I could go was the Bridge. I was really frustrated at this point as I knew what was read to me the night prior and that is not what she was telling me. On top of that, the galley tour had just ended as the Chef had just walked past us – so I definitely missed out on that portion!

Sometimes you just have to advocate for yourself. I told the lady from Reception that I wanted to see the galley and I knew that it was accessible and I am pretty sure that other parts of the tour are accessible also – at this point in time she said they were assuming that I was not going to use my walker for the tour! I pointed out what my first message to them said – is this tour accessible for someone who uses a walker and the answer was YES. It was then agreed that I would go with Agatha to visit the galley and that the Sous Chef would give us a tour – it was only 1/2 of the tour as it was only the Deck 2 Galley, which is where the “Al la Carte” Dining is served from (people who make reservations for different times in the evening). I must admit though, when walking through the Galley, which was spotlessly clean, ALL the kitchen staff looked up and said hi to Agatha and I as we walked by with the Sous Chef! They all had such lovely smiles too! As this is the Galley where the lunch is served from, they were already starting to set the garnishes on the plates for the lunch service.

After that quick tour, Agatha and I went back down to Deck 1 to Reception as I said that perhaps saying I was missing the balance of the tour except the Bridge, I could see the video instead? Agatha then talked to the lady who previously met with us and it was agreed that Agatha would be back at 11 am to take me to meet the tour of the Bridge. I then people watched in the lobby of the Noordam for the next 40 minutes as I was traveling light for the tour – no crocheting with me!

At 11 am I met up with Agatha and we then met the rest of the tour on the Navigation Deck (8) where we got to visit the Bridge! We each got to have our picture taken with the Captain and then the Staff Captain (who is next in charge) gave us a tour of the Bridge. It is so quiet and serene up there! I was impressed also – they have quite the stock of coffee and tea products along with a couch and sitting area too! Not sure about the couch – sleeping on the job would not be good! We were not told we could take pictures at that point so I did not take a picture of that area. Once the Captain left, we were able to take pictures if we did not include any of the bridge staff who were working. Here is my tour of the bridge which was fascinating!

After our pictures were taken, we then stood at the middle of the Bridge looking out. Many of the things mentioned in the Captains talk – the small wheel with a piece missing, the joysticks etc were pointed out. Basically a LOT of redundancy on the Bridge in case something goes wrong. As we were in the middle of the ocean it was a bit hard for the Staff Captain to show us the overlay of the chart display and the radar display – my picture did not work out of this either due to the flickering of the displays. I did ask at this point, when in the middle of the ocean if there are certain “routes” they have to follow, especially at night – where I correlated this to airplanes flying at certain heights depending on direction or in the Vancouver, BC Harbour (where the Noordam sails) there definitely is a “shipping” lane. The Staff Captain said no, not really out in the open ocean – maritime rules apply smaller has to give way basically and most ships/freighters and other craft can pass using radar with plenty of distance. On that note though, he did point out that there are at least 2 people on the Bridge at all times when at sea – there was what I would call a “seaman” who was at the front just watching with binoculars and gazing the horizon and then a uniformed person who was at the helm, when we were not standing there – watching the instruments.

The other really interesting thing that happened when we were at the helm was a demonstration of the “Alexa” of the seas. The Staff Captain, when standing in a certain spot announced “Noordam alter course to 244 degrees” (I do not remember the actual number he said but it had 4’s in it!) and slowly the ship moved 5 degrees to the port! Very cool! This is a brand new “feature” for the ship. Not sure how much it is used – I personally would just use the joystick in front of me!

Then we moved to the Port Wing of the ship – I tried to see our cabin veranda but could not! Nothing like standing above the sea with a very thick Plexiglas floor tile looking down! At that point the Captain appeared again and warned us all about being good visitors to the Bridge as they do have an escape trigger for the floor tile! Funny – NOT! The other cool new toy the Staff Captain pointed out is the device that measures how close to the dock the ship is getting – previously this was done by radio between a guy down below on the ship radioing up the position – however now this display shows them exactly the ships position in relation to the dock – down to the foot!

We then walked back towards the main part of the bridge and then into a room behind it called the “Command Centre” where there is a huge long board with lots of red and green lights on it. Basically it shows every fire and water door on the ship – so if there is a fire – they can control the doors open and closing features from the Bridge! Very interesting! What I found more fascinating though was a set of buttons nearer to me which were to empty the pools! The Staff Captain indicated that there are situations where they sometimes need to empty the pools really quickly – such as rough weather – so all they do is press a button and each or one of the 2 pools are drained in a few minutes out to the sea!

Then the tour came to an end! I really enjoyed the Bridge tour, however I was really frustrated with the Noordam staff on the lack of communication and expectation setting on what I was going to be able to do – especially when the night before what I was read from their manual indicated I was to be ASKED and OFFERED options. I never saw the video of the portions of the tour that I missed. I ended up writing some feedback to the ship, again through the app, regarding the tour and what had happened and lack of communication. As the tour cost people $189 to go to 7 parts of the ship – that was basically $27 per area. Not that I am a numbers person at all – I wrote them that as I did not see the video, was not offered the option to watch the video and only saw 1/2 of the Galley, had to spend 40 minutes waiting in the middle of the tour and then was able to visit the Bridge – I suggested that $54 was a better charge for my portion of the tour. Then I waited for a reply….

In the meantime – off to lunch we went and we got to sit at the VERY back of the ship! The only way to get farther back is to walk around the stern! I had ordered macaroni and cheese for lunch and I was quite happy to see that comfort food show up! Then it was off to the Art area to get my creative side of me working again! Time to paint another picture! This time it was a Dunes at Sunset painting!

Today we sent in a TON of laundry so we get it back tomorrow which is our last day at sea! However tonight is the last formal night of the cruise and the night I have been WAITING for and looking forward to for the last 26 days! Surf and turf! However for me it will just be surf, surf and more surf!

That said, I was to have the most interesting start to my dinner! On the menu was a “Pina Colada” soup which was marked naturally gluten free! As I love coconut and pineapple and virgin Pina Colada’s in general, I decided to order it! Wow – what a surprise! Yes, it is a cold soup with 2 strawberries in it! It was bizarre having a Pina Colada soup…. I could not finish it – it was just too sweet for me! Next time – I will stick with the drink!

The main course was awesome though – not only did it come with veggies (veggies have been lacking on this cruise) but the lobster tails were just perfectly steamed! Ooh la la! Went down without the need for butter! Then same the piece de resistance! Andrew gave me his lobster tail too! Mmmm good!

The only thing not pictured as I was in a seafood daze, was the small chocolate lava cake that came for dessert…. Okay – this was a good dinner and end to a kind of stressful day!

Tomorrow is relax and pack time!

What a beautiful beginning to the day! I am so lucky that I am able to get up early and see these sun rises each morning!

Well, last night I had seen a message on the Holland America Navigator app that indicated there was going to be a tour of the ship offered today! I was quite excited as I had heard through the grapevine (actually at the Captains talk) they were going to start offering these tours again on longer voyages – guess what we are on??? I called Reception at about 9 am today, however they were busy like normal, so instead I sent them a message asking them if the tour was accessible as I use a walker. Eventually I received a call back indicating they would get back to me. At the same time, they were also confused as they told me that the tour, which is starting in 30 minutes is full! I pointed out it was showing in the Navigator app for tomorrow, not today so perhaps it was a different tour? A lady then called me back and told me that yes, the tour on November 7th is accessible and could I please come by the Reception area today to sign the form for the tour? She signed me up (only 12 people are allowed), however as the tour costs $189, I had to sign that I acknowledged the charge.

I spent a good portion of the day relaxing my body in bed and on the veranda doing various fun things like updating my blog, downloading pictures, colouring, knitting and of course taking a nap! Dinner time rolled around and we went by the Reception area so that I could sign the tour receipt prior to dinner. At that point I had a niggling feeling that something might be wrong. The man on duty could not find anything about me wanting to take the tour and seeing me sitting on my walker, he was quite confused! He first said it was too late to sign up, and then when I told him I already did and just needed to sign the receipt, he gave me a receipt to sign for $156, however I knew something was not right by his behavior as he kept going into the back office to check on things. I was told that some information was going to be sent to our cabin while we were at dinner. I was going to go on the tour alone as the tour was going to happen when Andrew normally is taking a walk around the ship.

Here are the pictures from the sunset tonight – again another wonderful one!

Dinner was fabulous, yet again! I cannot remember what I had (my phone I had left in our stateroom charging by mistake) however I was hungry as I had skipped lunch after a late breakfast. Sometimes there is TOO much to eat on cruise ships!

When we got back to the room, sure enough there was a note under our door about the ship tour the next day. It had a form that I had to fill out that I had to declare that I was not sick and then on the back was the really interesting part – it said that they offer an ADA compliant tour of the ship. (ADA stands for Americans with Disabilities Act and as Holland America is based in Seattle, Washington, they have to follow this Act on the ship). That was the first time that I had heard about that option so I phoned reception and spoke to the man who I had dealt with earlier in the evening. He said that they only charged me $156 for the tour as I was taking the ADA tour instead (news to me). He then read to me what the ADA tour description was which basically said “the person with the disability should be able to take part on as much of the tour as they can possibly accomplish – as some portions are down some stairs we will provide a video for them to watch instead”. I distinctly remember him reading this to me and thinking that was interesting – this is the first time I was being told about this – however my receipt did say $156 so it seemed right and things much have been arranged…. time for bed!

Tomorrow is going to be an early start as the Noordam Ship tour which includes the Dining Room Kitchens on Deck 2 and 3, Stores, Laundry, Recycling, Composting, Engine Control Room and finally the Bridge meets at 9:30 am! I got to get my body in gear early!

WELL, someone overexerted herself yesterday! Despite being “rocked” to sleep all night long, my muscles and back are very sore! Time for some TLC today! I have a plan! In fact I foresaw this plan so many months ago I actually booked the massage appointment in advance – I am just SO SMART! Actually, not that smart – just lucky!

So Room Service showed up at 8 am as normal. Lynda had a very nice breakfast in bed, courtesy of Room Service and then her personal waiter, Andrew. More time on the heating pad was needed! At 9:45 am I rolled out of bed, way later than normal, and made my way down to the World Stage, as the Executive Chef Willem Waltheer was speaking about everything Culinary on the DAM ships! I was very interested in hearing this presentation. However, prior to going down to it, I had made an appointment with a certain clinic on the A deck – to see the doctor as the muscle spasms were a bit much! They could not see me until 11:30 am so it was perfect! Listen to the chef and then see the doctor!

Chef Willem did an excellent presentation on how a ship is provisioned, especially for a longer voyage like we are on. He was formally the Executive Chef on the Oosterdam and the pictures were from when they were taking on a heavy load of supplies in Brazil prior to a long cruise to South America. I took pictures of the whole presentation, however I will only include the pertinent ones here. Here we go!

Obviously, the Executive Chef will do some meal planning and put in the order for food through Holland America suppliers and the goods arrive at the dock. However he started with the goods arriving at the dock and then went into menu planning – sort of a chicken and an egg sort of thing I guess – which comes first! Anyway, when the goods arrive at the dock, they are first inspected by the local customs and security officers and dogs. Once that is done, EVERY pallet is put on the ground and the Executive chef and the sous chefs inspect every box on every pallet for freshness, quality and temperature. He later said that some inspections though are done within refrigerated trucks to keep the goods at temperature.

Next, once a pallet is inspected, it can be brought onto the ship. A stevedore is the name of the person who controls the forklift. There are actually 2 forklifts – one outside of the ship which puts the pallet down on the ships landing platform and then the ship has its own forklift driver who picks up the pallet and places it where it needs to go. Once the ship’s crew member has picked up the pallet – nothing on it can then be returned as it is considered International Cargo.

For a longer voyage, such as ours, they will take on more than 100 pallets of food – dry, vegetables, fruit, meats etc. It all needs to be stored somewhere and as the chef indicated, it is a good thing that the master storeroom clerk is skinny as the storerooms get VERY full! He then told a funny story about just after departing one day from port and missing his saffron seasoning and it took 5 chefs to find it in the storeroom – a little bottle as there were so many things that were piled high in boxes waiting to be inventoried. I could commiserate with this story as when we got on board, I was hungry and went to the Lido deck for something to eat as the Main Dining Room was not open. Confused as to where to get gluten free food (I missed the sign on the first go round of the Buffet) I asked the Chef standing nearby. He informed me that all the gluten free items are housed at the Italian station and I should go there. However there is currently not much in stock due to the load taken on in Seattle which included inventory of gluten free items and they would not make it up to the Lido for 24 hours! I ended up just having some roasted chicken and cheese instead as he was right – not much of a selection in the gluten free area!

The chef then talked about the different “storage” areas on the ship. As I mentioned earlier, some items come in at temperature – such as produce and fruit, which is really important that they arrive refrigerated and remain in that state going into the refrigerators on the ships so spoilage does not occur. It is amazing how many days at sea we were and the ship was still offering Caesar salads at dinner! They have lots of different walk in refrigerators on board the ship too in the storage area as he also talked about ingredients that cannot be stored together due to spoilage concerns from off gasses. He was a fund of information – in some ways I wish I had recorded the presentation!

All the meats which arrive at the ship are processed in the butcher department and then they are put into the fridges based on the menu plans. The picture below of the butcher area on B deck shows a man cutting up a beef tenderloin. Chef really liked this butcher as his nickname was “Tofu” which was quite funny considering is profession! Then you can see the meat bins in the meat refrigerator ready for cooking. Similar to meats, there also are fish and veggie prep areas on the ship too! He mentioned how busy the fish prep area has been due to all the fresh fish that they were able to buy in the Hawaiian Islands and in Fiji.

Next, we get into the gluten section aka Bakery! That is located on A deck and runs 24 hours a day! They bake bread and pastries 4 times a day – breakfast, lunch and then twice for dinner service! Apparently the area is quite small and the ovens are fairly hot so it is a pretty warm area to be working in – however the bakery section is very creative as I later found out they won the Pumpkin carving contest on board the ship which the different staff from the various departments participated in.

Next the chef talked about serving and menu planning – for serving, the plating of the dishes is done about an hour in advance of the meals and then they are stored in refrigerators with a kind of dumb waiter that rise as the trays of plates come out to be given to the servers. There also is a line for the hot food where the waiters line up and with the pre-garnished plate, the food selection is placed onto the plate – whether it be chicken, fish, roast beef, etc. I knew he was glossing over some key details here as I have worked as a waitress in a banquet kitchen, however for 80% of the people eating on the ship, this is how their food would be obtained. Lastly, came menu planning – which for me I would be doing first!

For a cruise like ours, they basically set out 28 days of menus and then have the “standard” items on each menu which are Caesar salads for appetizers, chicken for dinner and ice cream for dessert. Then they add either a “chefs plate or port plate” depending on the day, to the menu – one appetizer and one main meal. The chefs plate is something the chef decides to feature, where the port plate is a local cuisine. White the chef indicated they do not repeat any meals, I disagree! I saw a lot of repeated meals (outside of chicken) on this cruise – which was both good and negative – good as I could have something I liked previously however the negative meant it limited the types of dishes that I could select from as often the repeated dishes contained red meat or some type of gluten item that could not be separated out.

Lastly, in his presentation was a slide on serving the 35 nationalities of staff on board the ships – they have 3 different buffet lines of meals that they serve – Asian/Indonesian, European and North American. He said that keeping both the guests and staff happy is his ultimate goal however he finds that the cooking for the Asian/Indonesian population of crew. They like their spices and their food HOT which he is not used to as a chef! As he said, that is why he has Sous Chefs to specialize in those areas of cuisine.

After Chef Willem finished speaking, he then took questions from the audience. Franklin, one of the art studio crew was one of the people with mics walking around to help people with their questions so the Chef and others could hear them. Franklin knew I had a questions and guess who was up first! Me! Yikes! I mentioned that I have Celiac Disease and then thanked him for all the wonderful meals that I have been served on the ship that have been made gluten free for me. My question was though about the gluten free products on board – I was finding that they are just not available and are hard to get such as bread with dinner (I mentioned I was served the first piece of bread after 21 days last night) and other items like muffins and cookies that just round out a meal. He thanked me for the feedback, however he was surprised by my question as he said they had taken on a lot of GF food in Seattle. He then asked for my suite number and said he would follow up with me. I thought Franklin knew where I was staying however I guess not – apparently Franklin had to search for me for the next 3 days to find what cabin I was in as the Chef wanted to know! Anyway, my feedback was provided and he heard it.

Another lady followed up with similar feedback – she is wheat allergic and she said her meals were fabulous however she was not aware that she could order in advance or that she could have her meals customized as I had mentioned! The Chef said anything is possible and that please write down what she wishes to eat and try and order the gluten free food! At least one person benefited from my question albeit 3 weeks into the sailing!

Next I went upstairs to Deck 9 – the Spa to meet Patricia – the lady who had previously given me a Swedish Massage to give me yet another massage! She was NOT impressed when she saw me hobble into the spa in pain though! She was so sweet and said that she would help me and focused on my spasms and worked away at them for 50 minutes and I was in HEAVEN! What a luxurious experience having a massage is! This was a Deep Tissue/Swedish Massage combo she said she did. I had told her about my experience in Thailand with the lady walking on me and she laughed! She is from the Philippines and she said that she just massages people – she does not walk on them – too dangerous on a cruise ship!

Now with my massage done, it was time to relax for an hour until I went back to the Spa for another pre-booked procedure – a manicure! I said this was going to be a day of relaxation and it was! Kristina did my nails again – this time only my hands and she is a perfectionist! My nails looked so beautiful once she was done! They are shellac nail colour and pretty red to match my toes – I just hope that the sea water when snorkeling tomorrow will not affect them!

While I am still sore, I promised Ben that I would pay him a visit in the Shore Excursions department to let him know how the “Jewel of Fiji” tour went the previous day. I had done a stupid thing which I later regretted – I had downloaded my pictures onto my laptop last night like I normally do so they were no long on my phone! Here I was and I had nothing to show him! I had him again tell me what his impression from the tour operator was of what I was to expect on the tour (flat to get into boat, about 18 steps to waterfall and could swim instead nearby, and 24 steps up to the community hut) and then I explained what reality was and he was quite surprised! I think he thought I wanted a refund, however I did not as I did enjoy myself and so did Andrew, it was a great experience, however the expectation setting by the tour operator was a problem. He said that I was so polite (funny having a fellow Canadian say that to you) and that most people would have been really angry etc. I told him that it was an excursion that I really wanted to do and I am a determined person at times and while I was not impressed with Holland America and their accessibility and tour information, it was a positive experience in the end. I then promised to bring pictures when I was next up to do some art (the Excursions desk is on the other side of the ship from the Art area).

Then down I went to our stateroom to relax! While I was there we went through a VERY black cloud and there was no balcony sitting for me! Yet another rain monsoon! We decided to watch a movie on TV and have dinner in our stateroom – there was no going out for me! Thank goodness, as I order my meals the night before, it is not really an issue to do this – Andrew just had to order off the regular Room Service menu!

Tomorrow we will solve the Mystery of what Mystery Island entails!

Okay, we are in a HOT climate and at sea – how the dickens does one come down with a COLD? Andrew has successfully done so and I suspect I will be next! Oh well, it is another day at sea while we transit from Samoa to Savusavu, Vanua Levi, Fiji! One HUGE update is the sea has dropped down in height and winds – we are now back to about a 4 on the Scale, which being down from a 7 is awesome! Still, at night the ship seems to be powering through the waves it seems!

Now that I have made friends yet again with our balcony door, I spent the morning out there watching the sun rise while the sick dude got some extra sleep…. nothing spectacular though so no pictures! However we did decide last night to try out the dining room for breakfast this morning instead of having breakfast in our room, so at about 9 am before the Dining Room closed, off we went as I was in the mood for some gluten free pancakes!

Now, as it is a day at sea, I had to get back into the swing of things and get doing some art! So off I went to doodling, adult colouring, water colour and origami! Origami was a bust – nothing as spectacular as the heart bouquet the other day! I just generally played around in the art studio! I was actually having so much fun that I forgot to go for lunch in the Dining Room so I came back to our stateroom and ordered Room Service and they brought me my “pre-ordered” meal which was “All Dressed” Nachos without cilantro, with some chunks of chicken added so I could have a balanced meal. What arrived? Well, here is an example of a communication breakdown of what I write on the menu and what I get served. I got TWO nacho plates (only ordered one) – one with nacho chips, wilted lettuce and chicken pieces and the other plate was nachos with black beans, carrot shavings and chicken pieces! No idea where the cheese went which is a main ingredient of nachos… Lets just call these “Noordam inventions”! The yellow pieces of paper are the allergen “special order” forms that are filled out by the waiters.

As we have cross the date line the sun rise and sun set times have also moved – earlier! So we saw the start of the sunset tonight – it started out quite beautiful however then sizzled behind a cloud….which you cannot see here however it appeared on the horizon just as the sun was setting…. Oh well another night we will capture one!

Now, tonight is a formal night on the ship, so we got dressed up – for me that means I put on makeup! I did not bring anything really formal, I just put on make up and a sweater plus my little black dress and it passes 🙂 We were going to the Pinnacle Grill for our 2nd meal there – courtesy of Holland America and the “Have it All” Packages that we received for booking so far in advance. I already knew what I was having for dinner and yes, tonight I pushed the boundaries on dessert! I had mentioned to Andrew earlier on that the appetizer called the “Candied Bacon Clothesline” that the Pinnacle Grill has been talked about by various people quite a bit – perhaps he might want to order it! So he did, along with a beef dish and Key Lime pie! I went with the Lobster Bisque as I can only get it prepared for me on Holland America it seems, the Halibut Fresh Fish of the Day and then for dessert – the “deconstructed” Baked Alaska (gluten free of course)! Here are our pictures of our meals –

The whole meal was excellent, however the Baked Alaska, which can be a heavy dessert with cake and hard ice cream instead was a fluffy marsh mellow concoction that was flamed like a s’more, with cherry ice cream, some Bing cherries and bits of meringue inside. Very light and wonderful end to the meal!

Needless to say, we rolled ourselves back to the pointy end of the ship after that meal and planned for our next day in Savusavu, Fiji where I needed to go to the bank and Andrew needed to hit up the local chemist for some cold medication! Then in the afternoon, we have a HAL excursion planned to a Traditional Fijian village which I am looking forward to!

See you all soon from the future!

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!

Good morning! Yet again, it is time for a sun rise and I am having issues getting out onto the balcony! I think there are two things against me – I am trying to be QUIET and the wind is blowing AGAINST the door! So around I go clockwise and counter clockwise listening for that click and push on the door and it does not open. About to give up and then it opens! Give me a break! It is a balmy 30 degrees outside and HUMID this morning on the South Pacific! I almost should break out into song, however that will end badly and it does say next to the railing to not throw anything overboard, including humans! We need Andrew to get his beauty sleep now!

What a lovely morning to sit on the balcony! I sort of feel like Marilyn Monroe though as the skirt from my dress insists on flying high! However no one is around to see so that is okay I guess. It was interesting today that the sky is blue however the sun has not fully risen yet! Finally it peeked above some clouds on the horizon to show its lovely face!

At 10:30 am I went to the King Neptune Party on the stern of the ship, on the Lido Deck 9. This is where the Adults pool only is located along with a lot of sun chairs – where you will NOT find me sun bathing! It was jammed with people while I arrived however I was lucky to sneak into a spot sitting on my walker right behind the roped in area where the Captain and the other Officers sat. In this ceremony, which in my impression was fun for the staff but took a bit too long, there was a Judge, played by the Assistant Cruise Director, King Neptune, played by the Cruise Director and then King Neptune’s Queen played by a female – not sure who she was! They had a script to read which was actually quite funny and full of puns and “sea” references. The PURPOSE of this ceremony is to celebrate the crossing of the Equator.

The “official explanation” according to Google is: “The Neptune ceremony, or “Crossing the Line,” is a maritime tradition where sailors who cross the equator for the first time (known as polliwogs) undergo an initiation rite to become a seasoned sailor (a shellback). The ceremony typically involves a humorous and sometimes messy process presided over by “King Neptune” and his court, where initiates face various ordeals like being dunked in water, having their heads shaved, or being subjected to other comical and humiliating tasks.

Needless to say, it WAS entertaining! There was a whole line of about 30 “polliwogs” lead onto the deck by some “pirates” and they were introduced in groups such as the “Bartenders” or “Housekeeping” or “Engineering” to receive their treatment. In this case the judge and King Neptune ordered they first kiss the fish heads (they were huge) propped up on the table at the end of the pool, then they had to lay down on some tables and be covered with sea foam, before coming to kneel down in front of the Captain and officers. At that point in time, the Judge, King Neptune and the Queen did a commentary about the polliwogs in front of them and some of their “bad behavior”. Then the Judge asked the Captain and Officers to “judge” them with either a thumbs up or thumbs down. A thumbs up meant they could jump into the pool! A thumbs down meant they had to sit on the side of the pool and bake. I took several videos of this process however the one of the “entertainment (band and dancers) staff” was the best in my impression! Especially when they called out the black piano player for his antics on stage and then the Queen made a comment about him (he is covered in yellow foam) needing to being spared! Thumbs up or down?

Now, after watching numerous groups of polliwogs come up for judgment, it was time to end the ceremony!

The staff, who normally do not get to swim in the rear adults only pool obviously enjoyed themselves! I then proceeded to do some “paperwork” or as Adi, our Dining Room waiter calls it “homework” which I had neglected to complete the previous night as we had dined in our stateroom due to my migraine (which is much more tame today). First off I went to the Canaletto Restaurant, where we had reservations for this evening, to let them know that I needed a gluten free meal. The hostess and one of the waiters were there and they assisted me with the menu and I was able to pre-order my dinner so the chef knew what I was intending on eating. Then I ran down (well I just took the elevator instead) to the Dining Room as I thought we would need to let them know about lunch. However I found out they were serving brunch instead, and as I was not really that hungry, I suggested to Susie, the special diets hostess who is generally on duty, that perhaps we would pass on the brunch.

I then found Andrew and he had just watched the Port Talk on Apia, Samoa where we will be in a couple of days. As we are taking a tour, there was not much to learn as the tour is going to take up most of the time we are in port. We then agreed we did not need anymore food and settled into the afternoon in our lovely stateroom! There was a Whitecaps soccer game for Andrew to listen to and I had some activities to do along with taking a much needed nap! Soon enough, the Whitecaps had won, the Canucks had also won in OT, so Andrew was happy and while I was having a discussion with my laptop regarding uploading videos, we realized it was now time for our dinner reservation! We got spiffed up and went upstairs to the Lido Deck, where the Canaletto restaurant is located, for our dinner!

I had reserved a window seat, however we soon found out that at 7 pm the sun has basically set – so the view did not last long! I had a beet and goat cheese salad, which was the same as Andrew had other than he got Gorgonzola cheese instead. I do not particularly like that type of cheese. Then Andrew was served a spaghetti dish with prawns and clams where I had the sea bass with eggplant. Both the starters and main meals were very good! We finished off the night with a demi-tasse cup which had vanilla gelato in it with espresso poured over top for dessert! Andrew had to finish mine as there was a bit too much coffee for my liking…. 🙂 I am sorry I forgot to take a picture of our dessert – I did not want the gelato to melt!

After our meal, we took a nice walk to the Dining Room to see our regular waiters so I could fill out my menu selections for the following day. We now have been at sea for 14 days and the menus are starting to rotate again I find and for tomorrow nights menu there is a problem – I do not like any of the Main dishes! Time to pull out the old backup dish – chicken with veggies! On that note, I am finding HAL a little light on the veggies. It must be hard to keep vegetables in a large quantity fresh on board a ship. As you can see from my dinner last night – there was not a lot of vegetables present – there were more cut up eggplant under the fish, however they are very light on veggies unless you ask for more! These types of meals suit Andrew more than they suit me who looks for more of a balance on my plate…

Tomorrow is our last day at sea, prior to crossing the International Date Line and arriving in Samoa! Looking forward to this momentous occasion!

We start this beautiful morning, our last morning on the North Pacific with a quasi good sun rise which woke Andrew up as yet again I tried to get QUIETLY out onto the balcony and was not successful! I am not sure why the door is such a challenge for me, however if I spin the knob just enough like I am opening a safe and hear a click, then it will open and whoosh! in comes the warm breeze! Needless to say me “cracking the safe” getting out the door at 6 am wakes up Andrew! Somehow he has figure it out and despite having a nasty blood blister the first time he tried, he has the maneuver down to a single half twist. Me, nope. Full unlock procedure that I almost need a stethoscope to listen for the subtle click when the door releases for me to then try and open it!

Finally outside! Here is today’s sun rise, which funny enough is after the sun actually rose as it took me too long playing with the door!

For our days at sea, there are both staff and guest lecturer’s aboard giving presentations. Some of the guest lecture presentations I have passed on – such as black holes in space and the like, however I have enjoyed the ones that relate to New Zealand and Australia and the Indigenous population and early settlement. I know that in British Columbia, the treatment of our Indigenous population is something that we all are very concerned about and both New Zealand and Australia have great examples of what has happened in the past and what has been done to rectify each of their situations in the present day. I attended the New Zealand presentation a couple of days ago, where today I was attending the presentation on Australia’s First People’s. The presenter, who is part of the HAL staff is very good at public speaking and has practiced the presentations that she does so her timing is impeccable. She does read from a teleprompter which is a screen between Deck 1 and Deck 2, where the World Stage is 3 decks high. I have found it is best to be on Deck 1 to watch these presentations as the seating that is accessible on Deck 2 and 3 there are overhangs that block the video displays on the stage. This time though I was NOT in front of the railings for the stage! The presentations are excellent and involve indigenous people speaking parts where the speaker fills in the rest – it is seamless from her speaking to when the video plays of the indigenous speaker and what they are wanting us to learn about their culture.

Today, we learned how Australia was settled, mainly on the east coast, way back tens of thousands of years ago by people who arrived from both south Asia, through land bridges and also the South Pacific Islands. Then there were voyagers that arrived such as Cook who was on instruction from the King to discover new lands. That if I remember correctly was about 1770 (I remembered that as it was similar to the USA becoming a nation). Unfortunately, that is when the First Peoples of Australia started to have a hard time. Not only did the Europeans bring sickness such as smallpox and measles, which affected the existing population, they also brought their “rules” and took over by establishing a penal colony. Many ships arrived, several with prisoners and then more with people in which to manage those prisoners in the new land. This had devastating and a lasting impact on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. The population declined by over 75%, land was taken away, their cultural celebrations were banned and trauma ensued. Very similar to what happened in New Zealand and in Canada.

After a few years, more than 90% of the indigenous population had perished and part of the issue was that Cook had written to the King that the land in Australia belonged to “no one” and was open for the taking, despite the first people’s existence. There were new animals introduced to the lands which did not agree with the ecosystem already present and also there was anger building with the way that the aboriginal people were being treated.

It was fascinating to learn that in Australia they have what is called “Stolen Generations” which are from the early 1900’s to the 1970’s, when the government forced the removal of thousands of Indigenous children from their families and placed them in institutions or with white families to be assimilated. I wonder if they have a red shirt day in Australia now too? By removing these children and not allowing them to speak their native language, it taught them to reject their Aboriginal identity which caused separation from family, culture, and the land where they belonged.

There was an indigenous artist who spoke on the video during the presentation about this time in history, how it affected him and his family. None of the native Australians were also citizens of Australia – which shocked me! He spoke of Albert Namatjira, who as an aboriginal, was an awesome contemporary art painter,and his work supported more than 500 family members! He received international recognition – he even met the Queen and his art is in galleries around the world, yet the Australian government for the longest time would not give him his citizenship, despite being born in Australia in 1902. He finally got his citizenship in 1957, and he passed away in Alice Springs, Australia in 1959 at 57 years old. However his story does not end there and the artist who was speaking to us continued about Albert’s work and what happened to it. Somehow the copyright to Albert’s work was sold prior to his death to a private company, however as he was a very popular and well known painter, the company sold the copyright to the public trustee instead of leaving it to his wife and children as the will decreed. The Public Trustee then sold the copyright in the 1980’s for some really low price (under $10,000) to another investor. However in the end the right thing was done, as really the Australian Government and the Public Trustee exploited Albert’s work and it was then sold back to a trust in Albert’s name, in the 2000’s for a dollar, now now all his 2,000+ paintings and images are protected again.

We then learned through the artist who was speaking about the “dot” art that is done in Australia – as the indigenous language is not written, it is often spelled out in dance or in paintings. As a way for the indigenous people to keep their “stories” secret, they then either dance on top of their artwork, if it is done on the ground or place dots on top of the paintings so that it is hard to see what the story is behind on the canvas. I thought that was pretty interesting and ingenious!

The artist then played the didgeridoo (a long wooden wind instrument played by Australian Aboriginal people to produce a deep, droning sound) for us, which he makes the instrument and paints himself. He told us about the different sounds that are made on the didgeridoo like the kangaroo, the bird, the wind, the rain and then told us a story about all those sounds and then played it for us! I wish I had taken a video as it was amazing. Sometimes when I am watching these presentations I am so enraptured that I forget that I want to pass the information onto you also! As I failed at this task, here are some pictures of Australian dot paintings, didgeridoos and lastly how they sound.

Here is a video of a Aboriginal man playing a Didgeridoo

Lastly, here are some examples of Australian Indigenous dot artwork

Do you feel like you have learned something today? I did! Now, lets go for a tour of the ship – starting on my favourite end and deck! Observation Deck 10 – Bow area! Here is where I have been spending most of my time, other than in our stateroom of course and on our balcony! Check it out!

Well, that is all for today folks! I have been fighting a low grade migraine for a couple of days now and I am going to take a break and we are going to dine in our stateroom tonight so I can hopefully put this headache to bed! I am not sure if it is the barometric pressure change or what is going on however this thing just will not go away so it is time for some medicine intervention (which I have with me).

For those paying attention, we are fairly close to the equator now, cruising at 17 knots right now towards Samoa. The Captain announced at noon today, other than we are now at a level 7 on the Beaufort Scale for sea and wind action (which I can attest to) that we will be crossing the equator at 22:45 tonight! I plan to be asleep at that time! However they are having a “Neptune Ceremony” tomorrow to celebrate and I will go investigate what that is all about!

Off to call room service now…. Leaving you with our position at 5:50 pm tonight on the high seas of the Pacific! Those 2, 3 and 4’s you can see in the upper right corner are the Hawaiian stops we came from. We are that dot in the middle at the end of the yellow line. The fuzzy name is Kiribati which we are next to pass on our way to Samoa which is number 5 on our list of ports that we are visiting. Perhaps I should post our itinerary! Good thought Lynda! A post I will get to in my off-leisure hours!

However lets chat about Kiribati for a minute as it is a special place which I did not know about until just now when I looked it up! No wonder it is on the map! According to my friend Google – Kiribati is an island nation that straddles the equator and is the only country in the world to be located in all four hemispheres (Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western). The nation’s islands are spread across the Pacific Ocean, with some islands lying north of the equator, others south, and some directly on it!

Okay, enough information and facts for today. I need to rest my head! Have an awesome day and evening everyone!

For your nautical types, I posted the Beaufort scale the other day. You might be wondering how we are faring out here at sea? Well, the Captain comes on the radio at noon each day and announces some lovely details such as we are 578 nautical miles from Kauai right now and we have another 2141 nautical miles still to go until we reach Samoa. I actually remembered what he said yesterday 🙂 Everyday he also mentions our speed, which we are planning on maintaining 16 knots to get us to Samoa, however I agree with Andrew, we seem to be speedier at night than during the day. I do not think the sea is any different – however the number of booms we hear at night of waves hitting the bow are much more frequent than during the day! Back to the Beaufort scale – we have been at a 4 – 5 on the Beaufort for the past 2 days, however the Captain is expecting it to get a bit more windy and thus the scale might go up. I forgot to mention that yesterday so I thought I would start with that today!

Today, was a special presentation day – the Captain was doing a talk in the World Stage, which of course, I had to attend! That takes precedence over art classes! As you probably have figured out, I, like my dad, love being on the sea – while my sister and mother do not necessarily hold the same love as we do! I have two distinct memories of being in some high seas in my life – one was on the JoLynII, which was our Tollycraft boat that was about 28 feet long, where we spent our summers going up the coast of BC. It had a bridge on top where my dad, when it was not raining, would drive the boat. My mum and Joanne would sit up there with him, especially in high waves, as they preferred to see the horizon. Where would I be? In the bow berth of the boat, reading! The rocking of the sea does not bother me at all. Then about 10 years ago, my sister flew to Maui and took the boat to Lanai, I think it was, on vacation. Now, this boat, a similar size or a bit bigger than our 28 foot boat, crosses a channel between Maui and the island of Lanai which can be a times a bit rough. Joanne I understand did not fare too well and said next time they were going to go there (if they did) they would fly in one of those little planes. A few years later, Andrew and I were on Maui, and we decided to go from the harbour to Lanai on a similar ferry boat. The crossing over was not bad, however the 4 pm crossing back to Maui was FUN! I sat there knitting bouncing around while there were a LOT of people on the back deck of the boat either getting air or spending some time hanging over the railings. I am very thankful that Andrew was able to stay with me on the crossing without having to patronize the back deck either!

Back on subject now, the Captain – he is kind of a funny guy! He is Polish and learned to speak English in Britain as he wanted to work at sea. He then climbed the “ranks” through the tanker ships and then several decades ago moved over to Holland America. He lives now in Kentucky with his wife, who actually is on board this sailing as it was both his birthday and wedding anniversary in the last week. The captain then did a presentation about the ship, which I took pictures of for the engineers viewing this blog. I must apologize though, my seat had a railing in the way when I was taking pictures!

To start, the Captain talked about the “broken steering wheel” of the ship when he came aboard. Apparently on the freighters he was used to the huge wheel with many spokes which is also seen in movies. He thought someone had taken a chunk out of it as they were hungry too! (funny comment) That is not the case on cruise ships. This “wheel” is actually very sensitive however not used very much – most of the “propelling” of the ship (another word for driving as my dad would probably tell me that driving was not correct terminology) is done by a joystick these days! There are actually 3 joysticks on the bridge – one just near the wheel (main joy stick) and then 2 smaller ones in each of the wings of the ship which are used when docking – so that the Captain or person in charge of docking can see and control the ship.

There was a lot of data also presented, which will be easier for me to type in instead of you trying to read it on the pictures. I will do that farther below. Next we talked about the propulsion of the ship which are mainly done with either the rudder, going forward or the Azipods which rotate 360 degrees and can stop the ship if needed in an emergency within 600 metres (I was surprised by that figure) by throwing them in reverse after putting the engines in neutral. I will get to how I know that in a minute. The captain talked about how WONDERFUL the Azipods are when docking and getting around barriers such as entering harbours. He actually showed us a video of them turning 360 degrees around which was really cool! On to other propulsion type things, there also are stabilizers which are “wings” that come out of the ship a bit forward of midship, that help with the rolling side to side movement. The crowd much appreciated that feature! However the Captain then let us down – he said that there had not yet been invented a way to stop the porpoising effect of a cruise ship (up and down movement from the front) to which everyone was then unhappy! The captain then went on to talk about the Thrusters and how important they are when moving away from a dock and how the little circles with a cross in them indicate on the ship, above the water line, where the thrusters are located, due to the amount of water that is churning when they are turned on.

Then we moved into navigation – where he showed us a chart of going north into Alaska – first, all navigation charts are electronic these days and anyone who has paper charts should not throw them away as they will become valuable! Apparently the British, who publish the charts are very soon going to stop this process. Then he showed us what a radar map looks like which is VERY hard to read, however if you then transpose the chart on top of the radar map, you see more of a 3-D image of where you are going! Technology in this area is really becoming advanced!

Lastly, we visited the engine room on his presentation. It looks SO CLEAN! I imagine it is clean too as the staff are always cleaning the brass and metal on the ship everyday. Not much to say about the engine room other than the statistics below which if you think about them are quite staggering if you think that we had been at sea for 6 days/7 nights and we are currently at sea for 6 days/7 nights and how much it takes to get 2000 passengers and 800 crew where we are going!

And just because I like MORE data! Here is some more!

Obviously, we “filled up” with Fuel and Diesel in Seattle and left as a heavy boat. Now, looking at those numbers, we could manage at sea without being in port for about 25 days until the tanks ran dry of Heavy Fuel. However that is not reality as we are stopping at several ports. I am NOT going to try figure out a formula to calculate when we will need to take on more fuel, based on hours in port with engines running vs days at sea (some supportive person can help me with that if they want to) however I am assuming we cannot get all the way to Australia without taking on some more fuel in Fiji at this point in time as our cruise is 27 days long! .

Water, however is a different entity. All large (including this one which is larger but not HUGE like some other ones) cruise ships have a desalination plant on board which takes in the ocean water, cleans and purifies it and then it becomes the water that is used for water on board the vessel! The fresh water the captain indicated above is for drinking water, however in general, the ship consumes 400 tons a day which is mostly created within its plant on board for water heavy processes such as the showers, kitchen and laundry services.

Then we got to the questions and answers – some were interesting and some people either did not have their hearing aids turned up or were not paying attention! Of the interesting questions one lady asked if someone fell overboard (which the captain said don’t jump it is dangerous) by accident, how fast can they turn the ship around and pick the person up? I thought it was great question as while Andrew and I have sometimes walked the deck after dinner down to the bow, we have passed the emergency tender. The answer is once they know someone has gone overboard they go into neutral and turn on the Azipods to provide backwards propulsion to slow down. We are generally cruising at about 15 knots per hour so that can take about 600-800 metres when started. They do not necessarily “turn around” unless the seas are really rough, they more stay still and launch the emergency tender (which is small and orange and takes 6 people only) to rescue whomever has gone overboard. He also mentioned if they receive a call to assist at sea, the process is very similar, however they usually do not have to stop as fast. Then depending on how many people need to be assisted they either let the emergency or regular tender down into the sea. Conditions also are a factor.

As both my father and I are aware of a former Captain of Holland America, named Captain Albert Schoonderbeek, who has a blog as he now cruises around the world, and I have followed Captain Kate McCue and her cat Bug (who has since passed away) while she was the first Captain at Royal Caribbean, I asked the Captain a question myself, which was if he used Social Medial and posted about his thoughts of being a captain and of the cruise ship industry! His answer? He has two left hands and does not use a computer. He tried to use Instagram but soon forgot. He is a better Captain and leaves the computer to his wife! I guess that was a succinct answer?

Other questions asked are about the “tours” that used to be done on the ships, especially longer cruises like we are on – like of the kitchen and bridge, and as expected, they are not doing them due to concerns of health risks after COVID. Another person asked, which was a good question as we did experience this on the Nieuw Statendam one night, is if they are going to open the doors to the bow on the 5, 6, 7, and 8th decks at some time so people can take pictures. The Captain did say they do this on the cruises to Alaska when viewing the glaciers, however it was not planned for this cruise, as it requires supervision. I found this comment interesting as I do not remember being supervised the couple of times when we were crossing the Atlantic when the doors on Deck 5 in front of our stateroom were left open…. Yes there are high sills to get over however it was nice to be out there! That is also when I found out that people cannot see into our front window which is good as sometimes staff are out there cleaning or painting during the day!

After the Captains talk, I hurried upstairs to the Observation Deck as it was time for another Art class – colouring! I had my new pencils that I had bought in Honolulu and while I only bought a pack of 24, they have packs of 36 on board so there are some extra colours that I can optimize my pictures with! Needed some creative time! Also I wanted to register for the next Acrylic Painting class which was happening at 4 pm this afternoon…. it will be my revenge class!

I then met Andrew for the PROPER Mariners lunch for the level of the program that we are in! We were seated at a lovely table for 2 at the stern of the ship next to a German couple who we chatted with a bit. Again, I had the same meal as the lunch yesterday – the lobster salad was great, the tuna was cooked this time and the chocolate dessert (brownie) was divine!

The couple next to us we chatted with off and on – they live just outside of Frankfurt and like to cruise. They had flown Lufthansa to Seattle to join this cruise and are getting off in Sydney, similar to us. They asked where we were from, and I mentioned Vancouver, BC and the gentleman said it was his 3rd favourite city! So this intrigued me! I asked him what his favourite city in the world was and he said Singapore! I then mentioned that we will be flying Singapore Airlines from Sydney to Singapore for a couple of days prior to traveling to Japan and onward home. He then pulled out his phone and showed me lots of pictures of Singapore and what sights we should see and not where to go (like the zoo which I was not planning on going to anyways)! Then I asked him what his 2nd favourite city in the world was and it is Sydney, Australia, where we are headed. They like Sydney due to the Opera House and will be seeing a production when we arrive in Sydney. It is interesting as I looked to see what is playing myself a while back and I think there is nothing going on when we pass through Sydney later in November, which is too bad. This couple mainly cruises on Costa Cruises in the Mediterranean and Holland America the rest of the world. They have been to Vancouver MANY times for various cruises – mainly Alaska, however they have also sailed to Japan on a Trans-Pacific cruise too. I mentioned that Lufthansa still flies a 747 to Vancouver and he knew that! He was disappointed to not be on a 747 to Seattle as he likes the plane. I let him know that it is now the only 747 that flies into Vancouver, and if it is on time, it flies over me as I am getting into my car after my volunteer shift at the Vancouver Airport! Their next cruise, which they just booked as Holland America just released their 2027 cruises in the last few weeks while we have been on board, is going to be to South America. They like to cruise it seems!

As this “Mariners” lunch started at 11:30 am, we heard the Captains announcement which is at noon each day, during lunch. Now, as I have mentioned previously we have been at a 4-5 on the Beaufort Scale. Today at lunch we were at a 6 which is some swells with white caps and some winds and we are heading towards a 7 – great! I just love rocking and rolling – not necessarily the music kind! We finished chatting with our German lunch table neighbours and were on our way to do afternoon sessions which for me meant Painting with Gogh!

Today was a Seaside Escape on Canvas that we were painting. I have done this painting previously and as I indicated above, this was my revenge painting! I did an EXCELLENT job painting this previously on the CALM waters of the Mediterranean Sea and it was absolutely beautiful! The only issue? We forgot it in our cabin when we left the ship in Barcelona! I tried to get it back, however it was gone. I have always regretted losing that painting! Low and behold – guess what I get to do today? Actually it was supposed to be Hot Air Balloons however the Bonolo, from the Art Department found out that it was not licensed to be painted in Australia (which is our destination and I presume the rules we are under now that we have left the USA) so she had to switch paintings. I am very happy! Andrew might not be as they are going in the suitcase to come home with us!

Only one problem – we are at sea and this sea is getting a bit choppy and we are on Deck 10 painting WAY UP in the sky! It is more like Deck 15 when you count from the sea line in my opinion! Painting the water – no problem, painting the sand, no problem. Getting paint on the umbrellas – oh another issue that I had not run into before! I forgot to tell you, it is hot outside these days and fairly humid. Paint does not dry fast. I did not have this issue when painting in the Mediterranean – but had it today! Got the sea, sand and then was painting the “shadows” for the umbrellas and the paint was not dry enough to put the while paint on top of the light brown “shadow” paint! So Bonolo to the rescue! She went and got her hair dryer and dried each of the 16 canvases that were being painted for us! Guess what? There was no plug to be found in the Art Room… She did not want to turn on the hair dryer in the Observation area at the front of the ship as it is noisy (the Art room is just to the side of the Observation area) so she dried each canvas in the elevator lobby on the 10th Deck! I remained at my table while she dried mine, however I should have gone and taken a picture! I would loved to have seen the faces of the people coming off the elevators at that level!

Soon we were able to proceed and get our white umbrellas painted and then we could start adding colour to them! Right, the lady who we were following on the video is on solid ground and having no issues painting straight lines – us up here tottering around at sea? Squiggly lines are happening! Well at least for me! We also have to paint shadows of people and their footprints – right – now that was the ultimate challenge of not hitting the canvas full on with a blotch of paint! In the end I survived without a lot of paint either on me or my clothes (good) and most of it on the canvas and the palette!

I wish I had taken another picture too, however I did have some paint on my fingers and I did not want to get my purple diamond phone dirty – during this 2 hour process of painting what was my computer doing? It was uploading the blog posting from October 22nd from Kauai! It took just over two hours! My laptop was balanced open on my folded up walker sitting next to the table where I was painting. I think some people thought I was one of those Digital Nomads trying to double task! I wonder why?

It seems as we are going to “Australia” there are certain sports that cannot be broadcast on the limited channels on our in suite TV’s – such as the World Series which started at 2 pm today while we were at sea. There were MANY people frustrated, mainly male, as there is not a “Sports Bar” on board anymore and they were left to stream or listen to the game on their phone. Needless to say, when I thought uploading my blog post was a good thing to do while I was painting, which normally only takes a few minutes, took hours as the satellite was VERY busy transmitting information! Once 6:30 pm rolled around and I was done painting, the blog was posted and I was done for the night! Time to go get washed up!

Tonight was a “comfort food” dinner for me. I had a salad and something that I am very lucky they will make gluten free on Holland America for me. They have a mixed cheese macaroni cheese that is awesome – I have no idea what types of cheeses are in it other than they are normal cheese (not American) and one of them has to have some peppers in it! They made it special for me with gluten free penne noodles! It was just the perfect size too! That was a great end to the day!

Tomorrow I just figured out that we will be crossing from the North Pacific to the South Pacific! Stay tuned for more information on that!