Day 12: Sea Day

Today was the first of our 6 straight days at sea.  The swells are at 10’ now, which is quite a lot for this small ship.  Throw a saddle on this brombie and give ‘er a go!  Yee-haw!!  We’re rockin’ and rollin’ along.  Walking is difficult.  The Captain hasn’t turned on the Fasten Seat Belt sign yet, but if it gets much worse he surely will.  We had 28’ swells in the S. Caribbean once on Brilliance (MUCH bigger ship) and they actually did confine everyone to their cabin for a while.  The floor either comes up in your face or completely drops out from under you.  Forget taking the stairs – that would be suicide.  But for now we’re just carefully walking around and trying not to look too drunk as we do it.

We slept in this morning and skipped breakfast.  We had a nice lunch and then walked 2 mi. on the upper deck.  We came back to the cabin, watched a movie, Bruce wrote, and I napped.  The Bonine makes me a bit drowsy, plus it rained a bit.  We enjoyed chatting with our friends at Happy Hour and then had a nice lasagna dinner.

We experienced a lifetime first for both of us tonight – we got stuck in an elevator!  We opted to take it rather than chance walking the stairs.  And wouldn’t ya know.  We were with a 9-year-old girl from Newcastle, Australia.  She was pretty freaked out, so we tried to keep her calm while we waited for them to rescue us.  After about 10 minutes, the elevator went down and seemed fine.  We were happy to get off and take those stairs.

Here are some interesting observations and tidbits…

1. The Polynesians have no word for good-bye.  They don’t like to see anyone leave.
2. The Polynesian languages use all 5 vowels but only 7 consonants:  H, L, K, M, N, T, and W.
3. The exchange rate between US Dollars and the island money was done very inconsistently between shops.  There was no price negotiation at all like there is in MX or the Caribbean.  The price was the price, period.  And the prices were crazy high.  I only bought a magnet on each island and that’s it.  Not for the lack of trying, mind you.
4. Being a small-town girl at heart, I preferred the smaller, more intimate islands of Moorea and Raiatea over the famed Tahiti and Bora Bora.  Moorea was definitely my pick of the four we visited and I would love to return someday to stay in one of those huts over the water.
5. My Tahitian sunburn has now turned to a nice Raiatean tan in the shape of a tank top and shorts.  Thanks to our Kukui oil from Hawaii, no blistering or peeling.
6. The passengers on board are about 2/3 Australian/European and 1/3 US.  When you meet someone in a narrow passage the Aussies & Brits want to pass right-to-right and others pass left-to-left.  It’s hard to tell by looking which way the other person will choose.  So there’s lots of dancing around in the hallways.
7. On the ship, they will announce “Alpha” for a medical emergency and “Bravo” for a fire.  We heard a new one the morning we were in Bora Bora – “Oscar, Oscar, Oscar, Starboard side”.  I happened to be taking my morning pictures up on deck so I ran over to the starboard side to see what was going on.  One of the life-saver rings had somehow gone overboard and was floating next to the ship.  We guess they must use the term “Oscar” because the ring is O-shaped??
8. Sadly, we did have an Alpha call the night before Tahiti.  “Alpha, Alpha, Alpha, Main Dining Room, Deck 4, Starboard”.  We heard that a man had a heart attack in the middle of dinner.  We saw an ambulance pull up to the ship in Tahiti.  I always feel so sorry for anyone who ends their trip that way.
9. Our Sketcher Shape-Up shoes always draw a lot of attention.  A lady in the elevator asked how we like them.  Since the car wreck my back was screaming if I walked much, but these shoes really help relieve that pressure.  The lady said she had just bought some but hadn’t gotten to wear them because they went over board in her suitcase!  HUH??  She said when they were loading luggage onto the ship they somehow had some bags fall off the cart and into the water.  How does this happen?  There’s maybe 3’ between the pier and the ship and the ramp into the hold area has a side screen.  But what a disaster for this lady.  She said they weren’t very nice about it and she was not a happy camper.  I always feel sorry for anyone who begins their trip this way.