Saturday, Day 28 - Feb. 3 - Cruising the South Pacific Ocean

Once we got out to sea last night the ship began to move. By this morning Jack needed his bed belt due to the long rollers. You can see them coming on the bridge cam. At least we have lost some of that steamy haze of the last couple of days. It is still humid and hot but the water is that beautiful deep Pacific blue.

Not too much is going on today. Dick goes to his 10AM lecture on Disease and History by the historian Jampoler. He says it was interesting. Carolyn’s paper curling class isn’t being held as Sarah may have gone ashore with the sick person the ship left at the last minute in Fiji. That was why we were late sailing. We couldn’t see any of the gangway activity last evening as we were facing out to sea. Guess she will rejoin us in Auckland. Can’t imagine willingly getting off there...hope all is well for them.

Carolyn is still moving slow and sleeping a lot. The ship’s movement is such that laying down feels better and of course that leads to falling asleep.....

At noon Captain Atanas tells us we are at 22.51 degrees S and 176.22 degrees W with 750 miles to the next port. It is 84 degrees, wind at17 knots and waves are 5 to 7 feet. There is 13,000 of ocean below us.

About 1:30PM we get it together and head up to the pool deck in search of some food and are greeted by the ugliest, huge fish along with some of his friends sitting in a rapidly melting ice sculpture! These were the fish we saw coming on board as we met up with our guide yesterday in Fiji.  Welcome to the Chef’s Seafood Extravaganza Lunch Buffet. It is hot as blue blazes on the pool deck and not a terrible lot of shade! Why so many passengers think this is a great venue we do not understand. Nor do we understand how there isn’t raging food poisoning from salads and seafood getting too warm for too long. The displays are lovely and would be very appealing done in the Compass Rose. But up here the smell is offputting, at least in Carolyn’s opinion. She hurries on the to La Veranda and fixes a plate of fruits, cool salads and cheeses and sits in the AC. Dick gathers some tidbits off the seafood displays on deck and joins her.

We spend a very lazy afternoon sleeping, reading and game playing. There was a back stage tour that might be fun, but will be offered again. June and her followers put on a short dance show and we had planned to go to that but didn’t make it.

A sure sign that the first segment is coming to an end is passport distribution to those getting off. That is about half the ship on Tuesday in Auckland.  We are moving so slow that we are almost 30 minutes late for dinner, but our favorite table is still open. Dick has the lamb shank which looks wonderful and he says it is good. Carolyn is still not hungry so just has a baked potato and a little salad. We try the key lime pie for dessert and find it is worth a second slice!

By the time dinner is over the ship is really moving around so we head to bed. Jack is mumbling about having to buckle his bed belt again!!