Wednesday 30 January 2013 – Between Dusky and Milford Sound, New Zealand
As we sail in 5000 foot deep water just a mile or so off shore from the New Zealand fjords, I thought I make a few additional comments on Silver Whisper and a very long cruise.
Silver Whisper was built in 2001. It doesn't really show its age as much as it does the style of decorating that was considered the last word in elegance 15 years ago. Barbara describes the décor as blond wood, kind semi-Italianate but without the gilt. I'd say it has a huge bit of guilt considering the very bizarre (and probably very expensive) artwork throughout the ship. Strange looking impressionist sketches appear in a few public rooms, but the stairways have niches with what looks like wire sculptures of people with debilitating diseases. The small forward elevator that serves Deck 4 suites has what must be a classical drawing of a strange woman with either a dead animal or perhaps a male body part around her. I try to avert my gaze when using the adjacent stairway as it invariably causes me to giggle and/or make a rude comment. The inevitable Filipino butler or housekeeper present always looks confused at my behavior but never fails to say, "Good morning", whenever I pass whatever the time of the day or night.
The above mentioned lift, by the way, is the local alternative to the bank four elegant elevators at mid ships along with the inevitable ship's space wasting curved staircases which provide access to most public areas. The small elevator unfortunately is used by the most geriatric guests on the ship along with the butlers delivering room service during the busiest hours when the crew lifts are overloaded. The end result is that a ride to any deck in this lift is slower than the Canarsie Line on a Sunday. Of course, most people forget their destination when they glimpse the animal clad/penis lady. The poor cane or walker crowed hardly giggle but do look alarmed.
As mentioned in an earlier blog entry, about 120 of the 340 or so guests onboard this segment are "World Cruisers" who embarked Silver Whisper in mid-December in Fort Lauderdale or early January in Los Angles but unlike us who are getting off in Hong Kong in a month are going all the way and disembarking in early May in Fort Lauderdale or even later in the Spring in London after a second Atlantic crossing. These folks either have no home, no life, or enjoy multiple lifeboat drills (now required before every cruise segment instead of once per total cruise after the Costa Concordia tragedy). These folks, who seem quite friendly and make for pretty delightful dinner companions proving that money can buy happiness under the right circumstances, generally keep pretty much to themselves. Except for watching only one so-called news network and repeating what they hear as truth because they heard it on that news network are remarkably unassuming otherwise. I guess the homeless often are modest in demeanor. The World Cruisers however tend to pretty much ignore where the ship is and refer to previous cruises as having "done Singapore to Bombay" or the like. We have surmised that using the verb, "done", avoids having to say that they have really been, seen, or toured a place. Just our theory.
For all it's worth, it is true that many of the older world cruisers have kind of forgotten details of their previous travels and also are a bit jaded. I said to one guest this morning after the fantastic transit of Dusky Sound, "Wasn't it beautiful this morning?". He said, "Where?". And earlier in the cruise a nice elderly lady insisted that she had taken the 4-wheel drive into the mountains on an earlier visit to Rangiroa. Unfortunately her memory might have been a bit off as Rangiroa is nothing but a huge circular reef with a maximum height of 5 feet MSL. On the other hand, nobody on board had any comments about anything unusual in the 30 minute time zone change when approaching Huku Niva.
We are at the half way point of our longest ever 50 day cruise now and have discovered another consequence of such a long sea voyage. (There are others that I will address in a future entry.) That is, one's infrastructure can go to hell in a hand basket when so far from real cities and with the many sea days that world cruise itineraries are often programmed to contain.
Here's a summary of our major events and their resolution:
1. 1. Shortly after sailing on the initial 8 days at sea from Los Angeles to the Marquesas Islands, Barbara discovered that the power supply for her laptop somehow disappeared, probably on the TSA screening belt at Denver International for our flight out. After we searched through the ship's collections of computer parts, cords, power supplies, and various other goodies left and unclaimed by previous guests since 2001, the Computer Room assistant on Silver Whisper ordered a replacement power supply and US cord from Dell. It was delivered by the port agent in Auckland. The Internet guy told me, "No Charge". We bought him a very nice Kiwi beverage as thanks.
2. 2. Both mine and Barbara's cheap Timex everyday watches stopped shortly upon sailing from LA. The friendly but very negative watch repair guy in Papeete pronounced Barbara's watch DOA and mine unable to be repaired due to a storage of common watch batteries in French Polynesia. We had my battery replaced at a very expensive jewelry store in Auckland in a few minutes after our volcano climb and will replace Barbara's probably in Sydney.
3. My brand new electric shaver failed after a week on board. Fortunately I had a number of Gilette throwaway blades in my toiletry kit and purchased Edge Shaving cream in the ship's giftshop at "popular prices". I will deal with Phillips warranty procedures upon return to Boulder.
4. 3. My venerable camera came up with at least three sets of bad rechargeable batteries, and the camera itself needed its electrical contacts cleaned. I'm down to two ok but old sets of AA's, but Sydney abounds in Woolworths and other similar stores instead of relying on the overpriced batteries in the ship's shop. The camera contacts were dealt with by the application of high proof unflavored vodka with the suite's supply of Q-tips. (This is a well known technique, especially with the free booze policy onboard. I like to use Grey Goose, a premium brand for my electrical needs.)
5. 4. My GPS/Pedometer locked up during charging a week or so ago. I burned through only 3 minutes of Internet time to do a very well thought out Google search for "Garmin 305 Soft Reset" to find that one presses MODE and LAP simultaneously and then repowers up to unlock Garmin 305's. Good to know and completely not in the manual which I had saved on the computer but to no avail.
6. 5. It was easy to buy a replacement sunscreen tube onboard the ship when I discovered that the one from home must have been well aged and was therefore making me break out upon each application.
7. 6. We still have our three baseball hats and two larger straw or floppy hats in case of strong winds feeding one or more same to the sharks.
We will be entering Milford Sound in a few minutes. I will post a bunch of pictures in the next couple of days during our Tasman Sea crossing to Tasmania. Please keep in touch.
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