Some odds and ends:
1. We crossed the International Date Line last night and went directly from Sunday 20 January to Tuesday 22 January. Copy of birthday wish note to friend below.
2. Since leaving the tropics, the temperature has dropped. It's now 78 degrees and mostly sunny compared to 85 and kind of cloudy. The following swell which caused some more scary looking than troublesome very slow pitching of the ship has gone down to just about glassy seas although we are 750 miles or so NE of New Zealand in 18,000 foot deep water, very far from any island, ship, or anything except a very far from home bird or two. The seas were more scary than troublesome since the ship's stabilizers can't stop pitching. While nobody looked worse for the movement of this 600 foot long, 10 story hotel, the daily laps around the "jogging" track looked like an E-ticket ride. We were walking quite a bit up hill for 10 seconds or so and then steeply downhill seemingly into the ocean. Kind of existentially scary but of no concern except if you thought about it.
3. I've gotten a request from a friend to clarify (actually to correct) my comments about Oceania's Marina. It actually is a nice product, and to tell the truth the tender that was used by the local surfer as a wave maker was from the Pacific Princess. I suppose I forgot to mention that everything in my blogs are completely true, but I sometimes change the facts for literary effect. Read Barbara's blog if you want complete objective honesty, if you really need that overrated attribute. Actually, her blogs are awfully good. http://barbara-spacific.blogspot.com.
4. There's been little mention of ship's and other guests' quirks or heaven forbid problems to our enjoyment. Well, gosh, there are too few to mention (another literary allusion). Yes, the unlimited deck chairs by the pool--just ask and one will be set up where you want it by the always helpful deck crew--are usually "reserved" by 8 in the morning with an unread library book without a bookmark despite a stated prohibition in the ship's guidelines. My guess is that as soon as one couple does this, the behavior gets copied. One nationality of this international manifest seems to be the most guilty, but we WON the rebellion in the late 18th Century. No hard feelings.
5. As mentioned earlier, the ship's staff is the "A-Team". Just about all the frustrations of luxury shipboard life have been trained out of the staff. Now the primary obstacles to Silversea regaining #1 status in all categories--it's there in most in my opinion already--are structural. Communications pathways between the food and drink servers in the various dining venues have to be restructured, authority of the Head Waiters has to be enhanced, and perhaps some outside consultants (!) and even some less emphasis on inbreed promotion from within need to be considered. (Details upon request from FLL HQ.) And what about the port side of the pool area being a constant pathway for kitchen staff and noisy food carts?
6. The GPS/weather display is still going crazy. This morning the time display completely disappeared after the IT Officer apparently found it impossible to get it to display 22 January 2013 and GMT + 13 hours. For a short time he managed to get it to show 18:30 instead of 6:30, but it said Monday. The humidity is now saying 55%, an improvement from 105% of a few days ago, and for a short time yesterday the humidity field was replaced by a happy sun face. Shame it was quite cloudy. (The clouds cleared later so that Barbara and I could pay our respects to the Centaurus constellation and glimpse the Southern Cross. Hooray.)
7. Had a nice conversation with a recently retired Psychiatrist about why some actually pretty nice other guests feel they must give their political opinions ("Fair and Balanced") upon first meeting. Interesting insights were obtained.
8. Silversea's tryout of a new laundry team (Indonesian rather than the long term Chinese contractor, I'm told) is a continuing problem. Barbara's pants are no doubt now in someone's closet at home or on the ship. They will only be discovered long from now when the lady finds they don't fit. Worse than that, my once a cruise segment Dilbert tee-shirt, "I'm not unemployed, I'm a Consultant", went missing for two weeks. It was discovered this morning HANGING ON HE WALL of the ship's industrial laundry. Oh, the mysteries of the high seas.
9. As mentioned above, in close to two weeks worth of sea days we have seen only One (1) other ship, two albatrosses, a couple of frigate birds, and a weird looking eagle like thing. We did go through two huge schools of dolphins. Way cool. Lots of rain on our Equator crossing, but the food on board is exceptional and life is good.
10. My birthday greetings to perhaps not a day older friend Ellen:
Hi Ellen,
Happy Birthday. Sorry we can't celebrate your birthday with you. This is not only because we are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (always a poor place to attempt to celebrate a birthday in New Jersey, as celebrating anything in New Jersey is often a struggle and even harder from the middle of the Pacific Ocean) but also because we will be crossing the International Dateline tonight and we not actually have a January 21st. Today is Sunday 20 January here now, but tomorrow will be Tuesday 22 January for us. We will have two of the same day as we fly back from Hong Kong, but there isn't anyone I know who has that day as their birthday or would opt to celebrate two of them anyway.
I suppose when we all were working, missing a Monday wouldn't have been all that bad anyway. But in compensation of not being able to call and wish you the best of your special day, I am sending you a picture of the ship's chefs and the fresh Tahitian 165 pound moonfish that has oddly enough appeared on the lunch and dinner menu for the last couple of days.
Enjoy your moonfish photo--which is a most remarkable birthday gift, certainly from someone who won't be even be experiencing January 21st this year.
Regards from the Silver Whisper,
Mike and Barbara
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