December 10, 2019

Dec 8 & 9 - Days At Sea

After a very busy week, and a long drive I sleep like a rock for over 12 hours. I realize that I always sleep longer while on a ship, but over 12 hours is getting excessive. Well I guess I needed it.

Another perk of being pinnacle is having high speed internet for free for the entire voyage. first of all, high speed is a relative term. Fast enough for emails, but not for large amounts of data or images.

The negative side of this is that I get all the annoying emails on the ship that I get at home.  They are dealt with the same way. Delete, delete, delete.

The weather is quite pleasant with partly cloudy skies, temperatures in the mid 70's at the most, and a breeze on our stern making the wind across the deck minimal.

After watching the kids play a round of minigolf, I think Eliza was the winner. She would pick up everyone's golf ball and drop it in the cup.

Midafternoon was time for another nap.  Retired cruise life is exhausting.

It is formal night. I remember to put my Pinnacle badge on the right side of my jacket. Not only right side, but correct side. the magnets are barely strong enough, I will need to change them or risk easily losing the badge I spent so much for.

Eight of us go to Giovanni's for dinner. The food and service was good. We leave in time to get an after dinner drink in the lounge and go to the theater for the production show.

For most of the day there was some motion to the ship, seas were about 6 feet mostly on the stern,

Others were headed to late entertainment, I crashed by 9:30 for another long nights sleep.

During the night the wind shifted to the south east, mainly on our bow. Seas increased to 10 feet or more and occasional when we hit a larger wave the entire ship would shudder.

Heading directly into the wind, the breeze across the decks reach 50 mph at times. Better hold on to deck chairs and towels. Some of the outside doors are closed due to the high winds.

Several of us gather at Adrienne and Steve's balcony for breakfast of fruit and coffee or in my case hot chocolate.

Being one to always expanding my wealth of knowledge, this afternoon I learned something that I probably should have learned 50 years ago as a teen ager. Don't try to eat an ice cream cone while facing 50 mile per hour 80 degree winds.  The ice cream melts faster than if you were holding a hair dryer to it, and as it turns to liquid it is immediately blown against your white shirt. What I was able to eat was good though.

Scott and I spend several hours on a project I am working on for the train club. A circuit board with flashing lights should have been a beacon for security checks when I boarded, but no questions were asked. Probably they were challenged by counting the two bottles of wine in my carry on.

We all have dinner together in the dining room. The head waiter obliges, and takes pictures of the 14 of us all gathered on the main staircase in the dining  room.

I catch the  show "Lady Luck",  three singers from Las Vegas. Tired and unimpressed I leave part way through and head to the cabin for the evening.

The seas and winds have begun to drop by bedtime. Tomorrow morning we will be in Curacao.