Friday, February 14th, 2020

At Sea

Valentines Day without my Valentine, in the Doldrums

So now we are well and truly in the southern hemisphere, but instead of brilliant sunshine and gentle breezes, it is overcast and rainy.

Ruth went out for her morning walk, and there was a major storm going on off our port side. Lots of lightening and thunder, and someone said they saw a tornado. Maybe it was a waterspout. Anyway, the morning weather was quite nasty.

Not sitting by the pool weather at all, but there’s a lot going on indoors today as usual.

Captain Hashmi gave a brilliant talk on the Virtual Bridge. He is such a good speaker – maybe better than many of the lecturers who come on board.

We will go through a narrow strait between Java and Sumatra later today. After that we will be out into the wide ocean until we get to Australia, We will be passing through the Doldrums – an area close to the equator where there is very little wind. Not a problem for us, in fact less wind is better as far as I am concerned when it comes to sunbathing, but clearly a problem in the days of sailing ships when you could be becalmed for weeks on end, going nowhere. Sort of like on the Diamond Princess.

In The Kings Court at lunch there was an amazing array of cakes and chocolate. I decided to forgo a first course, and head straight for the chocolate. There was even more than I could consume, it was very impressive. I spent quite a lot of time at the chocolate fountain, it was all very tempting, but I’m not sure I will want dinner tonight……………….

As tasty as the chocolate extravaganza was it was not filling, and by 2:30 I had to return to the Kings Court and have a proper lunch.

There was an afternoon concert (piano and oboe), and by then the storms had passed and the sun arrived. It was time to head to the back on deck 8 and once more indulge in reading. There was plenty of shade, and it was not too windy. It was perfect for an afternoon outdoors.

Ruth had been waiting for the information about her flight home from Perth. It finally arrived just before we were due to meet friends for a pre dinner get together in the Commodore Club, so she headed down to the internet room to look at the details and book her seats.

We met up at dinner and she was not looking happy. There were no aisle or window seats left. The itinerary involved an overnight flight from Perth to Sydney, and then a 15 and a half hour flight from Sydney to Los Angeles. Not great for a middle seat, but I suppose someone has to sit in them.

However, the confusing thing about the flights was that I was included on the same itinerary! Was this a not too subtle way of throwing me off the boat? What’s more I had been assigned aisle seats.

We were concerned that if we went online and tried to cancel me from the itinerary, we might end up cancelling Ruth as well. She would be quite happy to remain on board, but as she is in the middle of selling a lot in Idaho, house hunting, and has a ridiculously cute dog to take care of, she really does need to go home.

We went to the pursers’ desk to see if there was anyone there who could contact Cunard Air as it was now morning in the US.

Apparently no one could do this, and we were told that the guest relations officer would contact us in the morning, by which time of course the offices of Cunard Air would be closed. We were just trying to save Cunard some money by cancelling the flight as soon as possible, but I suppose in the grand scheme of things a $700 air ticket was not a big deal.

We didn’t let any of this really interfere with the fact that tonight was the Valentines Ball. We were all dressed up in our best red dresses, as were the majority of the other ladies on board. There were some magnificent sparkly red gowns to be seen. I have no idea how the owners pack those – each one looks like it would take a large suitcase all to itself. Anyway, everyone looked lovely, and it was such a pleasure to see them. The majority of the gentlemen were dressed in tuxedos, and most had red bow ties. The look I particularly liked, as we are in the tropics, was red bowties and white/cream jackets. All in all the ship had a wonderful festive air.

We were unable to pick up any fresh flowers in Port Kelang, and our onboard supply of flowers isn’t looking so fresh any more. Usually we are given a red rose each at dinner, but there were none to be had. There has always been a magnificent arrangement of flowers in the Grand Lobby, but today there was a Valentines arrangement made out of ribbon bows. It looked wonderful, and must have taken hours to construct.

The show tonight was Apassionata. As much as I really wanted to support the performers, I have seen it do many times I just couldn’t see it again. Ruth has only seen it once before, so she was happy to go again.

I went to watch the dancing in the Queens Room. With everyone all dressed up it really looked like a fairy tale ball. There are some really fantastic dancers on board, and it was simply wonderful to sit and watch them glide by. One day I will be able to dance like that. Maybe.

Ruth and I met up after the show for our nightly walk around the promenade deck. It was a very warm night, the warmest so far. I told Ruth that I hoped we were far enough south to see the Southern Cross. She told me she had never seen the Southern Cross! The lyrics of the song “when you see the Southern Cross for the first time…….” Jumped in to my head (thank goodness replacing “for those in peril on the sea” which is really beginning to annoy me), and I looked to the heavens in order to find it for her.

There was nothing – total cloud cover hid any sign of celestial light. Maybe tomorrow. We continued our walk, and as we rounded the prow and arrived on the port side we were treated to a magnificent lightening show. No thunder, no rain, no wind, just huge flashes of light on the horizon. It was mesmerizing.

We went downstairs to the lobby to take photos of the Valentines arrangement there, and walked passed the Golden Lion. It was midnight and it was totally crowded, standing room only. A gentleman was belting out a very poor rendition of “Delilah”, but everyone was having the best time. We, however, decided not to join them, and retreated to our cabin.

There was a letter there thanking us for our patience and understanding, and several other niceties, and then stating that we would each be getting $250 of on board credit…………………….after Fremantle. Well that’s great for me, not so great for Ruth who will be flying home by then. And who knows maybe I will be as well.

Not that I would ever say no thanks to on board credit, but I really do feel that it’s the folks who are disembarking in Fremantle who deserve something special. Those staying on board still have a couple of months in which to explore the globe, but they are going home without setting foot in Asia. Ruth pointed out that we have seen Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Java, Sumatra and a myriad of small islands, but not having been able to set foot on even one of them is a bit disappointing on an Asian cruise.

The optimist in me says that maybe they are planning a special give away for the disembarking passengers – time will tell