Abandon Ship! We’ve hit the Doldrums!

Hi There!

So this last five day ship started off on a bit of a rough note. We went out for dinner and then met Andy at the Hot Tub then we sat on the pool deck and made each other laugh until around midnight. We went back to our cabin and fell asleep around 1 am. At 1:30am the ship’s emergency alarm went off, I scrambled out of a deep sleep into pitch blackness to find the light switch. In my dream, I’d been awake already so this was even more discombobulating.

After I found the switch, the alarm repeated.
Larrance looked at me and said, “This is real.”
I said in a sleepy bitchy tone, “I know. I have to find my shoes.”

We got dressed quickly as the alarm went off for a third time. I had to find my wallet. Then we were out the door to head to our mustering stations. Luckily Larrance had the presence of mind to grab our “emergency cards.” The cards tell who we are and what station and life boat we’re supposed to be on or something like that.....

So just as we were getting out of our front door the P.A. comes on. It’s the Captain and he says, “This is the Captain. I’m sorry for the inconvience but that was a false alarm due to human error. Everything is alright, please return to your cabins.” Larrance and I agreed he sounded contritely sleepy and a little pissed. Somebody on the bridge got as ass whupping that night.

We both had trouble falling back asleep but we managed. In the middle of the night or maybe it was only an hour later, I heard a whirring sound and realized there was a lot of light in our cabin. I woke up thinking that the ship was being circled by a heliocopter or another ship. I sat up and looked out the window to see a huge electrical storm going on. Then I tried to figure out what the sound was - it was the hum & whir of the floor buffing machine. They were waxing the hall outside our room and that sound combined with the light of the storm made me think we were being circled by a plane/ship/heliocopter. It could also be that I was a little sleep addled.

I watched the storm for a bit. It was really dramatic. There were huge thunderhead clouds and the lightening was lighting them all up. Then forks of lightening were going down into the oc ean. It took me a while to fall asleep after that but I managed.

I always manage to fall asleep. Well, almost always. Years of touring, help to make one learn how to relax anywhere.

The next night we had a cast meeting and I’m of the opinion (this is a persona view only!) that we’re in the doldrums of our cruising experience. We’re exactly half way and we all seem a little bit “eh”. I know I am. Today we walked around Cozumel and while I took some fun photos, I was like “eh” all day.

We had to cut our day in Cozumel short because the light board in the theater has been crashing for the last week and in one of the big crashes our whole show was lost. Our poor light board operator, Rino, has been up late every night all week trying to get it all back only to have it crash on him over and over again. So we met with Rino - but there wasn’t really anything we could so we left him to his work and went back to the cabin.

In response to the doldrums or maybe in an effort to relieve the doldrums, I decided to make a list (that’s for you, Mom!) of all the things I want to do. So I listed all the ports, the dates we’re going to be there and then below that all the things I want to do in the various sites. If I had specific info - prices, times, good snorkeling, etc. - I listed that too. I felt a little better. I think we’ll all come out of the doldrums.....I guess I should just talk for me. I’ll come out of the doldrums.

We didn’t get off the ship in Belize. Instead we spend the afternoon going down the water slide and swimming in the pool. The waterslide was a ton of fun. We went down backwards and sideways and forwards. My favorite way to slide down was sitting up but leaning down like you’re on a bobsled - I flew down that slide. I also went down backwards head first...that was a little scary but fun. The best part about the slide is that you could watch people go down from the top of the slide.

After that we didn’t so much of anything....I’m still trying to finish War & Peace. I’ve gotten past the halfway point. Now there’s a lot of war so that’s not as much fun to read about, I like Peace better.

Today we’re in Miami and it’s cold here. I mean cold enough to wear jeans and a double layer on top. Cold enough that my ears hurt. I know you all feel for us suffering in cold Miami. I know this is going to sound awful but I’m about done with all the heat. I’ve never been a hot weather person. I’m tired of sweat rolling down my back when I’m standing still and taking a shower and needing to take another one when I get back from where ever. I’m not saying I miss all the snow, ice and cold but some small part of me is really glad it’s cold today.

We didn’t meet yet to make our list of what to do on our remaining cruises. I think we’ll get to that on one of the two sea days we have at the beginning of this trip.

Larrance and I are working on writing some sketches and songs for a project in Maine and Larrance is almost finished composing his second string quartet. So far I have the first draft of a scene with a song and another song.

This week I’m also going to be working on correspondence. I’m planning on mailing a bunch of stuff from Barbados so everyone can have some nifty foreign postage mail.

I also started a photo blog of the shop. I’ll be posting that next Miami day. Or I hope to....

Hope you’re all well and staying warm. Please don’t get frostbite or hurt yourself shoveling snow....and if you’re tired of the cold, come get on the NCL Pearl!

~Jen