After 3 days of very smooth sailing we were enjoying ourselves. The officers and crew seemed to bend over backwards to make us welcome, but we are a rarity for them, the Captain told us he has only had 7 passengers in 3 years!! The Captain is a lovely man, and very well respected on board. (He has invited us to stay with him and his family in Berlin!) He has been with this ship for 3 years (4 months on and 4 months off) and he has put a lot of time and effort into making a nice environment for the men (there are no women on board except me!). He has built a Miami Beach Club where they have parties every Saturday night. This is one of a kind (nearly everyone in the crew has told me this, they are very proud of it and their Captain and rightly so!)
We had a party last night, it was a feast! Piles of prawns, chicken, pork, crab balls, veg, and noodles were heaped into large cooking pots on each table which were cooked in front of us in a delicious broth while we supped beers (all free) and shared stories. I didn't go to bed until 1am, even then the crew tried to persuade me to stay with offers of more beer and vodka!
The chef is great too, a talented if not slightly crazy man! We have 3 huge meals a day, breakfast is at 7.30am - pancakes, melba toast, cereal, fruit, then lunch at 12.30, which is always 3 courses! Homemade soup, followed by roast lamb, roast duck or steak with all the trimmings, with fruit and icecream for dessert. Dinner (at 5.30pm) is also cooked, calamari or some other fish with a buffet of salads and cold cuts!
We filled the rest of our days by going to the gym (one cycling machine!), swimming, playing table tennis and watching films. At 5pm, the Captain calls us to happy hour in the officers mess before dinner.
On Sunday we were invited to the miami beach club to watch a prerecorded football match between Germany and Poland - quite exciting since half the officers are German and the other half are Polish! Thankfully it finished 2-2 so there was no love lost! However, I struggled a bit to drink the Newcastle Brown Ale, two 5 litre kegs that I think had been opened in our honour!
We also visited the Bridge quite a lot, it was interesting up there, and the 360 degree views were spectacular. We particularly enjoyed this when we sailed through the Japanese islands and also at night time when the stars are abundant. Unfortunately I didn't seen any whales or dolphins. Darren was a bit luckier than me and saw quite a few dolphins. The first time he saw them I was dozing in the cabin after being woken by the fire alarm test. He came running back to the cabin screaming "Gemma! Quick! Get dressed!" I thought there was a real fire and nearly burst into tears before he shouted "Dolphins"! Although we ran to the deck, they were gone, unable to keep up with the pace of the ship. We both missed about 20 whales surrounding us whilst sleeping, and I chose the wrong moment to go to the toilet during another party and missed them again! I guess it wasn't meant to be!
We crossed the date line half way through our voyage, and had two Tuesdays! They call the second 'Retarded Tuesday'! I think that is a bit mean so I will be using the more politically correct term 'Special Tuesday'! We went to the bridge for the big moment, which actually happened around 1am on Wednesday. As we were due to cross around midnight we arrived very early and sat drinking coffee and staring at the stars. We almost missed it, but luckily the first mate was on hand to give us a one minute warning. We scrambled around to get our cameras ready and I filmed the GPS as it changed. Nothing actually happened though! No fireworks or revelations!
The waves were a bit more choppy during the middle of our trip and we were moving around quite a bit. We had French onion soup for lunch - the challenge was to keep it in your bowl, or eat it fast enough so it didn't matter! Night times were a bit tough, we were rolling about in the bed and our stuff kept sliding off the tables and onto us or the floor. I was a bit sick and Darren ended up sleeping on the sofa. The captain assured us that a few beers will put it right, although I wasn't so sure! I was just hoping that there would still be enough water in the pool! Swimming was difficult enough because I kept crashing into Darren as the pool was more like a rectangular puddle, only 5m x 3m! More of a plunge pool, and about as warm!
We didn't get to know the Phillippino crew as much as we would have liked, there is a strong sense of hierarchy that sometimes we found a little difficult. They all insist on calling us sir and madam despite us asking them not to! Also, they seem to act differently when the officers are around, not even willing to get into a conversation. Over lunch, I asked the 1st officer if there was only hot water at certain times of the day as we didn't have any in our cabin. It turned out that a valve had been left off and he fixed it for us straight away, laughing that we hadn't asked sooner. By tea, we were told off by the steward for not asking him and told that we must use the proper channels next time! It seems that we are both at the top and the bottom of the pile!!
By the second half of our trip we were both a little bored and were really looking forward to arriving in America. I had run out of paid for books on my kindle so had to resort to reading my free downloads - D H Lawrence's The Trespasser! He is far to poetic for me, a real waffler! The daily routine got repetitive and we felt a bit restricted having everything done for us. I particularly missed going into a cafe or shop and being able to CHOOSE something!
We toured the engine room, which was overwhelming because of the size, and repeated our daily routine with a few more naps interspersed. The clocks moved forward by an hour most nights, and by the end of the trip I found myself sleeping all day and awake all night.
The last night of our journey was the best. We had a barbeque on the decks and I ended up in the beach club until 4am! (I paid for it the next day!) It was great swapping stories about Philippine and English culture and I will never forget playing Jenga! Quite difficult after a few beers, even more difficult on a moving ship! But lots of laughter and kind words.
That's all for now, Darren will keep you updated with our American adventure and I will write again soon
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