Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Deep blue sea - Day 2

The ocean here in the Caribbean is a deep, dark blue. Very different from the "almost black" color of the water in the Pacific Northwest. Today would be fantastic for sailing ... 30 knots of wind on the bow, and this ship is traveling at 20 knots. That makes for 50 knots of apparent wind - it's very blustery up on deck, and the ship is rolling a moderate amount. At home, small craft warnings would be out, and I think there's about a 1-2 meter swell with whitecaps. I heard someone next door being sick in the middle of the night, and I know mom has felt queasy for the last day or so. Me, I seem to be OK - although I got no sleep last night, partially due to all the banging and crashing around as the ship hit a wave wrong, but mostly because I don't sleep.

I tried to sign up for a Cartagena shore excursion tomorrow, but they were all sold out. The only trip that had some room left was one that involved lots of "shopping opportunity". I'll pass - and take my chances seeing what I can by simply walking off the boat - I'm sure there will be a "shopping gauntlet" to pass through. I learned yesterday that the number one reason for people to cruise is eating. Number two is shopping. Never-mind about seeing things you might otherwise never see ... eating and shopping are the most important factors in this kind of tourism. Perhaps camping out at the food fair in a shopping mall would be less expensive. Or if you were really high end - stay at the hotel attached to the mall.

I'm here for two reasons. First, because mom and dad asked me to come along, I imagine thinking I could help out navigating airports. The second is to see the Panama Canal. Perhaps it's important that we aren't actually stopping in Panama - more shopping! But we are doing a daylight transit, so that makes for an all day affair on deck looking around. I know Ed, our close friend, did this a couple of years ago and spent the entire day on deck, marveling at how this was actually completed. 

So I'm into day two of thirteen days - our second full day at sea. It's quite warm and humid outside, and like I said very windy. They expect this weather to last all day.