I love the way a magnificent sunset can unite perfect strangers. Up on the walking deck, mid-stride, I can’t stand it anymore. I must go and get my camera. The lemony yellows and buttery highlights of this seascape are too unusual to pass up.

Walk abandoned, I stand on the deck contentedly, alternately gazing and snapping frames. The sky is wondrous to behold; lines of blue and white and a faint peach intersect everything, but it is the yellow!!! … the soft, lemony yellow that I can’t tear my eyes from.

A young, European couple approaches to ask if I can take their photo. They look like newlyweds and the love that infuses their words and actions is palpable and makes me smile. I take several photos of them and their exhilarated smiles.

A few minutes later it is an Indonesian cook, asking in his shy, unsure English, if I might take one of him. “Of course,” I tell him. In a crew of almost 900, on a ship this size, I’m not sure I have ever seen him before, but in this moment, staring with him into the last light of this sunset, I feel he is my friend.

On a whim, I ask him to take one of me too, even though I am dressed in gym clothes and have a bad cold. The result is not picture-perfect, but it is a memory for me.

I wish I had a copy of his photo, of him standing five feet tall in his white cook uniform - the two of us separated by continents, language and culture, but somehow united in our beaming smiles of delight at this breathtaking sunset.

Birthday!

I had a wonderful birthday last month (thank you all for the birthday wishes, you are all so sweet).

I had the night off work and spent the day relaxing, before my lovely boyfriend took me for dinner at the specialty restaurant on the ship, Murano. We had a very long, very delicious dinner, followed by special birthday cake. The Maitre’D sang me a quiet little happy birthday, en francais. It was very nice.

After, we had drinks in the Martini Bar with our friends Franka and Santiago. I also got a nice package full of goodies from home, and flowers and an I-Pod from Jack. Do I ever feel like a spoiled girl!!!

Stingray City

One beautiful, hot day in Grand Cayman, Sol, Aniko and I dragged ourselves out of bed early and took a fantastic excursion, snorkeling and to Stingray City.
En route, sunning ourselves on the front of the boat.

Preparing for Phase 1 of the excursion: snorkeling off the back of the boat in the middle of the open ocean. There is a pretty reef in this area and lots of colourful little fish.

Sol doesn't swim, so she was a little nervous, but she was very brave and did great. I think she enjoyed it a lot.


Phase 2:

Stingray City. This is just as freaky as it sounds. It is a place where boats anchor on a sandbar and feed lots of stingrays that live in the ocean nearby. If you think this sounds like somewhere I would never want to visit, then you're right. Except I did want to go. So there I am. Those black things are stingrays.

This is our captain* demonstrating for us how to feed the stingrays. Yes, we are supposed to get in the water. And touch them. And feed them, being mindful not to touch our bodies afterwards. Stingrays have very poor eyesight and will glom onto any part of you that smells like squid, producing big red hickies.

* The captain told us he was once lost at sea for four days and survived by eating small shellfish off the ocean floor and doing other remarkable things that I have only read about in The Life of Pi. Nevertheless, I believe him.

There they are...




Aniko looking dubious.
A lot of the stingrays that visit this area are "regulars" and many even have names. They are very gentle and seem to be on good terms with people who come here often, like our captain.
There he is kissing one of them.
When I agreed to this excursion, I said I would snorkel and then take pictures of the stingrays from the boat.

But here I am in the water.

What can I say, except that I was in a brave mood. I'm glad I was, because otherwise I never could have seen how beautiful they are underwater, or taken the following pictures.

They looked to me like they were flying, soaring on their big gray wings. Absolutely beautiful.

When they brushed against you they felt soft and slippery and it was a freaky feeling, but otherwise, I loved them .











P.S. Just a reminder, if you want to see any of the photos in a larger size, just click on it. Enjoy!!!

Sunrise evacuation, central Atlantic Ocean

With terrible timing, a guest had a medical emergency in the middle of our seven day crossing from Europe to the Caribbean. Three days' sail from Europe and four more from the Caribbean, we were in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with limited options.

Initially, the captain considered turning back to the Azores, the closest islands on the European side, where the guest could be disembarked to a hospital. Even so, it would take two days' sailing to get there.

Eventually, through contact with the U.S. Coastguard, our ship managed to rendezvous with a U.S. Navy ship that was in nearby waters. There was a dramatic sunrise evacuation to the U.S.S. WASP, a multipurpose amphibious assault ship with excellent medical facilities. From there, the ship transported the guest safely to land.


They transported the guest on this Zodiac.


I found the WASP website online, where they had a brief description of the rescue and this photo, taken as they transported the guest onboard the WASP.

Here is the website:
http://www.wasp.navy.mil