The crossing of the pacific is oft-ignored for it’s more famous cousin the trans-atlantic, but this time of year I would rather do neither
The transpacific is notoriously rough this time of year as we catch the edges of the storms that pound through the gulf of Alaska at the end of the season. I remember what those storms were like first hand when I finished the Alaska season two years ago – catching the edges of them is no more fun that running into them head on was.
It feels like the entire ship, including a large portion of the crew, is down with sea-sickness, even those of us who are not normally prone to it. For my part, my cabin is at the very very back of the ship, which means I feel the roll a lot more than normal. About the only time I feel steady is when I’m lying down, so I’ve been sleeping a lot.
On the upside, I’m ensconced in a passenger cabin this season. Compared to the number of times I’ve habituated down on A-Deck, living above the waterline feels like living in a small apartment. It is a tiny bit cramped but then again this is still a ship, you can’t really expect anything huge size-wise. At first they had me in a twin room which actually always feels bigger because of the space in between the beds, but then they shifted me to a double instead (because the one I had been living in was going to be occupied by passengers in a few days time, can’t have that!) so it feels a bit more cramped but still has a sofa, a bathtub and a window, so I definitely can’t complain! Certainly beats living in a broom closet! There is nothing as luxurious as being able to come “home” after work and soak in a hot bath – one of those things you don’t really think about until you don’t have the chance to do it anymore!
I should note however that the only downside of my living in the lap of luxury so to speak, is that the cabin doesn’t pick up an internet signal. In order to connect to the network I have to lug my laptop all the way down to A-deck and plonk down on the floor somewhere, and to be honest I suspect I’m not going to feel like doing so all that often, so updates will probably come in large blocks once or twice a week.
Despite the rocky seas everyone is gradually settling in. We’re sailing with a ship that is nowhere near full capacity and that means we can focus more on individual service. This is always a good thing and ultimately the lower numbers mean both the passengers and ourselves can relax a little more. It’s much easier to give better service when the numbers are resting at a more comfortable level. There have been no troublesome encounters so far and everyone on board is crossing our fingers that it stays that way.
The library itself was in a sad state when I arrived as there was a temp here between when my replacement was transferred and when myself and my current colleague arrived, so we’ve been spending our days bringing it back up to scratch, covering loads of donations, reorganizing all the shelves and sifting through months worth of built up clutter in the back closet. Just once I would like to come back here and NOT have to spend an entire day buried in that back closet!
I would like to thank those of you who have bought copies of Where The Waves Take Me, I’m grateful to see that the project is doing so well when it’s still comparatively fresh out of the gate! It never truly occurred to me that there would be so much interest, I never thought my babbling was all that interesting, but apparently I was wrong.