When you only have one sea day per cruise (which in this case means one per week), getting through it can feel like pulling teeth. This is a really port heavy route, so there are a lot of things we can’t do simply because we’re in port all the time, so when the one sea day rolls around we cram everything that we can into it:
Two bingo games, two dance classes, the specialty luncheon, the extra bridge games, the service club meets etc etc. My schedule today reads like an eye chart.
And yet…that doesn’t really take much of the shine off the rest of the week(s). It’s only one day, and anyone can handle anything for only one day. This time last year, I felt drastically out of place because I wasn’t preparing for the flagship Grand, now I find that the further I get from her, the less I worry about her. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not, but I suspect it is. One of these days, I will leave the flagship, some other adventure – some other commitment – will call me onwards and I’ll leave her in someone else’s competent hands. Before that concept devastated me, because that ship meant more to me than some people I could name, but now…I don’t know, now I just wonder.
I do know that I could definitely get used to not being so frazzled.
Anyway…here we are again, steaming our way slowly through the Gulf of St Lawrence. The white horses are kicking up out there, but it’s not particularly rocky. It was last night; the ship took such a hard heel to starboard that all the crew cabinets decided to fly open downstairs! But now we’re just kind of making a sedate plotting pace along the shoreline.
The crowd on board seems to have fizzled itself out. After the immense success of the live karaoke a few nights ago, we fully expected the lounge to be packed for Motown night – but when I went up there after shift it seemed to be back to the usual setup : me, the band, five people at the bar and perhaps two or three other people scattered around. Fortunately it was at least a vibrant crowd, if small, so it didn’t feel quite like performing to an empty room, heh, I talk as if I actually had any active part in the band, when I don’t do anything except sit on the sidelines with a glass of white zinfandel and applaud. But hey…everyone needs a roadie! And as always, there is comfort in routine…