Letter to the Editor – At Sea – [11/09/2016]

Posted on November 9, 2016 by GypsyShaughnessy

0b1948bf910c869fd9865756102f166aOh Haggard, I would not be you for all the world. You have let your doom in by the front door, but it shall not depart that way ~ The Last Unicorn

Dear States

I can no longer in all justice, call you “United” because from what I have seen, that seems to be no longer truly the case, never have I seen a nation more divided within itself than you.  Nor will I call you America, because America is vast and continental  and includes more than just one country within its edges. Perhaps that is part of the problem, perhaps many of your citizens have forgotten that.

I am tempted to tell you to “go to your room and think about what you’ve done”, but this is not the time for jokes, nor is in the time for drama – we have enough of that already. And heaven knows we are not perfect on this side of the border either. So know that I am not attempting to be dramatic, I am merely expressing myself the best and only way I know how.

I have only one question for you: why?

Why have you let this happen?

Why have you chosen to elect as your leader a man who stands so proudly against everything you claim to be built on. If ever someone seemed to openly stand against freedom, this is it. And haven’t you always claimed to be about freedom?

Someone tried to explain to me that the reason this happened was because of fear that the other choice would have disarmed America. News flash, that is not possible. Wherever I stand on gun rights, disarming a nation in which those privileges are so embedded into the national history would be physically impossible. Say what you will about yourselves and what your country was founded on, but I do not believe you were ever inherently violent, people change, times change and so should laws, I do not believe that your founding policy was a right to maim and murder others at gun point. You were built on the belief that freedom was worth fighting for, that standing up for your rights was worth risking your life, and that tyranny was something to be fought against. That was what made you great. Now you have elected tyranny. You have betrayed yourself.

Fear for your privileges has led you to elect to the position of ultimate power in your country someone who has openly opposed the rights of women, LGBTQ, minorities and immigrants. Fear for your privileges has caused a rift so deep within yourself that I fear it may never be healed. Fear and ignorance have won you over to the side of hatred in the name of progress. Progress is a two-way sword, it can go either direction…it may serve you well to remember that.

People have asked me why I am frightened by this outcome, because I am Canadian and therefore it shouldn’t be my business. But you are one of the greatest powers in the world, and the border between our two very different yet very similar countries is one of the longest undefended stretches in the world. There are those who say that when you catch a cold, we sneeze. Those who think that the world will not be effected by this decision are perhaps best and most kindly described as cock-eyed optimists to say the least. The policies and statements that have been put forth will affect us all. We are, after all, one of your biggest trade partners, though that too, may perhaps be slated to change.

For me personally? I am just one insignificant person, but like so many others, I have a stake in the world. For all that I am “pretty enough to pass” and have a happy “conventional” relationship, my heart is with my brothers and sisters in the LGBTQ community, I am one of them and I always have been.  I have people – I have Pack – in the central reaches of your blood-red core for whom I am justly worried. I know people who will be directly affected by the policies that were put forward during this campaign, I know people who are terrified for their livelihood and their homes as a result of this decision.  I am a woman, who looks at the possible turning over of her fellow women’s bodies to control of the government and quails on their behalf. I am fortunate enough to be Caucasian, but I know that to be a privilege and fear for those who do not possess it.

Time will tell whether or not the damage this turn of events may cause will be as drastic as the world seems to fear. Perhaps we are all over-reacting, perhaps we would be best to not say anything…

But then again perhaps not saying anything is what got us here in the first place…

But also, none of that matters. Not anymore. Not in the same way. Because it’s done and dusted. You have done what you’ve done, as foolish as it is. Because you have spoken, you have made your call, you have made your decision, and now we all have to live with it. We all have to do our best to work with it and through it, though most of us will never respect it and please do not ask us to – spewing more hatred and more doom and gloom will solve nothing…

This is not a peaceful moment for the world, for many it is indeed a call to arms, but we do need to pause and take a moment before we grab up words and weapons and head for the hills…

Railing against you will not change what you have done, it will not repair the damage it will not improve the situation.

Because now that you have made this call, whether it means our “doom” or not…we must “look at [him] for a while”..

Just don’t expect us to respect you for it…and don’t expect us to be joyful about it.

Because that, my dear friends across the border, would be asking and expecting too much,

Regretfully yours

 

Posted in Below the waterline, Transitions, Tropical Rain 2016 | Leave a comment

Complete and Content – At Sea – [11/06/2016]

Posted on November 7, 2016 by GypsyShaughnessy

6d585b72b0c76381a6dd6f6a9e410eb6They say that they built the tracks over the Alps between Venice and Vienna before there was a train that could make the trip. They built them anyway. They knew that …someday the train would come

~ Under the Tuscan Sun

There are bizarre moments in your life when you realize that this is it, this is what it feels like to be complete within yourself, to have all the wheels and all the cogs turning together in harmony, this is what it feels like to be happy.

It’s difficult to describe when those moments come, you can find a million words to talk about them, but the words are never the right ones.

Sitting in the showroom this evening, watching an act I had seen and smiled through many times before, in a showroom I knew and loved, on a ship that has served me as I have served her for most of my career at sea – I cast my eyes to the right of the performers, and I realized that finally, all the aspects of my life had centered in one spot. I was watching the show alone, yes, but I wasn’t alone. I was sitting with a team that appreciated me, and laughed with me, and talked to me, and I was watching a backing band that accepted me…led by a friend who has been through so much with me that for a very long while I was convinced our train tracks were doomed to take us in separate directions. Perhaps that may end up still being the case, it’s impossible to say what the future is going to bring for the next ten seconds, let alone the next ten minutes or ten years..

But in that moment, in that one shining moment, sitting, clapping and laughing along to an extremely good imitation of Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons – I realized that what one of my favourite holiday movies told me growing up is absolutely true. And that my Mum was right to repeat it to me so often

Just do your best every day, and life will…fall into place.

Safe travels everyone.

Posted in Below the waterline, Fall Contracts, Reflections, Tropical Rain 2016 | Leave a comment

Sharks, Snorkels and Armani Flip-flops – Moorea, French Polynesia – [11/05/2016]

Posted on November 7, 2016 by GypsyShaughnessy

sharkThere are honestly few ports I develop an attachment to (I develop attachments to people  I go to port with but that’s not precisely the same thing) let alone any in which I could have anything considered a routine – but Moorea? Moorea I have a go to.

The two visits I’ve been lucky enough to make to Moorea before this, the tour has been unplanned; I’ve just joined with random crew members jumping on a boat and heading out. This time though, I at least knew in advance enough to trade off my IPM.

We’re going out in Moorea

We are?

Yeah, I’m taking you to swim with sharks and stuff

Moorea has one of the loveliest coastlines I’ve ever come across; the water is a colour of blue I’ve not even seen in any other French Polynesian port let alone elsewhere in the world. And because of that they offer a fantastic – and well-priced – lagoon tour.  I’ve done it twice, and I was jelly-bean bouncy to do it again.

Four guest entertainers and ourselves shelled over our cash, slipped ticket bands on our wrists and clamoured into the local boat to head to the island. At first it was just us, which was lovely and chill as we zipped past the over-water bungalows and the remains of what was once Club Med Moorea (now reduced to nothing but the remains of the dock and the burned out husks of the main buildings it’s been that way for years now), but they had changed the order of the tour without really advertising it so instead of going to the snorkeling site first we went to the island to pick up a gabble of upset guests who were disappointed that they hadn’t seen the stingrays yet. Hello people, you are “stranded” for an hour or so in a tropical paradise, relax!!

We did get out to see the sharks and stingrays of course…and it was amazing. I am so glad for my under water camera. The pilots of the tour boats chum the water so all the animals – sharks included – come right up around your feet. They don’t have a taste for people thankfully, just for fish. I love snorkeling, although lately it’s just driving my desire to learn to scuba dive, there is a whole world under the water that I would consider it a privilege to see. As it was, just getting close enough to a black-tipped reef shark to take a decent picture was enough of a thrill.

The time in the natural aquarium (which is really what the lagoon is for all intents) was all too short, we were soon dropped off back on the island, where there was juice and extremely yummy local fruit waiting for us.  If that is, you’re willing to hop off the boat into the water and wade to the beach. Amras was a bit leery of that for a reason that ended up making me laugh

I can’t go in the water in these flipflops

Umm..why?

Because you can’t go in the water in flip-flops, the suction makes it end up so you can’t walk..why did you think?

I dunno, I thought it was cause they were…designer flip-flops or something

Seriously? *laugh* yes darhling I can’t get my Armani flip-flops wet…

Oh shut up

The rest of the day was spent lying on white sand listening to the patter of the local French dialect and trying to snap the perfect picture that would actually capture the beauty of what we were looking at. We made our way a little further down the beach then the drop off point, so there were few other ship people in sight, just us, and a lot of local people who probably wondered what we were doing there.  And Amras being typical Amras (and a typical muso), perked up his ears

Ah, autotune

I choked back a laugh,

Only you my dear, could lie on a beach in a tropical paradise, next to a girl, and complain about the auto tune on the local radio station..

LOL, okay, that’s going to end up in a blog isn’t it?

Absolutely

Eventually – despite not particularly wanting to – we had to load ourselves back onto the boat and start zipping back to the ship. Being me, I sat in the front, where we wrapped ourselves in towels that swiftly got completely soaked by the salt-spray, which was absolutely brilliant for me. The whole boat couldn’t stop laughing, as there was absolutely no point in trying to stay dry!

And hey, salt water, sunshine and laughter certainly never hurt anyone.

 

 

 

 

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Tropical Rains & Black Pearls – At Sea – [11/03/2016]

Posted on November 4, 2016 by GypsyShaughnessy

raymond-leech-tuttart-14A very long time ago now, it rained when I went to Tahiti. The kind of lush tropical rain that made you want to dance in it without the benefit of an umbrella. There was a hand in mine, a shell around my neck, and a black pearl pressed into my open palm, and – just for that one delicious carefree moment – life was beautiful.

It was years ago. In a great many ways I was more innocent than I am now, but then again, every day changes our innocence, every day we wake up a different person.

Beauty can take many forms, it can fade, it can tarnish, or it can simply change.

The beauty that was with me in the Tahitian rain so many years ago changed; it’s still in my life, in a different form, a better form, but it came and went, and something else offered a different kind of beauty to take its place.

But some places will always belong to people; no matter how much circumstances change or people drift away. No matter how much relationships break and mend and break again. Memories are attached to places, and nothing will change that. No matter where I go, or what I do, I choose to allow Tahiti to remain Kitty’s. Because I never want to forget how beautiful I felt dancing in that tropical rain.

Tomorrow I will walk through Tahiti with my hand in someone else’s, a different someone, a different path, a path I do not regret in the slightest,  a different beauty…but still, my heart will remember…what it’s like to dance in the rain.

 

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White Sand Daydreams – Bora Bora – [11/01/2016]

Posted on November 2, 2016 by GypsyShaughnessy

ap396-calendar-girlIt takes an awful lotta clams to get to Bora Bora

~ Warehouse 13, the Case of the Missing Elephant

Bora Bora…the name conjures paradise, and paradise it very nearly is. Mile upon mile of pure white sand that’s wonderfully soft between your toes, and water so clear that you can see the bottom even when it’s way deeper than you could ever hope to touch. Colours like that just don’t seem to exist anywhere else.

You don’t think these places exist anywhere except in postcards, storybooks and your imagination. But they do. Even when you’re there you sometimes don’t believe it, but they are real, they do exist.

I have been lucky enough to set foot here before, but as always is the case, I was a very different person in a very different circumstance then. It was very early on in my tenure on the flagship; I had perhaps one world cruise under my belt, and that really was not much. I lacked a certain level of confidence, and I was definitely still the new kid on the block; never invited to team dinners on the ship let alone for drinks off the ship. So rather than feeling the sand under my feet, I usually stayed in.

Today? Well, time changes everything. Today I finally went to Bloody Mary’s – possibly the most famous restaurant in Bora Bora, Mary’s has been frequented by a list of celebrities so long that they display it on two giant signs to either side of the main entrance: Carrie Underwood, Danny De Vito, the list seems almost endless.

It’s not a big place; inside the floors are sand and the tables polished logs. They advertise the greatest cocktails in the world, and this time the hype is true.  One sip of my vanilla rum punch and my taste buds exploded in layers of flavour. Not strong, not enough to even get tipsy from, just blended to absolute perfection. And the food was just as perfect. This is one of those places you have to experience to believe.

Once we’d finished lunch we climbed into one of the open air buses to head to the beach. The shuttled buses are something of an experience in their own right, since there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of speed limits in Bora Bora, and shocks on the buses are non-existent despite the rough roads. You feel a little bit like a cartoon character, bouncing around in the back of a bus, watching palm trees and ocean zip by at top speed.

We were dropped off at the beach and – after walking nearly as far as we could before reaching rocks and turning back – picked a spot to set up for the day. Amras headed off to grab some bottled water, and I headed straight for the ocean.

Stress, tension, exhaustion, serious thoughts, Mamma Ocean, take them away from your weary world-worn child, carry them from her and on the wings of the giant stingrays that swirl so close to her feet. Ground them into the coral and let your salt cleanse the past from her skin.

For me, the ocean never fails to cure me.

We spent at least half the day in the water, seeing how far out we could go while still touching bottom (a very long ways at it turned out), chasing tiny fish, trying to catch the perfect picture of one of those huge string rays. Eventually though we realized we had to emerge sometime, so we waded back out and spent the rest of the afternoon sipping vanilla milkshakes on the warm sand.

I don’t wanna go back

Me neither

Maybe we could just not go back. I’m sorry sir, I’ve been injured, I’m in a very luxurious hospital. Taking my medicine – medicinal rum punch right?

Ha!

I don’t think he’d buy it though…

Finally we loaded ourselves back into the bus and bounced our way back to the ship, where both of us had to work. Even in paradise, one does have to – occasionally – work for a living.

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Tick Tick Tock – At Sea – [10/31/2016]

Posted on November 1, 2016 by GypsyShaughnessy

81342668bf09e5f84f499627d83b31e3Boys and Girls of ev’ry age
Wouldn’t you like to see something strange?

~ The Nightmare Before Christmas

Halloween on ships is – as I’ve said before – rather a hodge podge affair in some ways. The crew tends to go all out, especially those of us in the entertainment department, and the passengers either care a lot, or forget what day it is all together.

For my part, I was in rather a unique situation: I have two costumes and only one party.

One costume is, of course, the T.A.R.D.I.S, which is a thing of beauty really, made by a professional seamstress and of theatrical quality or probably better; it’s a three piece Victorian suit with pockets big enough to hold all the gear I need to actually work. It also takes an hour to put together properly because it has accessories for everything down to the right shade of blue nail polish. Having packed all this with me, there was no way I was not going to wear it…

However…

I always bring a second costume for the possibility of a crew Halloween after-party. I had packed the Green Fairy, which, as facebook so kindly reminded me this morning, I have had for twelve years…and have worn almost every one of those twelve Halloweens, no wonder it’s starting to show some wear! I was prepared to trot it out again, although I was missing some accessories. But sometime last month Amras and I were playing our usual bout of video games before dinner and I looked at him in a very slow distasteful way after he had just stolen a flag from me for the fifth time.

Gah! Don’t do that! You look like one of those dolls..

Oh the creepy clockwork dolls? Yeah, it’s all in the eyes…wait…hmmm….

Not the exact conversation of course, it was too long ago for me to remember the exact words, but it was something like that. And it put the idea into my head to go as a windup doll to the crew party, an idea which I could not shake. Now, when I do a costume, I seem to be physically incapable of doing it by half-measures, so when we went shopping in Hawaii for Halloween stuff I picked up a full clockwork doll costume, dress, gloves, tights, hairpiece and…coloured hairspray. Also, white cream make up.

And then…there wasn’t a crew party.

So…two full – very elaborate costumes – and only one party to wear them too.

Enter in my most fantastic manager, who basically ordered me to wear the TARDIS to work in the afternoon, something that would normally definitely not be allowed. Cue me being a very happy costume-nerd! So, just after lunch I laced and zipped myself into the TARDIS, which still never fails to floor me with the level of detail that was put into it. That costume has everything, even a place for the pocket watch that a Time Lord would use to store his consciousness (and yes ,I have the pocket watch).

Teaching in costume does have its restrictions, the costume doesn’t allow for a lot of arm motion for one, but hey I got to use a sonic screwdriver as a pointer! How many times do you get to do that on a work day? And the guests loved it, I did start class a full ten minutes or so early so that people could take pictures.

After work was done I trotted to the salon to spend the resquite yearly hour in the hairdressers chair having my stubborn – and once again overly long – locks tugged and pulled into a mass of Shirley temple style ringlets. This works for the tardis beautifully, but also would work well for Kathy (yes my doll costume has a name, and there’s a reason for that, bear with me). Thankfully the girl doing my hair this time around had a technique for it that went way faster, and I was out of the chair in half an hour. By this time it was nearly 5:30 so I got fewer looks as I walked to dinner than I did when I walked down the hall from class. Leaving Amras to hold my place in line I made my way over to wear my manager was sitting and watched his jaw drop

Shaughnessy you look…stunning honey. That is…this is amazing

He meant the costume just to clarify. The rest of the table rather agreed with him

Did you make that yourself?

Hells no – I love being able to say this – I have a seamstress, and she’s really good

I’ll say!

Is that top a separate piece?

It’s three pieces guys…skirt, bustier and…whoa, a waistcoat that goes all the way to the floor?!?

I want that waistcoat!

So yes, the TARDIS was definitely a hit, although it did mean that I had to eat my fried chicken very very carefully. Grease and several layers of satin do not make very good companions.

But, the complicated stuff was yet to come. You see, the TARDIS is complex, but it fits together, and it doesn’t’ require much more than itself to be impressive. The clockwork doll costume however, that’s a whole different story.

The store bought costume was a base, the rest I had to put together myself. The character for the costume was actually pulled from the improv troupe I used to be part of; where I played a creepy physic child character by the name of Kathy Bastion (named after a character in the twilight zone and the most haunted part of my hometown), so she was already established. But looking the part?

The last time I did full face cream make up was almost 7 years ago for Rocky Horror, I remembered the mix somewhat, but I’d forgotten (or blocked out) just how hard it is to work with. Amras grabbed me a cereal bowl from the crew mess, which I used to mix the white cream base with just enough standard foundation to turn it into an almost skin tone that was still way too pale to be natural, and then I had to apply the stuff. Which is a royal pain. Because it has to dry, and if you don’t wait for it to dry perfectly the second you put on another touch up it will smudge. Thankfully, I was supposed to look a little broken so the cracks worked in my favour. I was only doing the base myself, our supervisor has training as a costume designer, and – because he is awesome – he volunteered to do our make-up. So I trotted up to deck 6 with Amras and spent a half hour or so watching him be transformed into a seriously mad looking skeleton before being painted up like a porcelain doll. Literally. Even had a little tiny crack running out of my hairline.

Okay, that’s terrifying. I did your make up and it’s still terrifying.

Yeah, it’s all in the eyes.

Normally I would have gone straight from getting ready to the party, but I was slated to help with the Halloween Pub Crawl, which technically I could have begged off of, but my boss has done so much for me with hour adjustments and things over this contract that I didn’t feel right throwing a tantrum – at least not over this. So I braced myself behind my make-up and settled into my idea of hell. I hate pub crawls you see, bad associations with people who go out only for the purpose of getting smashed, and an aversion to disordered crowds; all I wanted to do was slip up to the party and treat myself to a single glass of rose. But I promised, so stay I did. At least for the first four bars, after which we needed someone to run up to the upstairs lounge and let the band know that the Crawl was on it’s way. At that point you couldn’t really see me for smoke.

You going?

Someone has to go tell them we’re coming right?

Go on get outta here

Thing is, the Crawl was moving at…well, a crawl…so it took them much longer to reach us than we thought, but they made it eventually. But just as everyone was raising their glasses for the last toast of the event before everyone joined the party, Amras caught my eye from the bandstand.

Shaughnessy! Go down and get my guitar, ours just broke a string

What?

Guitar! Please go get my guitar?

Sure thing, back in a flash

I can run the stairs down to the crew deck faster than the elevators, even if it does leave me somewhat out of breath. One of the most entertaining moments of the night was when I plowed down the stairs and swung around the corner into the hallway, completely startling one of my fellow crew members who was standing at the time capture terminals.

Whoa!

I just kept moving, throwing a “Thanks! Happy Halloween!” over my shoulder. Made it to Amras’ cabin, found said guitar, slung it over run shoulder and snagged the elevator which thankfully went all the way up with no stops.

The whole thing made me miss the mandatory dance of the Electric Slide.

I am not particularly upset about that to be honest.

Swapped out the guitars and went back to the party. Realizing that, yes, I truly am I born-and-bred band girl.

The rest of the night was a blur of a very crowded dance floor and a lot of camera flashes – the by-product of wearing a very detailed costume.  By the end of the night I was limping a tiny bit, and remembering precisely why I didn’t wear full face make up! Under lights, stage make up is claustrophically hot.

But totally worth it.

Which is what I was thinking as I was sitting cross-legged in front of my mirror, going through the all-too-familiar ritual of smearing my face with cold-cream to remove the mask I showed to the world for a night.

Totally. Utterly. Worth it.

Happy Halloween Everyone.

Posted in Fall Contracts, Theme Events, Tropical Rain 2016 | Leave a comment

Sun-Soaked Octobers – At Sea – [10/29/2016]

Posted on October 30, 2016 by GypsyShaughnessy

1342806232_the-witching-hour-tiffany-toland-scott-tiffanysrealmBizarre dreams, wishes,  witches, strangeness off to the edge of hearing, not to mention the occasional blinding headache coming out of who knows where.

Yup, welcome to October

We’re still in the south pacific, although we’ve had to leave the last port in our wake unvisited because of the swells. This is a beautiful area of the world, nothing feels…unsafe here. Out here the world is in balance, it makes sense. Even in this crazy month.  I will admit it feels odd celebrating a month that’s usually to do with crisp fall leaves and a chill in the air with bright tropical drinks and warm sunshine instead but hey, the sunshine doesn’t make it any less…Octoberish.

The ship is quietly abuzz with the rollup to Halloween, although to be honest on these longer cruises the holiday is more of an occasion for the crew than it is for the guests. There will be a guest party of course, but we will be the ones in the most elaborate costumes most likely.

But the little signs are showing up around the ship, especially in the flower arrangements, which all feature witches hats and tiny spiders.

Yup, no matter where I end up spending it, I love this time of year.

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Almost Paradise – Dranuvi Island, Fiji – [10/25/2016]

Posted on October 24, 2016 by GypsyShaughnessy

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

In this job, you often think you have found the most beautiful places in the world. And you learn different types of beauty: tarnished, tourist, homespun, glass-fragile, there are many many different types of paradise.

But I’ve never seen anywhere quite so close to paradise as Dranuvi Island.

This place…photography doesn’t do it justice. Not even the best photograph.

It’s a tiny island, you can take a tour all around it in just a few hours if that, you could probably easily walk around it if you had most of the day. The sand is nearly pure white, and buried in it, scattered across it and lying on the edges of the water are massive clam shells, the kind you think to only see in museums and tropical films. They are extremely heavy, so even though anyone is free to pick them up off the beach, I didn’t’ see anyone trying to heft one back home, although I was able to find a small piece of one that was comparatively light. It’s now sitting on my dresser. Who gets to say they picked up a shell from a Fijian paradise? Not, I don’t think, all that many people.

Digging my toes into that white sand and wading into that breathtakingly clear, sparkling blue water, just washed everything off. This is a long cruise, there’s a lot of stress that accumulates onboard, whether we intend it or not, tempers run hot and emotions run hot…days like today? They serve to cool that.

And I just consider myself so lucky, to be able to warm my feet on the sands of paradise.

 

 

Posted in Below the waterline, Reflections, Tropical Rain 2016 | Leave a comment

Dive Deep – Lahiana, Hawaii – [10/08/2016]

Posted on October 18, 2016 by GypsyShaughnessy

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I adore Hawaii, but I never an anticipated it would give me anything other than fun, sun and if I’m lucky maybe sea turtles one day. But today it gave me the chance to face too big fears, one of which I’ve had since childhood – at the same time. I seem to be doing an awful lot of fear-facing lately.

I had not planned to do anything of any interest today, it seems that the best days always start out that way lately. In the blindingly bright Hawaiian sunlight I wandered through the huge market under the vast spreading limbs of the largest Banyan tree in the states (which no one is allowed to climb, which is an endless source of frustration) – before wandering up to the nearest tour booth

The fellow behind the counter was super friendly and the rather understanding of the fact that I had a limited amount of time. As I looked over the brightly coloured brochures all of them were vastly too expensive and vastly too long. I had just about to resign myself to a day of window-shopping when the attendant said

I do know one you could probably manage

Which?

This

And he picked up and hands over a bright blue brochure with the words Atlantis Submarines blazed across the front.

Submarines.

Me and my on edge fear of spaces I cannot escape, I swore I had no intent of ever going anywhere near a submersible vehicle. And yet…my rib cage still constricted a little bit.

Um..how big is the sub?

Pretty decent size here

And he pointed to the picture in the brochure enough leg room and more importantly..

As long as there’s enough light I’m okay

There’s loads of light, I think you’ll be fine

It was more cost-wise than I wold normally want to spend, especially since the tour operator couldn’t take cash – so it had to come out of my home account But when one is offered the opportunity y to face a dragon, well, lately I’ve learned to accept it.

But it wasn’t just the one dragon, it wasn’t just the submarine, it was the fact that the submarine toured past an artificial reef

An artificial reef in the form a sunken double masted schooner.

A shipwreck.

Since I was a child I have been terrified of underwater wrecks. Petrified to the point of phobic. No logical involved whatsoever, a possible reason dependent on what you believe, but no logical in the normal sense.

But I was going to do this. Something told me that I had to do this and that this was the right time to do it.

So I did. I laid down my card and bought the ticket.

And so found myself on a shuttled boat out to the dive site a short time later., waiting with a small excited group of people for the Atlantis tour sub to surface from the blue waters of the cove.

I had never seen a sub surface except in the movies, but it looked just like the movies. Up she came nose first, before splashing down onto the surface and bobbing there like an oversized bath toy.

It was then that it really struck me. I was actually going to do this. I was actually getting on that thing. Without Amras, without my Mum, without anyone, I was getting in that thing and I was doing this. Alone.

Come to think of it it felt somewhat like into the woods

This is ridiculous what am I doing here? I’m in the wrong story!

They settled us all in the sub with careful account for ballast and weight distribution and I found myself staring at the water warn underbelly of the tugboat – Roxie – that would serve a our surface support. *gulp* okay, not so bad.

Then the hatch closed, and with a few crackling communications to the surface for clearance, the pilot gave the final command complete with blaring siren.

Dive! Dive! Dive!

Then paused

Okay, that part we just do for fun

Which broke the tension.

The further down we dropped the stranger and more surreal it became. Despite what nature magazines might have you believe, there is little colour  once you get deeper below the surface, red vanishes, orange fades and the world becomes a strange wash of blue-grey that feels as though you’re living in black and white movie. Even the fish swarming over the coral reefs look oddly leeched of vibrancy.

We passed over two reefs at the beginning of the tour, of two different types of coral and also over two ancient anchors, slowly becoming reefs in their own right.

Then looking out of the blue-grey twilight – came the Carthaginian. Once a two masted schooner that served as a floating whaling museum in the harbour it was sold to the Atlantis company a few years back and scuttled to become an artificial reef. Now she sits at the bottom, for the last 11 years, growing coral and helping to provide an environment for dozens of varieties of life.

Which didn’t mean that when her bow loomed up under the sub that my breath did not stop and my heart did not pound

The feeling did not last perpetually through the tour, though it did continue to return sporadically with each pass we made.  But that doesn’t mean that I couldn’t appreciate the sheer beauty of what I was looking at, life out of ruin, beauty out of darkness. It was incredible. Terrifying in a way that I find hard to explain, but beautiful. And I  did it, and I even have the pictures to prove it. I even managed to stay anchored to the where and when of where I was.

Shortly after passing over the wreck, the sub touched down at the deepest point we would reach – 130 feet below the surface.

If you’re with someone, you might want to kiss them. Probably going to be the deepest kiss you ever get.

And then I realized there was music playing. Not just any music, but My Heart Will Go On. The pilot came over the intercom again

We wanted a romantic song with an ocean theme, but I gotta say, it does give us a bit of a sinking feeling

And then it was all over and we were surfacing back up into sunlight.

And I had done it.

I had really, truly done it.

And perhaps that means that I can conquer ever so much more than I thought possible.

 

 

Posted in Below the waterline, Fall Contracts, Ports of Call, Tropical Rain 2016 | 1 Comment

Everybody Get Wet – Honolulu, Hawai’i – [10/07/2016]

Posted on October 8, 2016 by GypsyShaughnessy

pinup2I wanna scuff through the puddles
Crash into the sea
Dunk my head in the bubbles
Get water all over me
Dive like a sub, rise like a whale
Flap my flippers like a big fish tail
Belly flop off a board you bet
ANYTHING AS LONG AS IT’S WET!

As much as I do miss being home for my birthday, I’ve also somewhat adjusted to well….moving it around. Since my actual birthday this year fell in the middle of the trans-pacific crossing, it was going to be somewhat difficult to do much on the actual day so the celebrations were split in half: with dinner a few days before the day, and the rest once we reached Hawai’i this morning.

First off – I adore Hawai’i, much as I hate to be so stereotypical, there is little not to love about the place. I could spend several months or more here and be perfectly content with my lot in life. So there are definitely worse places to celebrate a birthday!

Scheduling, on both Amras and my parts (I work days, he works nights, it makes things somewhat difficult sometimes), prevented us from making any plans in the evening despite being here overnight, but we had the day free. Mostly because we have an awesome boss who made sure that things would work out that way. In other words, instead of going out dancing, we went for plan “B”:

Aloha to the Wet n’ Wild Hawaii waterpark.

The perfect antidote I would say to being stuck on the ship for 5 days during the crossing from San Diego. And, because he is prone to these flashes of awesome, Amras bought me a day at the park as my birthday gift.

We’re a couple of big kids really, and I will swear by everything that that’s a good thing.

The park is almost all waterslides, big waterslides, including the kind that I normally would not go near with a ten foot pole. You see, enclosed slides normally petrify me because of my mild claustrophobia – if the tube is big enough that I can sit up? No problem. But the ones where I have to lie down? Big problem. However, I am discovering that that’s only really true if they are proper “dark” slides, the slides here – as it turned out – had track lighting inside, which ended up making a lot of difference. Of course, I didn’t know that before I started, but I have been feeling remarkably brave lately so I figured it was at least worth a shot, to say I’d done it if nothing else; so even though I was shaking in my metaphorical boots I stepped up to the first semi-enclosed flume ride, took a deep breath, settled myself into the inflatable tube and pushed off…

And absolutely loved it.

So, flume rides were a go from then on – all of them, even the crazy “Tornado” which spun us around so fast I almost lost my new sunglasses on the first wave (note to self: next big investment is going to be a waterproof go-pro with a chest harness, I need to get video of my theme park stuff!). It reminded me of the graviton at the fair back home, because it was all about the centrifugal force.

After several hours – or what felt like several hours – of hauling inflatable rafts up and down the cliffside (freya but that was a lot of stairs!) we took a break for lunch (mmm park food) and watched a series of people eagerly attempt to conquer the surf simulator. An upwards racing wave that I’m still not quite certain how it worked. Said upwards wave was not something either Amras or I was about to risk trying, as neither one of us has ever surfed before and aren’t in a position where we could risk sprained ankles or broken fingers. One of us plays bass guitar and the other one types all day, and both work standing – that would not be a good thing to mix with a sprained ankle! That said, it was enjoyable to watch. One of these days I’ll learn to surf…but not today.

Epic fail there, try again, you can still impress the girls

Hawai’ian roller coaster ride, one of these days maybe I’ll learn. I’ve always been a cold water girl though. Not really a chance to learn to surf.

Having conquered all the flume rides, I found myself staring at something else which – if I am honest with myself – I have long found somewhat intriguing, although I’ll admit it might be more in the same vein of fascination that I have with the concept of sky-diving: “why in the world would anyone  do that?”. I’m talking, of course, about Racer waterslides.

Towering way higher than I had intitially thought, they drop quickly and they move fast. That part I was fine with, that part looked like fun. I approached this adventure with actual excitement, after all, fast is fun when it comes to waterslides. So I picked up the racer mat that’s required for the ride and started eagerly trotting up the stairs….

Then slowed…

Then stopped..

I…don’t know if I can do this

Why not? The slides are open..

Not at the top, see all that at the top? That’s totally enclosed.

And so it was, a twisted tangle of green and yellow tubing that opened up to the inclined slides. My stomach went into knots.

A small explanation there: my claustrophobia is far from severe, I mean I can ride elevators and everything. It is also something that I am absolutely determined to not let get the best of me. Yes, I was slightly terrified, even going so far as say some pretty stupid things to try and talk myself out of it, but goddamn it I was going on this dumb ride! Just to prove to myself that I could.

Think of it like you’re reading a book.

Huh?

The riding position is exactly like when you read your books love, like on your tummy, think of the handles like your pages. Kick your feet up behind you, just like you do when you’re reading.

O…kay

You’re going to do great. I’ll see you at the bottom

And then the lifeguard blew his whistle and I threw myself onto the slide.

As it turned out ,the slide had track lighting and airholes, and actually let in some natural light, which fixed basically everything for me. Also, the slide moves so fast that you don’t even realize you are enclosed until you are suddenly bursting into bright sunlight and zipping down the incline.

When I sloshed my way out of the splash pool at the end I could feel the grin on my face. I’d done it, I’d actually done it. And much to my own surprise the first words out of my mouth?

Can we go again??? Can we go again??

Which I think surprised Amras as much as it surprised me.

We closed out the day with a trip down the lazy river, which involved a lot of giggling as we spun each other around and bounced off the river walls.

The park was closing earlier than we thought because it was off-season, so we had more time than we anticipated before we had to be back to the ship. We had our cab driver drop us off at the mall, which contained a huge party supply shop.

It is October after all, Halloween is just around the corner.  I was dearly needing a new costume for the crew party. There’s nothing wrong with the Green Fairy after all, but I’ve worn it at least six years in a row (I had it before I was even on ships), time for a change.

So I did some thinking and some digging and came up with another idea, which I am most looking forward to carrying out…

But as for what that idea is? Well that will just have to wait until Halloween then won’t it?

Posted in Fall Contracts, Ports of Call, Tropical Rain 2016 | Leave a comment