{"id":3764,"date":"2015-04-30T17:26:06","date_gmt":"2015-05-01T00:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=3764"},"modified":"2015-04-30T17:26:06","modified_gmt":"2015-05-01T00:26:06","slug":"wave-rider-at-sea-04242015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=3764","title":{"rendered":"Wave Rider \u2013 At Sea \u2013 [04\/24\/2015]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sailor-girl-pin-up-14-53\"<\/a>And at long, long last\u2026all the ports are behind us, and we are at long last homeward bound\u2026<\/p>\n

As one of the guests said to me: this time next week, it\u2019ll all be over but the tears.<\/p>\n

Every crossing is a little bit different. This morning, as we rode out a high-force windstorm which almost tilted us all out of our beds\u2026none of us were impressed by how this particular trip across the Atlantic was starting out.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the clouds parted and the seas calmed around noon and we left the storm behind us.<\/p>\n

Of course, we are still in the open ocean, so there is a consistant roll to the decks as the ship rides the waves; and there is \u2013 as always \u2013 that sense of vastness that comes from looking out the office window and realizing that the nearest land is hundreds of miles away. We are merely the tiniest little speck in the middle of that huge expanse of rich grey-blue.<\/p>\n

The Crossing always marks one of two things; either the beginning of the season, or the end.<\/p>\n

In this case, obviously, it\u2019s the end. Our final destination is Florida, where we will tie up in Fort Lauderdale, drop off our allotment of passengers and crew (and all their luggage), and then the ship will steam her way into a well-deserved dry dock so that she\u2019s all fresh and new for her next arrivals. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if, by the time we reach Florida, there is no outward sign that this ship was running the World Cruise.<\/p>\n

This crossing also marks the (possibly temporary) end of my time as a citizen of the flagship. This time next year it will be someone else sitting behind \u2018my\u2019 desk; but it has come to my attention recently that I am far from the only one departing next season. Without naming names (because it\u2019s not mine to say), it\u2019s looking like only one of us is staying on. One member of the original team that I first started out with; and that says to me more than anything that it\u2019s a good time for me to take that breather; because the best part about this ship is the team that always came with it.<\/p>\n

So the crossing also marks my<\/em> crossing into new adventures and new frontiers and all that.<\/p>\n

But in a less poetic sense: that doesn\u2019t mean I like<\/em> the crossing. No one likes<\/em> the crossing. Trying to pack what feels like twenty-thousand events into only 6 days in order to keep everyone occupied, while at the same time making sure that they don\u2019t get overwhelmed by those options, and on top of that all the options tend to fight with each other and vie for space and time in an environment where space and time is limited? Let\u2019s just say I wouldn\u2019t want my managers job on the crossing for all the tea in china!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And at long, long last\u2026all the ports are behind us, and we are at long last homeward bound\u2026 As one of the guests said to me: this time next week, it\u2019ll all be over but the tears. Every crossing is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grand-world-voyage-2015"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-YI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3764"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3765,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3764\/revisions\/3765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}