{"id":4097,"date":"2016-01-30T04:23:34","date_gmt":"2016-01-30T12:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=4097"},"modified":"2016-01-30T04:23:34","modified_gmt":"2016-01-30T12:23:34","slug":"putting-it-together-kralendijk-bonaire-01192016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=4097","title":{"rendered":"Putting It Together \u2013 Kralendijk, Bonaire \u2013 [01\/19\/2016]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tumblr_mabxezBZhb1r0jcrzo1_500\"Getting everything into order during your first few days onboard is always a rough ride, no matter how much you know what you\u2019re doing; and considering that the ship just came out of dry dock and<\/em> that we missed our first port of call (and I was so looking forward to the Bahamas!), everyone was a bit on edge when we pulled into the ABC islands yesterday morning. But as it turned out, the cure for everything \u2013 broken computers, corrupted files, and uncooperative satellites included, is fresh air and sunshine.<\/p>\n

One thing that I always forget about these ports of call, is that they are hot<\/em>. Me and heat are not the best of friends, more than once during our wanderings we had to stop into a store under the pretense of window shopping for the sole purpose of getting me out of the heat before I passed out. Even my usual purpose of a big floppy hat (LOVE big floppy hats!) did not do a lot to cut the intensity of the Caribbean; and it will only continue to get warmer as we proceed down towards Brazil. Thankfully there\u2019s always a lot of sea air to be had when we\u2019re moving which helps somewhat; and my cabin AC is being beautifully cooperative.<\/p>\n

Since I have my own cabin \u2013 for real, no bunk beds in sight \u2013 for the forseeable future; I have an incredible amount of wall space, so for once the entire<\/em> collage can go on one wall. I must say it looks pretty impressive!<\/p>\n

A step into a lovely and relaxing Chinese-style shop in town yesterday (down a street we didn\u2019t even intend to venture into), allowed us to purchase some much needed essential oils; which take the place of being able to burn sage onboard to cleanse the cabins. Obviously you can\u2019t have an open flame anywhere on board, so we have to find other ways to smudge the space in which we are about to take up residence. I picked up two kinds \u2013 Jasmine just because I like the smell, and \u2018Dragons Blood\u2019 (which has a lovely cinnamon smell) for the purposes of clearing out anything that might be hanging around. Almost immediately the room started feeling better; and I\u2019m finding I\u2019m sleeping a lot easier since I put a few drops into my portable humidifier. Of course, it means that my cabin now smells a bit like a Valentine \u2019s Day candy but hey there are worse things!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the little things that make it feel like home. While it\u2019s true that I may not be in this particular position for long (jury is still out on whether or not I\u2019m retiring completely from ships as planned, it depends on circumstances and I should have an answer to that in the next few weeks), I\u2019m determined to do my best by it and get the most out of it for as long as I am<\/em> out here. Otherwise what\u2019s the point really?<\/p>\n

So I put the computer back together, stitch the catalogue back into one piece and reassure IT that I will continue handling the internet\u2019s ongoing temper tantrums as best as I can for as long as I can<\/p>\n

And in the evenings I go back to a cabin that\u2019s all mine, that smells of warmth and cinnamon and has door that \u2013while I may not be the only one with a key \u2013 at least rarely opens for anyone but me.<\/p>\n

Keeping it together, bit by bit\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getting everything into order during your first few days onboard is always a rough ride, no matter how much you know what you\u2019re doing; and considering that the ship just came out of dry dock and that we missed our … 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":[83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hot-hot-hot-2016"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-145","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4097","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=4097"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4099,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4097\/revisions\/4099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}