{"id":5704,"date":"2020-04-02T08:44:39","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T15:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=5704"},"modified":"2020-04-02T08:44:39","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T15:44:39","slug":"non-updating-updates-news-from-aboard-parking-lot-day-10-04-01-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=5704","title":{"rendered":"Non-updating Updates \u2013 News from Aboard \u2013 \u201cParking Lot\u201d Day 10 \u2013 [04\/01\/2020]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The pessimist complains about the wind
\nThe optimist expects it to change
\nThe realist adjusts the sails
\n~ William Arthur Ward
\n<\/em>
\nIt\u2019s been a while since I did an actual proper update. But that\u2019s because the truth is there hasn\u2019t been<\/em> anything to update about. We\u2019re still basically in the same place as we were yesterday\u2026and the day before…and the day before that. Life out here hasn\u2019t really changed much in the last ten days.<\/p>\n

Well, I say \u2018hasn\u2019t changed much\u2019.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, the corporate office rolled out a not-entirely-unexpected social distancing policy, which is being enforced fleet wide. So, healthy or not, it\u2019s now set dining times for each department, and only two to a table (the extra chairs have all been removed) and waiting in line for meals feels like standing on a conveyor belt in a strange sci-fi tv-show as we are all carefully aligned to markers 6 feet apart on the floor. Oddly, as of today the pool and gym both remained open, but that may not last much longer as it would be logical<\/em> to enforce their closing. That said, we are \u2013 very fortunately \u2013 a completely healthy vessel, so perhaps that\u2019s why we are still permitted that particular luxury (and don\u2019t get me wrong here, we know<\/em> it\u2019s a luxury). All crew that previously had bunk mates have been separated out into single cabins, with one person remaining in the original room and the other (drawn by lottery) moving to a guest cabin. Amras and I remain in our A-deck single crew cabin as they are (thankfully) not separating the few married couples on board so there was no reason to move us. Luckily we are at least not in the bunk cabin anymore! Because that\u2026stopped being fun even before<\/em> all this strangeness.<\/p>\n

Our \u201cprovincial government\u201d (what Amras and I have taken to calling the management of the ship, whereas corporate is now referred to in my head as \u201cfederal level\u201d) continues to treat us extremely well. We have an amazing Captain who goes out of his way to interact with every crew member he sees no matter what rank or station and always has a genuine smile and hello for everyone. I imagine he wants to go home as much of the rest of us, but I\u2019ve never seen him be without a smile or a word of encouragement for all of us. And while I could do without his 9am wake-up call every morning, I appreciate the spirit in which it is meant.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve all doubtlessly read on the news that two of the ships in our fleet are in more than a spot of trouble. We are all terribly worried about them while at the same time being grateful we aren\u2019t on<\/em> them. And rest assured, we are not. The ship Amras and I are on remains totally healthy, and since we are now 18 days passed out final port of call, we are highly likely to remain so. Still, my heart breaks for my stranded colleagues, several of whom I know, all of whom I hurt for. Please, send your thoughts out of them that they can get home and get home quickly. For all that we are stressed and scared and homesick, they are 1000 times more so and they need your prayers more than we do.<\/p>\n

This morning we all trooped into the main theatre (spread across two seatings, social distancing means 600 people can\u2019t be in the theatre at once), and watched the presentation on the history of the company that is normally shown to the guests every voyage. At first, I was more than a little non-enthusiastic about being required to attend such a thing, but \u2026I ended up being extremely glad I did so. For one thing, the show \u2013 and it is<\/em> a show- is incredibly well put together, and I am in awe of the amount of time and effort that must have gone into creating it. For another\u2026well, I am not one for the big swell of company pride, I\u2019m not really always a good company girl. There are a lot of things that I have not always been happy about; but learning where we came from? What we\u2019ve been through? What we have genuinely done<\/em> for people in our 100+ history? I felt pride. A surprisingly strong amount of it. We have been through so much<\/em>. Survived the war, the depression, the advent of the jet liner (which should have destroyed us), been pressed into service as military ships, been symbols of an entire country. We even have a connection to the Titanic, which I \u2013 of all people \u2013 had no idea about.<\/p>\n

We got through all that, and I left the theatre with a hope that yes\u2026we will get through this as well. I\u2019m not quite sure how just yet, but we\u2019ll get there.<\/p>\n

Till Next<\/p>\n

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

The pessimist complains about the wind The optimist expects it to change The realist adjusts the sails ~ William Arthur Ward It\u2019s been a while since I did an actual proper update. But that\u2019s because the truth is there hasn\u2019t … 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":[109,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hotel-california-layup-updates","category-below-the-waterline"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-1u0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5704","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=5704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5705,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5704\/revisions\/5705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}