Sunday 28^th February 2016 – Sea Day

I am trying to be methodical, so I have today downloaded all the photos from my camera thus far and put them in folders on my C: drive, divided up by port. That has taken me about an hour and a half to sort through. But I am at least now up-to-date. So far, I have taken 1.7 GB of photos (or 861 images if you prefer). Still some editing in my future, I think! It took just under ten minutes (9m 50s) to make a backup copy onto a flash drive. Better safe than sorry. Our friend, Pauline, managed to delete the entire first two sectors off of her camera, whilst trying to download to her laptop, so she has nothing to show for the first month of the cruise, which is very sad. I’m not normally so paranoid about backing up, but I’m prepared to be over-cautious, rather than under, on a trip like this.

We’re all so tired today, we don’t know what we’re doing. Everyone is crotchety and grumpy and loss of appetite is widespread. We are all a bit shell-shocked after the past few days. “Doing” a city in a day is not an easy task, at the best of times, and in high humidity, it really takes it out of you; doing three on consecutive days is just silly. Everyone is exhausted. And most of us have lost all interest in food and eating. I have no appetite at all, and Dad has started skipping meals.

We are also in the midst of some rather bumpy weather. As I and Tomasz Shafernaker predicted, we have bumped into what remains of Hurricane Winston, and it’s not a smooth ride, even with the rain to hold things down a bit.  We are really pegging it, to try and get out of the way – averaging over 20 knots all night, when we normally slow down to between 10 and 15 – but it still caught us.

Which, all combined, explains the hour and a half siesta I had to take. And no one seems particularly overjoyed at the idea of another formal tonight At All. No, sirree. I wore what I always where when there is a formal night I can’t be bothered with – the Monsoon dress, no jewellery. C.B.A.

Bit of a todo at dinner. Yesterday, Married Michael suggested we go to the Ocean Grill for chateaubriand tonight – the last formal of the leg before we lose all our remaining tablemates (Dale and Paula having left at Auckland). It ended up with me and Michael and Michael, which is silly, because chateaubriand is normally shared between two, and there were three people. So we went our separate ways, and I thought no more about it. Clean forgot it, to be honest. Tonight, when Single Michael arrived, he said that Married Michael had reiterated the invitation and were we going. I said no. Firstly, I was not hungry (I really am not – see above), and secondly, I’ve just sat down to eat with my parents, who were not apparently invited. In addition to which, we pre-order our meals, so that decision was also already taken. I suggested Single Michael go with them, but he wasn’t keen either – having had afternoon tea, and so little appetite left himself. Neither was it clear that there was even a table available at the Ocean Grill. So he rang back and said no. Married Michael came to join us for dinner alone.  He said he’d take something back with him afterwards for Laurie, which he duly did, although I didn’t see what.  We had a pleasant meal and then went our separate ways. It’s a shame we didn’t work it out properly in advance, because the food in the grill is very good, but with pre-orders and parents and a striking lack of appetite, it’s not easy to be spontaneous, however good the chateaubriand will taste. And I really wasn’t in the mood for a three-hour meal. I’m just too tired. I’ll be in bed by 10. I don’t have the energy to still be on desserts and coffees at that hour. Not today. Shattered.com. Absolutely pooped. Talking of which, my duvet is calling. Gnite.