Sunday, 12 February 2017
At Sea — South Pacific Ocean … En Route to Fiji
Stats @ Ship’s Time 9:00p (FJT) … UTC 9:00a (12 February)
Temp: 80.8F (27.1C)
Position: 17.55.06S / 178.38.40W
Travel is not really about leaving our homes, but leaving our habits.
~ Pico Iyer ~
A day of dancing on the ocean. The motion of the ocean started after we left American Samoa on the 10th, continued through the night and into the “lost day,” and through to today. The seas are about 10-15 feet (3-5 m). No worse than earlier in the voyage … it’s just the direction the waves are coming from that is making the difference in how much the ship is moving. At noon the wind across the deck was reaching 50 knots … a “whole gale” in nautical terms. But Captain B assured us that after 8:00p tonight things would start calming down. Until then … well, one hand to yourself and one hand to the ship is a good motto.
We didn’t do much today. The outside decks were closed, so no walking. It rained on and off, so no veranda time. Still babying our throats … but it’s going to take a while for the irritation to heal itself. Mui revisited the sick bay as he had a suspicion his ailment had turned into the beginnings of a sinus infection. He’s now on a course of antibiotics, so should start feeling better pretty quickly.
We found out that the HEPA filters in the ship’s ventilation system were changed while we were in American Samoa. It is expected that this will help to clean the air around the ship. As an added precaution in our case, GM Victor sent Reynold, the HVAC technician, to the cabin to seal the vent seams with aluminum tape and add a filter inside the vent cover. So, there is a definite effort being made to resolve the issue with the fumes. The added benefit of the filter — it has deadened the sound of the fan … that’s a good thing.
Tomorrow we are in Suva, Fiji … hopefully the weather will cooperate with our plans for the day.
P.S. A bottle of wine was delivered to the room today — compliments of GM Victor … for our trials and tribulations. A nice gesture that we appreciate.
P.P.S. We are still west of the 180° longitude at the time of this posting. We’ll cross that imaginary line at some point tonight and that will officially put us in the eastern hemisphere. I’ll be asleep long before then.
© 2015-2017 — All rights reserved by Erin Erkun.
Hope you both feel better really quick. A bottle of wine should help a bit. I have been enjoying your quotes tremendously, by the way.
ReplyDeleteAlways a good motto: one hand to yourself and one hand to the ship (or a motor coach). Sorry you guys are a bit "under the weather" and hope you make fast recoveries. Having just endured a month of (snow and) rain, I also hope your daily weather outlook improves! We enjoyed (and I do mean enjoyed!) a brilliant sunny day in Nevada City today! Aha, you're already in tomorrow! :-)
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