Day 174: Auction @ Sea … Atlantic Ocean

Thursday, 29 June 2017
At Sea — Sargasso Sea … En Route to Bermuda

Stats @ Ship’s Time 8:50p (ADT) … UTC 11:50p (29 June)
Temp: 76.1F (24.5C)
Position: 35.10.12N / 67.27.52W

A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.
~ Tim Cahill ~

Why cross the Atlantic Ocean to visit Bermuda?  It might well have something to do with the PVSA — the Passenger Vessel Services Act.  This is a law that was enacted more than 130 years ago.  It basically prohibits a foreign-flagged vessel from carrying passengers between US ports without first going to a ‘distant foreign’ port.  The law was enacted to protect US-flagged vessels.  It’s almost moot today since there are so few vessels that are US-flagged, and those that are work specific markets.  The wheels of cabotage laws are slow to turn, however, so cruise lines must still consider it in their itinerary plans … and so must cruisers … especially those booking back-to-back itineraries.

We have, of course, visited many ‘distant foreign’ ports on our Miami to Miami RTW, so the fact that Insignia’s country of registry is the Marshall Islands should not be a factor.  That said, there are passengers who boarded in Canada and who will be disembarking in Miami and that might require visiting a ‘foreign port’.  The PVSA has so many caveats that there might well be some other catch-all that requires this bump-out to Bermuda.  Cabotage laws are … well, a law unto themselves.  If someone wants to delve into it, here’s a link they can start with.

Of course, there is another possible scenario behind this zig-out-to-Bermuda and zag-back-to-the-US.  Perhaps the O itinerary planners ran out of US ports to fill up our 180 days.  Or they simply wanted to give us a chance to visit this Atlantic Ocean island nation.  Maybe they even figured that after so much time on the ship, we would need some days at sea to start packing for disembarkation ;-)

Whatever the reason, the brief sojourn to Bermuda will create more work for the ship’s crew … and a degree of inconvenience to the passengers.  Why?  Because we will have to once again go through US immigration at our next US port … after having done so in Bar Harbor already.

Now to get on with the story of our day.

We woke up to the ship sailing the Sargasso Sea.  It was 7:30a — 6:30a our bodies said since we lost an hour overnight.  I guess that counts as sleeping in.  We dragged our butts up to the Terrace Café.  There were maybe three tables occupied and our preferred four-top outside was vacant.  Perfect … a nice morning to dine al fresco, dallying with friends as they followed in our footsteps.  We stopped to share tea/coffee at three or four tables before we finally left.

When we returned to the cabin, I started weeding out stuff for donation, trash, and packing.  I didn’t get far, however.  At 10:15a, the emergency signal was sounded for the 16th — and final — muster drill of the voyage.  At least we won’t have to do these drills every two weeks when we get home to the Phaeton … which Mui sometimes refer to as our ‘Land Yacht’ … heh, heh, heh!!

Attired in our “ultra chic” life vests, we complete the ‘word’ portion of the muster drill in the Grand Dining Room.  Now we await the signal for our group to go out to the lifeboats.

Back in the cabin again, we tucked the orange life vests into their cubby in the closet — hopefully to not be brought out again … knock on wood.  We set to packing one more time.  Minutes later, Karen and Augus showed up to service the cabin.  So, off we went again without making any progress with the packing.  Looking for a way to kill some time, we went for a stroll and ran smack dab into the RTW Auction just getting started in the Insignia Lounge.  We sat down to watch the action.  Turnout — I thought — was light, but the bidding was brisk nonetheless.

A group of RTW passengers — ladies and at least one gent — have been working very hard on a lovely memorabilia of our voyage … a quilt.  Actually, two quilts … one smaller than the other.  They worked on individually crafted squares representing our ports and activities.  The squares were then stitched together … I understand there are two sewing machines onboard to ease the work.  The quilts are truly works of art.  That they represent our voyage makes them incredibly special.

CR Ray and GM Victor (top center) join the quilters for a group photo
with the larger of the two quilts handcrafted during the RTW voyage.

The smaller of the RTW quilts is no less special than the larger one.

The quilts were not auctioned.  Instead, there was a drawing from lottery tickets that have been on sale for several days — only RTW passengers qualified to participate.  As a result, $2,400 was raised for the ship’s crew fund.  The quilt drawing kick-started the auction and two people walked away with these beautiful reminders of our voyage.  In the spirit of sharing, the winner whose name was drawn first — and who had first dibs on which quilt he wanted — asked the two youngest passengers to make the pick … and then gifted the quilt to them.  We have made some everlasting friendships during these past 6 months, and Chuck’s actions really symbolize those strong ties.

Detail of four of the many squares used to make the two quilts.  All are creative, but I think the one using ID tags attached to our clothes by the ship’s laundry is especially so.

Once the drawing was concluded, the auction began.  There were additional handmade quilts donated by a couple of fellow-passengers; certificates to dine with crew members; at least one set of the marked-up RTW nav charts signed by the Captain and the bridge team; RTW 2017 crew t-shirts; a certificate to be Cruise Director for a day; a signed ship’s banner; and several more items that all sold for good bids.  It will be interesting to hear how much has been raised for the crew welfare fund … and even more interesting to see how that compares to the white elephant sale that will be held as we leave Bermuda in a few days’ time.  Whereas participation in this auction was restricted to RTW passengers, the white elephant sale will be open to everyone on the ship.  CD Ray says the sale is always hilarious so we might check it out … especially since we will be donating some items ourselves.

What turned into a rather busy day at sea continued with lunch at the Terrace Café with friends.  After lunch, we finally made some headway with our packing before we had to report to the spa for our massage appointments.  Mui got the first two pieces we plan to send home with the O shipping perk packed and zipped.  They are each over the max allowed weight by a pound or two, but we’ll re-balance once everything is packed.  Our goal is to return home with at least two fewer bags than we brought on the ship.

We headed off to our 80-minute massages shortly before 4:00p.  We both had the Canyon Stone treatment today … and ended up booking two more massages for the last sea day.  By the time we returned to the cabin, we were feeling very relaxed.  So relaxed, in fact, that we skipped the Oceania Club Party for this segment and dinner in the dining room … getting gussied up was just too much effort.
    
Following dinner, we returned to the cabin and I made myself comfortable on the veranda to write today’s post.  Since our day at sea turned out to be busier than I anticipated, this was my first chance to sit outside and enjoy what was left of today’s day at sea.  Luckily, the diesel fumes weren’t too bad until just a few minutes ago.  Maybe I can last out here until the big golden-orange orb goes below the horizon.  We’ve got the beginnings of a nice sunset … but we’ll see if it will be photo-worthy.

The sunset indeed turns out to be photo-worthy.

Our arrival in Bermuda is scheduled for noon tomorrow, so we’ll have the morning at sea.  Hopefully, today’s calm sea conditions will continue so we can get through The Cut to dock in St George as planned.  The last time we were on a ship that needed to tackle the narrow entrance into this port, the remnants of a hurricane made it impossible to do so.  That was in 2001.  Keeping fingers crossed for tomorrow.

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