Tuesday, May 9. Blue Sky. 20 C.
Home in three days!
As I write this, we are flying along at 20 knots per hour: that is the fastest we have gone this whole trip. [We will pass under Bermuda sometime later tonight.] This speed will consume more fuel than was scheduled, but that is as a result of the Captain making a conscious decision three days ago. He changed our more direct route home to avoid a weather system that would make for a rougher ride for us passengers. Good of him, but of course he would do that only under the direction of Home Office in Seattle.
Things are getting a bit hectic for most people aboard now. All sorts of activities related to disembarkation in only 60 hours, I don’t know about others, but Fellette and I are quite excited about this. We have never been away from home for so long in our entire life.
Today is a rather full agenda for Fellette in particular. She had a Choir Practice at 8:00 in the morning for the Passenger Talent Show later today. Lunch at 12:00, Sound Check at 1:00 and the Performance at 2:00. We had Jim and Gail in for a drink at 4:15, then the Last Formal dinner at 5:00 where had a Guest Officer at our table. That meant ample wine for those so inclined. It went well but he was a bit hard to hear with his Indonesian accent. Nice meal.
In the morning, we pack up our Formal Clothes, put them in our cases that are now partially loaded. Anytime tomorrow, after 10:00 am we can put out our five cases that are being shipped home by the Service offered by the ship called Luggage Forward. We will not see those cases until 10 days from disembarkation when they will be delivered to Wally at Canada Ticket. At least that is the way it is supposed to work. Let’s see how FedEx does on this shall we?
If you are interested, the ship comes into Fort Lauderdale around 4:30 am Friday, all current passengers will off by 10:00 am, the new passengers can start boarding around 11:00 am. All cabins will be cleaned, new bed linen etc., and about 12,000 suitcases off-loaded [and loaded]. The ship sails at 5:00 pm Friday, same day, with a new load of 1,500 happy passengers. Also, a goodly number of crew members will end their contracts on Friday with an equivalent number of new crew joining the ship!
During the day, the ship will be refuelled and re provisioned with enough goods for the next voyage which is the exact reverse of where we have been the last few weeks: back to Rotterdam retracing the route we have jut come from, starting with six days at sea!
Friday will be a masterpiece of logistics and very hard work by the crew.
A Busy Yet Very Good day...