Colorado Cruiser: Day 4 - full day at sea

The journey to Juneau

By the time I got to sleep, the ship had left the protective waters behind Vancouver Island and truly out to sea. That meant we had begun to feel the rollers in the ocean. And because we were at the highest deck at the very front of the ship we had the most rolling movement from side to side and the most rocking movement front to back. We could feel the ocean more than any other passengers on board. And I was worried.

I usually do very well on boats but a few times I've gotten seasick and needed medication to overcome the nausea. So I worried as I lay down to sleep. But I guess I wasn't all that worried as I barely remember laying my head on the pillow before I was out cold, and I stayed asleep until 7:30 which is very unusual for me. I felt great. No back ache from a bad hotel bed, no headache from too little sleep, and (thank heaven) no nausea at all. In fact, I was down right starving.

Nannette had ordered breakfast delivered to our room, but I figured I'd be up long before here and off to get breakfast at 6:00. So now I had to shower and get dressed before I could eat, unlike Nan who just threw on a robe and waited for some lowly porter to wait on her hand and foot.

I went upstairs and like a cave man, hunted for my own sustenance. I had to trek around the buffet two times before I'd gathered all the needed ingredients to prolong my life for yet another grueling day of sitting watching the water drift by.

I met up with the others and we chatted about the day's activities while we ate. There were allot of shipboard presentations to choose from, but we decided to start with yet more chatting in the crow's nest at 10:00. I went back to the cabin to tell Nannette where and when to meet. She was still lounging on the couch with here breakfast and watching various shows about all the different ways to spend money in Alaska. Every so often she'd say "Lets go fishing", or "Oh, lets take the Deadliest Catch tour", or "They say you can buy diamonds and gold real cheap". I hurriedly gathered my laptop and left before I could give an honest opinion of the ideas.

We all met in the Crows Nest and made our own little nest of chairs and tables. The soft recliners right by the front windows were already claimed, but there were allot of other places to sit comfortably. After we planned and joked for 45 minutes, everyone peeled off for their own planned excursion.

I wanted to tour the galley and so did Shauna, so the two of us headed to the back of the ship on deck 2. When we got there, the line extended back up the hallway 80 feet, but it seemed to be moving well. We filled out a questionnaire assuring the crew that we weren't experiencing the symptoms of Pepto Bismol and slowly moved forward until we finally made it in. There was stainless steel everywhere.

We watched chefs making room service orders, baking, prepping, and cleaning. It was obvious they wanted us to see just how clean the keep the place. There wasn't a smudge of dirt anywhere that I could see. And they had allot of tasting snacks all along the way. Cheese, Bread, Fruit, and appetizers, The fruit chef had carved a watermelon and the chocolate chef was building a small town.

After we finished, I returned to the crows nest. Nan, Angela, and Shauna were competing in a trivia contest but I just worked on uploading photos and writing the blog.

When the contest ended and they lost, Nan went to another presentation and Angela went to lay down. Angela was really feeling the ship movement and getting queasy.

Eric Shauna and I sat by a port side window and chatted until Eric suddenly popped up and said "That's a whale spout out there". He pointed out the window but none of us could see what he saw. 2 or 3 times he said "There it is again" but no one around us could make it out. We all stared a while but nothing else happened and slowly the crowed that had gathered disbursed with no one seeing anything. Poor Eric was assuring everyone that he had seen it. Shauna left to get some rest before lunch and I continued writing on the blog.

About 30 minutes later Eric said "There it is again", but this time the guys at the next table also saw it. Then a few minutes later I saw a puff of water jet up. I'd been looking out close to the horizon, but it turned out they were just 1/4 mile out, much closer than I'd been looking. Soon there was a mass of people all staring out the window and watching them swim along. They were paralleling the ship and matching our speed. They'd breathe 2 or 3 times, then submerge for 3 minutes, then do it all again. We watched the for about half an hour till it was time to go get lunch.

We found a great table for lunch (it's all about the location and views). I had a couple tacos and some sushi. My kids would go nuts for all the free sushi you can eat. There were 3 types of rolls, and they seem to vary the rolls from meal to meal. I'm not fond of whatever had cream cheese in the middle, but the rest were awesome.

After lunch I wandered the ship a bit, then went to take a short nap to clear my head.

Once again we wound up in the Crow's nest watching for whales. We saw some, but we also saw seals and dolphins. At one point we saw about 12 dolphins in a dense group swimming around and around, diving and jumping. They must have been on a large school of fish because they stayed close together until the ship moved well past them and we could no longer see anything.

The closest we saw a whale was a baby about 50 feet off the side of the ship. It broke the surface the water, spouted a large plume of water, then sucked in air and dove. It didn't breach and we didn't see the tail fin rise, but it's back rose well out of the water, then it just sank laving a big widening ring of water. Very cool.

We've had fog off and on all day, and when the fog rolled in again we all headed down stairs to get ready for dinner.

Our normal dinner time is 5:30, but tonight we have reservations at the steak house at 8:00. Several of us wanted to get small snack to tide us over till dinner. Tonight is "dress up" night (I'm sure there's a better term for it, but that's what it is to me). If we went down to our normal table, we'd have to put on good clothes. So Nan, John, and I went to the buffet to scavenge. Eric and Shauna dressed up and went down to the formal dining room.

I had soup, bread, and a fruit bowl. Nan has pasta she didn't like, stuffed shells she didn't like, a desert she detested and nearly spewed all over John and I, and fruit salad. John had pizza and fruit. Then the 3 of us went down to the card room to play a few hands of Uno. We didn't know it, but Eric and Shauna had stayed for the entire meal in the formal dining room. So we couldn't find them to play cards. And Angela was still feeling ill.

We played Uno and laughed till my sides ached with all the joking and teasing.

At 7:30 we went to get dressed for dinner. I wore a purple shirt with grey slacks. Nan wore a beautiful purple dress so we matched.

Angela tried to join us for dinner even though she didn't want to eat. But only a few minutes of sitting in the room with all those smells convinced her it wasn't a good idea, so John took her back to their room to rest.

The meal was pretty good. It started with a mushroom espresso (no coffee, just mushroom and milk foamed up). John, Nannette, and Shauna couldn't stand the taste of liquefied mushroom. It was ok to me, but I wouldn't have paid for it, and Eric liked it so much he ate 2.

Main meals were steak, chicken, pork chop, and crab legs. It was all very good. By the time we left, most of us were looking like it was time for bed. Eric, Shauna, and I went to the evening's live show. It was a medley of movie theme songs with dancing and performance all around. I managed to stay for 30 minutes but was quickly fading. I returned to the cabin just as Nan was going to sleep.

I turned out all the lights and opened the curtains and have been finishing yesterday's blog and today's blog for 40 minutes. Now I'll just add some photos and got to sleep myself. We change time zones over night, so we get an extra hour of sleep through the night.

Gabbing in the Crow's Nest