JUST SOME WORDS

Sitting here with bright sunshine, warm temperatures and calm seas….finally a reminder of just why I thought it would be nice to be away in November.  Now that it is December though, I find I am thinking of home.  Course I can’t do much else other than think when surrounded by endless seas – I imagine this is how Noah felt except without the sunshine. One of my lunch mates saw a seagull today.  You have to wonder where the heck he came from and is going to.  We are at least two days sailing from land in any direction and we are moving at a good clip.  Costa TV says we are traveling at 20 knots.  I asked her if she was sure it wasn’t a dove with a branch in its beak.   

Well, that was a few days ago but then I had nothing else to say.  Now we are at our last day at sea and we are due to arrive in Antigua at 8:00 tomorrow morning.  I’m sure there will be shouts of “land ahoy!” reverberating around the deck.  I know I am not alone is saying I am sure looking forward to seeing something other than water.  Our deck even has a crusting of salt that I hope will be removed once we are in port.  The first few bad weather days, the spray was incredible and then the residual sea salt has stayed ever since. 

We crossed the tropic of Cancer the other day and certificates were given to us to commemorate the event.  I never knew that crossing over was an auspicious occasion….but I have the certificate to prove it.  They actually had free tequila drinks to celebrate up on the pool deck.  In the dining room for the evening meal they had a special menu.  Alas, it wasn’t the crab or lobster dinner some were hoping for.  The meals are adequate, but they are not special and most are definitely Italian based.  Their idea of beef is nowhere close to what we are accustomed to in North America.  They serve lots of different varieties of fish and yesterday I had a piece of salmon that was quite delicious.  Often there is veal or chicken and those are pretty safe bets.  Their idea of al dente pasta is just a minute amount of time in the boiling water so that it can’t be confused with being called crunchy.  Then give you a fork and spoon, but it barely bends so twirling it gracefully around the fork is not happening.  Better to give everyone a steak knife to cut it.

The ship has begun to decorate for Christmas with tacky decorations.  The artificial trees they are putting around the ship remind me of the ones that were popular in the 60’s that had about 15 branches of green bristle brush pushed into holes that were drilled in a 6 foot piece of 1.5” green painted dowel.  The garlands festooned around the main staircase are of the same era and the bows definitely could use replacing.  Christmas carols have begun to resonate in the lounges and some of the staff are sporting Santa hats.  I think they should have let us finish our cruise before opening up the dusty old Christmas decoration boxes.