Wanderung 25

Fall Follies

August - September 2011


 

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Thursday, September 10th, 2011: At Sea in the Belle Isle Straights

Bob:

The Belle Isle Straights separate the island of Newfoundland from the coastal area of Labrador on mainland Canada. Although cruise ships do not normally traverse those straights because they are quite narrow in spots, Hurricane Katie was churning its way up the Atlantic coast and Captain Nash decided to divert over to the straights to avoid the heavy weather associated with the hurricane. Thus when we looked out our window in the morning, we could see low-lying land off both sides of the bow, so of course we went up on deck 16 to investigate.

Monika:

The captain set a course through the Belle Isle Straights between Labrador and New Foundland into the Gulf of St. Lawrence to avoid the bad weather out in the Atlantic where yet another hurricane, Katie, was churning up the seas. He promised us better weather and icebergs. And indeed, the sun was peeking out between the clouds on one side of the ship, creating a beautiful rainbow on the other that traveled along the coast and past the promised iceberg.


 

Bob:

My cold continued, but at a mild enough level to be ignored for the most part, and we went to our penultimate rehearsal for the Pop Choir in the Piazza amidships at 10:15. This rehearsal was just to fine tune our spatial arrangements for each song, however, so we didn't sing, much to the disappointment of an audience that quickly gathered on the stairs and balconies overlooking the Piazza! Since my sore throat was still troubling me, I was personally just as glad we didn't sing.

Apparently Princess Cruise Line corporate headquarters had reversed its new policy on the Captain's gatherings for their repeat customers that had led to the disappointing fiasco in the Princess Theater earlier in the voyage. We had been invited to a Captain's Reception in the Fusion Lounge at 12:15. In contrast, this time when we repaired to the Fusion Lounge, we were entertained with free drinks, canapees, and a small band ensemble playing dance music. I had just enough energy (and perhaps just enough drinks?) for dancing, so Monika and I danced a waltz and a foxtrot and a Lindy in between talking to David and Barbara, out tablemates for the soiree. Now THAT was more like a Captain's reception!

We continued our dancing efforts with a basic Rhumba and Foxtrot lesson from Val in the afternoon, where we learned we had been doing the underarm turn in the foxtrot on the wrong beat. Turns out I should have been leading Monika into the turn on the side step at the very end of the backward-direction basic foxtrot move. I had been trying to do it on the "long" forward or backward steps, and that just didn't work out as Monika had to pivot and move forward or backward at the same time, which was extremely difficult! Doing the turn on the side step requires a quicker pivot, but the motion is much more natural. Learn something new every day!

Monika:

Since tomorrow we were going to give our Pop Choir concert in the atrium, Val spent an hour arranging us in the much smaller space. A lot of people gathered, hoping for a rehearsal, but all they got was watching a bunch of people being herded around in circles.

Since the first Captain's Circle reception in the theater went over like a lead balloon, with a lot of people complaining, the captain had several proper receptions in the Fusion Lounge with free drinks, canapees, and live music. This was more like it, and we even ventured out onto the dance floor, since we had several practices under our belt.

Bob:

Walking on deck to cool off after the dance session, we joined a couple on the observation area above the bow and finally saw some whale spouts off the port bow. Both the whales and our ship held course and we were fortunate enough to catch sight of the nearest of them as they swam by the port side of the ship. Exciting!

Monika:

After the dancing we went back on deck, where we still were within sight of land and there even was a little iceberg. And even more wondrous, some whales were swimming alongside the ship and Bob even managed to get a picture of one of them.

Bob:

After dinner we again took a turn on deck and saw a beautiful sunset. It was remarkable how slowly the sunset progressed compared to the sunsets we have seen onboard ships near the equator, which last only a few minutes. We also saw porpoises leaping off the starboard bow, although they didn't leap directly into the reflected sunset like I was hoping they would do, they did occasionally leap out of the water (to get a better look at our ship??) and thus we could definitely identify them.

Although I had just enough energy to walk a mile on Deck 16 before we returned to the cabin, afterwards I felt tired, achy, and quite ready to go to bed for the night. Dratted cold!

Monika:

Going back on deck after dinner, we were rewarded by the most beautiful sunset bathing the ship in light. After many days of stormy weather, this was really a wonderful sight. We remained on deck until the show finally ended, and since we were still far up in the northern hemisphere the show lasted a good 30 minutes.



Copyright 2012 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt


 

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Prolog Map of Drive in England Map of Transatlantic Cruise Epilog

August 2011
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September 2011
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