... at sea -- Sat, 7/30/22

 

We're on the move:  From Nova Scotia to Newfoundland, like 656 nautical miles, docking in St John's at 8am tomorrow.  Weather-wise, today was a nonperformer, as in foggy, misty, off/on drizzle and rain.  Plus, if you were outside when that ear-splitting foghorn blasted, you'd be knocked out of your shoes, it's that loud.  Well, there's always laundry, washing those sweaty clothes from our sunny, hot days ashore.  Nannie and I found the laundromat and came back with clean, sweet-smelling clothes!

Craig Diamond presented a talk/slide show about Houdini from 11-Noon, which was pretty interesting because he gave us info we'd never heard before.  After lunch, Nannie and Jimmy and I played Yahtzee, and each of us won two games, which made everybody happy.  Later, after the fog had cleared enough that the horn wasn't sounding, Jimmy and I donned our suits and jumped in the (nice warm) swimming pool.  More fun!  The water was sloshing back and forth, but not at tsunami level yet.  We usually skip the elevator for the stairs, so we get our exercise moving about the ship.

This evening we opted for the Grand Dining Room, rather than the more casual Terrace Cafe.  Some of us chose the roasted Maine lobster in Chermoula sauce (whatever that is), but you see it above.  Pretty tasty!  You can have a gander at the menu, below.

Now comes one of the more fascinating moments of our lives.  At least it seems so to us, me and Jimmy. I don't really know what to call it. While seated at our table, two ladies walked in and sat at the next table.  I looked at the lady facing me and instantly recognized her!  (but it can't be!)  I leaned over to Nannie and said, "I think I know that woman."  Then I whispered to Jimmy, "That looks like Linda, from our NZ/Australia trip."  (but how can that be?)  We finished our dinner, but every time I glanced at the woman, the surer I became that it was Linda.  (could it really be?)

In the Grand Dining Room.

The string trio playing classical airs, such as Beethoven -- quite good.

She and her friend got up from their table before we did.  I looked at her and asked, "Is your name Linda?"  "Yes," she said.  Well, there you have it.  Sure enough:  Linda from our Road Scholar New Zealand/Australian trip in 2016.  We hadn't seen her since then, six years, but she looked the same to me.  She lives on the East Coast, we live on the West Coast.  If you'd like to see Linda bungee jump from a bridge near Queenstown, New Zealand in 2016, click here.  She was the only brave soul in the group to attempt it.

Anyhoot, she didn't know we'd be on this ship.  We didn't know she'd be on this ship.  Neither of us had any inkling that we might know the person sitting right next to us from a previous trip!  You could've swatted either of us to the floor with a feather!  What are the chances?  What are the odds?  Can the world get any smaller?  It gets a bit better.  This was our first dinner in the Grand Dining Room.  It was theirs, too.  Seated side by side.  We are in awe of how our universe works.  All of it:  Unbelievable.  Here are the three of us visiting the next day, above.

Headin' Home -- Tues/Wed, March 22-23, 2016

We've visited our last port of call, and now Ruby has pointed her nose toward Los Angeles. It will take her from Monday night to the wee small hours of Thursday morning to cover the distance from Puerto Vallarta.  Precious hours at sea for me and Jimmy.

Hold onto your hat, mate!

In my previous post, I mentioned sleeping ten hours Monday night.  After breakfast, I slept another unheard-of two hours, my body's way of shaking off whatever ails me.  When I got up, I didn't move far, just to the balcony, where I watched the sea, alternately sitting or standing at the rail.  I was amazed to see eight sea turtles swim past, one at a time, off the Baja coast as we cruised north.  After lunch, Jimmy and I continued our Yahtzee games, till it was time to dress for dinner.  You know I wouldn't miss lobster/prawn night!

Before.

After!

All chocolate, all the way.  This would cure anything or anybody!

After dinner we posed on our way to the Princess Theater to watch the "Magic To Do" show, which was cleverly inventive, but the singing was just way too loud to enjoy.  The only other show we caught this trip was last Wednesday evening -- "hilarious comedian," Darrell Joyce, who really was both! 

On past cruises, I've always tuned in to the ScanDisplay channel on our cabin's TV.  This gives running stats -- temps, barometer, wind speed and direction, ship speed, etc., stuff I want to know.  However, it hasn't been working on this cruise till today!  Hooray, now I can follow along!  After dinner and before the show, we caught the rising almost-full moon off the Promenade Deck.

* * * * *

Wednesday:  I feel better!  This morning Executive Chef Andrea and Maitre d'Hotel Silvio gave a culinary demonstration in the theater at 10am, and they were hysterically funny! We laughed and laughed.  A galley tour followed, which we've done on previous cruises, but it's always kinda interesting to see how BIG the "kitchen" is!  

Watermelon was included in tonight's dinner.

Edible arrangements!

Executive Chef Andrea, right, and Maitre d'Hotel Silvio, left, following the galley tour.

Yesterday the sea state began as Light Ripples, which became Small Wavelets, then Small Waves and finally Large Waves. The progression was obvious! Love seeing the water colors change, pewter one hour and two minutes later an emerald fit for a queen. Fascinating that it's all dependent on time of day, sun’s position, cloud shadows, and turn of head. The sea is always the same, but it's always changing, too. Monotonous? Maybe, if that was all you ever saw, but it's not boring for me. Mesmerizing is more like it. We’ve seen whales, dolphins and/or turtles every day and a few sea birds.

Today is all about the ocean. Today the wind is Force 7, moderate gale, with waves leaping, crashing over the bow, spray flying! So cool to watch. We were on a wild ride in bed last night, like being on a bucking bronco, or the tail of a dragon, whipping us up and down, the cabin shuddering as Ruby dipped into a trough. Today the waves are 11.5’ and the winds are 40-45 knots. Ruby is making 18-19 knots/hr bumping o'er white-capped seas. Temperature has dropped to 60 degrees, so we don’t see many shorts and flipflops on deck! No swimming, either; the pools have been draped with netting to keep major tsunamis from forming!

Our room steward placed the luggage mat on the bed, so we’ll have to pack it up this afternoon. Our ten- day trip is almost over.

Tonight's dessert was the traditional Baked Alaska (on parade).  Ice cream and meringue sitting in chocolate sauce, tho it probably wasn't presented just so on the menu!  Oh yeah!

We stepped out on Deck Seven just as the beautiful golden full moon rose. I wanted a picture, but Ruby wouldn't hold still! Pitching about in 11.5' seas, trying to hold the camera steady was nearly impossible! Just finding the moon in the viewfinder was problematic. Above are a few of my tries!

Eureka!

Ruby entered the Los Angeles (San Pedro) breakwater about 5:30 Thursday morn, with the setting moon behind her.  I was wide awake and watching in my robe from our balcony.  A huge cargo ship passed us on her way out to sea as Ruby approached her pier ... it looked so close!  Disembarkation commenced after 7 am; Jimmy and I left the ship at 9ish, shuttled to LAX, flew to Sacramento, hailed Uber to Matt's house where our Prius was waiting, and drove to Nevada City.  Back home at 5pm. Did we have a good time?  You betcha!  Never mind nose trouble or cool water or any other inconveniences. It was a grand trip. 

Total distance Ruby traveled round trip from Los Angeles = 2,820 Nautical Miles = 3,245 Statute Miles = 5,222 Kilometers.

I'll leave you with this:  We encountered the colorful little dog below on deck the last day. Surprised, we wondered aloud to the man holding the leash.  He said it was a service dog for a young man with a breathing disorder (if he stopped breathing, the dog would alert his parents).  In fact, the dog didn't want to stop and visit with us ... it knew it had to get back to his boy.  Time to go home. 

The End.

South to Puerto Vallarta! Sun/Mon 3/20-21/2016

Sunday at sea was one of those laid-back days.  I, of course, was awake way before sunrise (no surprise).  Today is the March Equinox, otherwise known as the First Day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere.  Without the "Princess Patter" reminder, we would've forgotten! Neither of us was feeling tip-top anyway, with sinus or head cold issues, so we didn't do much.  Only one notable item made it to my notes:  From our balcony, way up on Deck 15, we spotted a sea turtle directly below, swimming in the vast sea ... with a gull riding on its back!

While watching the coastline on Monday (way before the sun came up), I spied Puerto Vallarta from afar.  Later, it was neat to see Pacific dolphins cruise the ship's wake on our entrance to the bay.  Despite ongoing "nose trouble," Jimmy and I are looking forward to our excursion today!

Closing in on the pier.

Okay, now -- you have to admit this is quite a sexy get-up.  Right?  This is my new wetsuit shirt, and it works, so there!  I wouldn't recommend enlarging this picture.  Yes, we are fixin' to go snorkeling! Monday's adventure is an excursion to Mahajuitas Beach and Yelapa Island.

We met on the dock at 8am, hooked up with the Vallarta Adventures crew, and cruised the shoreline of Banderas Bay on a great catamaran en route to two island paradises.  The boat was large enough to accommodate a slew of us, and the crew? -- they were outstanding!

Morning was spent at peaceful and isolated Mahajuitas cove, which is situated on the southern coast of the bay.  Its reef-filled coastline is accessible only by boat, making it one very desirable spot for kayaking and snorkeling.  We jumped off the boat into the crystal clear water (options were snorkel, swim, kayak or SUP) and we played for a long time. Mahajuitas cove was much warmer than waters off the Baja Peninsula.  We didn't go ashore here, but we had a grand time snorkeling.  Some of the crew joined us in the water, diving down to bring up urchins or whelks for show 'n tell before returning them to their watery home.  They were hoping (me, too) to find an octopus, but didn't.

Approaching Yelapa.

Once everyone was back on board, the crew served up a delicious buffet lunch aboard the catamaran before heading on to spend the afternoon on Yelapa Island.  Yelapa is a tiny, traditional fishing village, nestled in a cove of natural beauty and reachable only by boat. It's only recently that the village joined the 21st century with electricity and even wifi.  I spent a day here way back in 1978 when the village hadn't even joined the 20th century!

Nice yellow socks!

We chose to hike thru the town and jungle up to Cola de Caballo waterfalls.  The footing was iffy on the steep trail over cobblestones or packed dirt, but we did it.  Along the way, enterprising vendors offered their wares for sale.  We looked ....  The waterfalls was lovely. A couple hearty souls entered the pool at the base and one guy stood beneath the falls, but that water wasn't very warm, either, so ... no thanx!  After the hike to the falls, we returned to the beach to cool our heels in the shade at an outdoor cafe.  We splurged for drinks:  Jimmy had a coke and I had a lemonade. 

It's a beautiful cove with a sandy beach.  Trees were blooming yellow on the hillsides.

Great figurehead on Sueños Liquidos!

When it was time to board the cat for our trip back to Puerto Vallarta, we were in for a treat -- an on-board fiesta!  Our unforgettable day was wrapped up with an open bar, music (the kind we knew the words to), dancing, and premier entertainment by the crew!  Those guys were acrobats and could they move!  Lots of guests grooved to the beat and as the piña coladas and beers flowed, more joined in!  (not us, tho)   

Iguana, anyone?  The guy in the blue shirt (above, left) carried that huge boy iguana around Yelapa beach the entire time we sat in the shade, offering it up like a talisman for you to touch and have your picture taken, for a peso or two, naturally.  Again, no thank you.  That thing had to be heavy!  The other iguanas were basking on the pier near Ruby when we got back from our excursion. Someone had thoughtfully (or thoughtlessly?) spread torn tortillas for their lunch.  We counted five -- iguanas, that is. Mr. or Mrs. Iguana at top, left, was smiling.  They had green feet!

Now I've seen it all.  Really.  On our way to Ruby, we encountered a big sea lion (this sea lion).  It had a man and woman on either side and it was "kissing" each one, to the click of a camera and a peso or two. Unbelievable.  The thing stuck out it's tongue to kiss these tourists via a word from its handler!  Really and truly:  no thank you!  Who knows how long this poor thing was out of water?

Time to fess up.  An open-air farmacia was located practically at Ruby's door, so we asked about cold meds, and the lady came up with this made-in-Argentina box:  Gripe y Tos (Cold and Flu).  I took two at (exceedingly early) bedtime and slept ten hours!  I usually don't get sick, and colds are a rarity for me, but that's what must be ailing me.  I'd been fighting sinus troubles for weeks prior to the cruise.  When I told my sister I'd been on 18 different flights in the past six months, she said, "no wonder you got sick! People love to spread germs on planes."  Jimmy, meanwhile, was on generic Allegra, which seemed to help him.  I know, I know, we shouldn't have ( fill in blank ), but we had fun regardless!

This was Jimmy's dessert at Monday night's dinner -- cherries jubilee (and et cetera!)

I tasted it, and it was YUMMY. 

We didn't have time to walk about Puerto Vallarta.  When you only have one day in a city, you simply can't do it all.  But, our excursion choice suited us to a "T" and we were happy with it.  Ruby thrust off the berth at approx 5 pm, put her engines ahead and made a tight turn to port before following the buoyed channel out of the basin.  Once out of the "Bay of Flags" [Banderas Bay], she set courses for the good ol' US of A!

  

Cabo San Lucas -- Thursday, 3/17/16

Leaving San Diego on late Tuesday afternoon, Ruby Princess sailed southeasterly all day Wednesday and called up Cabo San Lucas very early Thursday morning ... over 750 nautical miles.  Jimmy and I spent a relaxing day at sea, walking the Promenade Deck (#7), and we even brought out the Yahtzee game.  Funny thing, we only play Yahtzee aboard a ship (occasionally in Tergel), but never at home ... I guess we enjoy throwing dice on a moving target!

Can't beat it.

Naturally I was awake before dawn.  The good news is I got to watch the sun rise over yonder Baja peninsula.  Pacific white-sided dolphins cavorted by the bow, and a Mama Gray Whale with her baby showed themselves.  Cool early morning greeting to Ruby!

Looks like we're late to the party.  A Carnival Cruise ship and the Crown Princess are here before us.  Think the Cabo streets and shops might be a little crowded?  Answer:  Yes.  Our anchorage is the furthest away from town and we'll be tendered ashore -- roughly a mile and a half.  The wind is up, too, which may make for slow and/or rough going. 

"GoinDeep" must be throwing gradeaux,

attracting a crowd of Brown Pelicans and Frigatebirds.

And then there's this:  That is NOT an engine off the back of this boat.  It's a sea lion!  The huge creature has learned that there's a reward for following and even crawling aboard a boat!  Obviously people have fed it and now it begs shamelessly.  Give me a heart attack to see something this big sneaking on board my boat!

Saucer-sized Red Rock Crab (Grapsus grapsus), common to the west coast.

Thumbs up for iconic "El Arco" (the arch).

Lover's beach.  We didn't go ashore.

On the other side (the Pacific side) is Divorce beach (heh heh heh).

We could smell sea lions before we spied them.

Our snorkeling adventure didn't begin till 10:45 and by then (in crowded Cabo) all the "good" boats were taken.  We'd signed up for a "sail and snorkel" at Santa Maria Cove in the Gulf of California.  It was a coolish-type of day, with big winds, and the trimaran we were on wasn't designed for windy conditions.  We smacked amid spray at each wave (almost like I-10 in Louisiana, with water, that is!).  This is the only time we've been on a Princess excursion that was disappointing.  Their ad says:  "After a brief safety orientation, board your deluxe motorized catamaran and sail [my italics] from the pier ..."  We received no safety instruction, very little guiding, and certainly no sailing!  We can't fault them for not having "crystal-clear waters" and "offering perfect conditions for avid snorkelers," because probably the winds churned the waters.  Nor can we fault them for water that bordered on cold.  Jimmy ordered us wetsuit shirts prior to this trip and that saved us, but even so, we didn't last too long in the 70 +/- water.  A great part of the charm of this excursion would have been sailing aboard a catamaran to the snorkeling site.  I would not recommend this excursion.  In fact, I filed a complaint.

These young party-goers aboard a cool sailing vessel hailed us as they sailed past.

Back in Cabo, we joined a very long line that snaked it's way toward the tenders.  This Pelican had a prize in its beak -- what was left of a fileted fish!  And it was not willing to share!  Notice the Pelican's red (breeding) neck. The last tender left Cabo at 4:15 and shortly thereafter the Ruby Princess picked up her anchor and set northeasterly courses for inside the coast of Baja California towards La Paz.  There we'll have our next snorkeling excursion. (fingers crossed!)

Headin' South... South America, that is. Wed/Thurs, Dec 18/19

We have two relaxing days at sea before reaching our next destination:  La Serena (Coquimbo), in northern Chile.  After Tuesday's dinner, we enjoyed gazing at December's Full Cold Moon while walking the Promenade Deck, tho the evening didn't feel cold to us; windy, yes!  We look windblown in the second photo.

Wednesday dawned cool and overcast, with singular shafts of sunlight piercing the ocean. The water temp is up to 71 degrees again.  Each morning we have a Princess Patter in our cabin mailbox. Today's Patter announced a time change for tonite. We set our clocks forward one hour last nite. Figured it must be a typo. While pondering this outside our cabin, Captain Wilson (!!) was making his way aft in our passageway. We stopped him and I asked him if it was a mistake. "No," came his affable reply. "But," I responded, "we set our clocks forward last nite; it's four times already. What time zone will we be in with the next change?" He explained that technically it's the Greenland Time Zone (UTC-03:00), but in South America, it's simply called, "Santiago." We hadn't realized how far east we'd be while in Chile. Make for a bit of jet lag on the way home to California?

From our cabin:  Ethereal morning sun beams.

The morning's lecture was "All You Want to Know About Chile."  We believe every little bit of info we garner is going to help us get around Chile, since we'll be in the country for ten days.  For starters ... it's long and narrow:  The Republic of Chile stretches over 2.670 miles north to south, but only 217 miles at its widest point east to west.  We know it encompasses a remarkable variety of landscapes.  Their currency is the Chilean Peso (CLP), and 500 Pesos equals approximately one American dollar.  We'll be up in big numbers in no time!

This evening was the Captain's Farewell Party, with his farewell speech and cocktails in the Piazza. Jimmy and I got all gussied up for dinner. 

Corralled balloons, ready for The Drop. 

Enlarge this if you can. Guess which main course we picked!? 

This was my desert: Floating Islands.

 I thought they looked like floating eyeballs! I ate everyone.

After dinner stroll around the Promenade Deck as the sun sets.

Whee!  Balloon drop when the speech was finished!

 Music, dancing, and popping balloons.

Meanwhile, outside, the sun dropped - in quite spectacular fashion - into the ocean.

This is the Humboldt Current I mentioned previously, moving north from Antarctica cooling the West Coast of South America. Our last port-of-call touched on the Atacama Desert (the driest hot desert in the world).

Dessert on the 19th involved CHOCOLATE! We all indulged.

Raphael, me, Jimmy, and Mauricio. Wait staff with character! 

We never tire of the sunsets.  Nor the sunrises.  Grateful to see both.

Don't forget:  Set your clocks forward one hour.  We'll be in Santiago time, five hours forward of our Nevada City home (PST).  Tomorrow:  we set foot in Chile for the first time.  Yowza!