June 30, 2005
The North Pole (or nearly)
So the funny thing about sailing very far north into the Arctic Circle is that the ship loses sattelite connectivity for 6 days. That and the sun never sets. I was so excited when we actually got back to where there was a sunset, even though it only stayed below the horizon for a couple hours. It sort of faded seamlessly from sunset to sunrise, but I was still happy to see it. WEll, time is running out on the card, so more soon hopefully.
June 17, 2005
Jet Lag-anacious
Despite my short (40 minute) connection time in Chicago, I still made it to Southampton without a hitch. And I'd like to take a moment to reflect that international business class really IS all it's cracked up to be... I still didn't sleep, but on the other hand, I was fast tracked through immigration, and thus was able to catch the 9:45 bus to Southampton, even with some 20 minutes of underground labyrinth to get there.
I arrived at my hotel to discover to my delight that my room was all ready for occupation, and had the last hot bath I'll see for 2 months, followed by a six hour nap. I know, I know, I should try to stay awake all day so I can sleep at night, but being as I can barely keep my eyes open to type this, I don't think it's going to be an issue.
June 16, 2005
Last Supper
No trip to Seattle would be complete without a trip to the Grouchy Chef - which was excellent as always. This time we took the kids, who, sensible of the honor done them, were models of perfect behaviour. So I guess I can say goodbye to regular good food for a while, because life finds me once again in an airport with a suitcase full of peanut butter and saltines (and starbucks coffee) awaiting my marathon of flying. At least I'm back on American Airlines, where I still have enough miles to upgrade (even if I have lost Goddess flyer status). I've turned power management on my computer to "Ultimate Battery" in the hopes that it will live long enough to keep me entertained today. It's promising 7:00 more hours of battery life, so with a little judicious reading, it might just make it.
June 12, 2005
Good Eating
After two months at sea, where I don't even have to look at the menus anymore to know exactly what's on offer on any given night, I'm almost ready to eat dog food, just for the change. But fortunately, that's not necessary. I was greeted last night with a Thai beef curry, prepared by my brother-in-law, who is no mean chef. This morning Dad made waffles, and tonight we went out to "Tokyo Ninja" (sort of a scaled back Benihana). Not entirely unlike eating on the ship for entertainment value, but the food was better.
Meanwhile, my nephew has promised to teach me to play video games, so my five days will not be without entertainment.
June 11, 2005
Bureaucratic Nightmares
Ah - disembarkation day....actually, we were fortunate today, there was no 5 am immigration nonsense, just a nice civilized "Be at Sabatini's at 9:15" to collect your passport. I might have considered myself warned when the crew purser told me "9:30" and we didn't actually get off the ship until 10:00, but that all went very smoothly. Then there was no bus, but they didn't want us crew members all hanging around in the comfy chairs, so they moved us to a narrow hallway in the terminal, then raced us out to where the buses park and had us stand under vents gushing cold air to wait further for the bus, which, in the end, had nowhere near enough room for the volume of crew luggage that wanted to go aboard.. so another hour passed while we waited for a luggage van. But I was secure, because for the first time in my career at sea, I actually had a letter from the ship saying I was a "bona fide seaman" and asking the airlines to cut me an extra 40 lbs worth of slack for my luggage allowance.
No dice though, even though my bags were a perky 25kg (well under the 40kg allowance granted by my letter) the gate agent asked me to help him lift my bags since "he didn't want to hurt himself" (which I thought was a little funny, since my 98 lb friend had been helping me with the same bags earlier) and made me pay $50 in excess baggage charges.
Now I'm safely on the other side of US customs - only 4 hours left until my scheduled flight....thank goodness for wirless....and Granville pale ale.
June 09, 2005
Ping Spam
Once again, a big thank you to KB for sending me the link to block all ping spam. Now I feel smarter. (Not that I didn't have a few moments of frustration in setting up the script, but I really really wanted to figure it out myself) nothing like 300 ping spams in the space of 24 hours to motivate me.
Meanwhile, today is the last Ketchikan - we're going for Thai food, where, oddly enough, I've had the best Won-Ton soup I've ever eaten. I've been dreaming about it for two weeks. If only it would stop raining.
June 08, 2005
Quick Picture
Here's the internet cafe in Whittier. They have nice cold bottles of Alaskan Amber.
Juneau- home of free wireless
Life just gets better the more time I spend in Alaska. Now I've found free internet with coffee - no more being shushed by the library patrons when I've forgotten to turn off the sound on my little computer. Now I can sit in the cafe and have free coffee refills while I fight off the ping spam proliferating on my blog. (120 today and still going). We've had gloriously sunny weather this week (but not today of course) and yesterday we were watching sailaway from the crew deck when the Captain tapped on the window from the bridge and summoned us up. There's certainly a better view from the bridge, but unfortunately we couldn't stay long, as we had to work. Three more days til home. Then not many more til England.
June 04, 2005
Midnight Sun
We arrived in Whittier last night at midnight, so of course half the crew piled off the ship in search of an open bar. It was still bright twilight when we left, and we were among the first to arrive, so it was still a locals bar when we got there. Quiet, four guys playing pool, and everyone excited to see us. Within the space of 20 minutes, it was a hopping disco, filled with girls from the spa all dressed to the nines. I've never seen a place transform so quickly. Breakfast at the attached all night cafe, and we walked home in bright sunrise at 2 am. It's gloriously beautiful here. Mountains and sea and bright sunshine.