Monday

At sea

After breakfast I was sitting in a deck chair and reading and there was a mad woman standing at the railing and she kept insisting that those walking past her stop and look at the flying fish. I don’t know what she was seeing but there were no flying fish. These fish don’t appear to be very big; but as we’re looking down from the railing of the ship which is 20m above the water the fish are probably at least 150mm long. The flying fish that I have seen have always been flying perpendicular to the ship’s direction of travel; probably because the ship’s sudden arrival in their particular bit of the South Pacific has frightened the living daylights out of the fish and they are getting away as far as they can fly and swim.

The social highlight of today’s calendar of events is described as the Black and White Officers’ Ball. I’m looking forward to seeing all the black and white officers tonight; if there aren’t some officers of each colour lined up to greet the passengers then I’ll know that this event should have been described as the Officers’ Black and White Ball.

Except when we are near a port I haven’t seen any other ships or any other indication of civilization; no floating rubbish, flotsam, jetsam; nothing.

I now wish I’d thought to prepare some messages in bottles and drop them of the over the side of the ship a few times during the voyage. Although there are lots of signs on the outdoor areas of the ship saying that nothing should be thrown off the ship. This is probably more to do with the risk of injury to other passengers on the ship than it is to do with potential pollution of the ocean. When it is windy, which it is 99% of the time when the ship is moving, then anything thrown off the ship is likely to be blown back on board.

Smoking is only permitted in a few designated areas of the ship (not in cabins) and I haven’t seen many smokers. There are usually a few on the aft pool deck late at night (getting a last nicotine fix before bed) and early in the morning (first of the day). Smoking is also permitted in some parts of the casino on deck 5; but only if you are playing. So you can’t smoke if you are watching someone use a poker machine or play blackjack but you can smoke if you are playing. I wonder how many smokers have picked up a gambling problem while at sea.

When I went for a swim this afternoon (and I’m one of the few men of any age not wearing Speedos) the ship was rolling a bit and the water was moving about. If I used the railing of the ship as a visual reference then it appeared that although the water in the pool still had a reasonably flat surface it was at an angle from the horizontal of about 15 degrees; very disconcerting.