Day 103 – At Sea–September 1st, 2015

Posted on September 1, 2015 by oriana77

Auckland, New Zealand to Sydney, Australia

Wow, September is now upon us and it is hard to believe that on my first blog posting I typed May, it seems like an eternity since we excitedly boarded this ship in Sydney, full of great expectations. Well our final port is well and truly behind us as we rock, roll and slam our way across the wild and more than slightly windy Tasman Sea, towards the magnificent natural harbour of Sydney. Today was actually a rather busy day with a multitude of interesting activities on the daily schedule.

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Day 101 – At Sea – August 30th, 2015

Posted on August 31, 2015 by oriana77

Pago Pago, American Samoa to Auckland, New Zealand

Our final day at sea before arriving in Auckland tomorrow morning. Judi was very pleased to note the seas flattened out, which eased the passage giving her inner ears an opportunity to settle. This is our last Sunday at sea, so today’s culinary highlight was the final Sunday Brunch, which means no dining room breakfast, as the waiters get a well deserved later start. It was also an opportunity to say our goodbyes to the many New Zealanders departing the ship tomorrow morning.

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Day 98 – At Sea – August 27th, 2015

Posted on August 28, 2015 by oriana77

Pago Pago, American Samoa to Auckland, New Zealand

Having spent most of the last week heading west across the Pacific, on departing Pago Pago, we headed south. While this is normally good news for us northern hemisphere types, on this side of the equator, it means heading to chillier climates. After the heat and humidity of the past few days, it was already noticeably cooler down on the Promenade Deck this morning. With respect to weather, the swells and winds have picked up and we continue to rock and roll our way across the Pacific.

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Day 96 – At Sea – August 25th, 2015

Posted on August 27, 2015 by oriana77

Bora Bora, French Polynesia to Pago Pago, American Samoa

The second of two sea days between the idyllic Bora Bora and Pago Pago, and wow, what a spectacular day it was. Being worldly travellers and courtesy of tomorrow being a port day, Judi took the liberty of arranging a surprise birthday celebration today, rather than tomorrow. However, based on Sydney time, when we headed for breakfast, it was already the 26th, so it really wasn’t a day early. We also scheduled a guys photo swap afternoon, which of course just happened to coincide with happy hour. Therefore, today was basically spent nibbling and imbibing with some exceptional company.

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Day 89 – At Sea – August 18th, 2015

Posted on August 19, 2015 by oriana77

Easter Island, Chile to Pitcairn Island

With another set of clox last night we finally returned to Vancouver time (Z-7), but only for 24 hours, as I anticipate a further hour back tonight. We also passed through Longitude 123W, which means we also passed due south of Vancouver, at a distance of about 5,000 miles. As we wind our way sedately across the South Pacific, we enjoyed yet another fine day at sea, aboard the aptly named Sea Princess.

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Day 88 – At Sea – August 17th, 2015

Posted on August 18, 2015 by oriana77

Easter Island, Chile to Pitcairn Island

Thrilled that we managed to make the call at Easter Island yesterday, we are tootling along on a very dull, completely overcast and rainy day in the South Pacific. On the bright side, the wind and seas have abated, making it a more comfortable passage, without the rolling and pitching previously experienced. With Easter Island now behind us, we can start correcting the clox to our time zone, so we had the first hour back last night since before Cartagena. However, still steaming west, it will take a few days to get back to normal sunrise/sunset times, with meridian altitude at high noon.

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Day 86 – At Sea – August 15th, 2015

Posted on August 15, 2015 by oriana77

San Martin, Peru to Easter Island, Chile

We are all hoping this will be our final sea day and the weather will permit us to anchor and safely tender ashore at Easter Island tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, as the day progresses the weather is deteriorating, with initial wind being about 15 knots, increasing to 25 knots by late afternoon. We also experienced a fair bit of rain and by late afternoon the visibility closed in. However, today’s schedule was a pleasant departure from the usual serving of carpet bowls, water volleyball, etc. Rather than Sunday Brunch, this morning we had a delicious Saturday Brunch and once suitably nourished I spent an enjoyable 3 hours in the Princess Theatre.

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Day 83 – At Sea – August 12th, 2015

Posted on August 13, 2015 by oriana77

San Martin, Peru to Easter Island, Chile

Well we are definitely back at sea and crossing the Pacific Ocean, with the ship a rocking, a rolling and corkscrewing in SE’ly gale force winds of about 40 knots, and a short steep swell. With our WSW’ly heading this puts the seas on the port quarter, which causes a combination of pitching and rolling. The majority of the onboard discussion centres around receiving reports from those that visited Machu Picchu and how many sea days we can expect after departing Peru. Easter Island is our next scheduled port of call, but only between 1 in 4, or even 1 in 7 ships make the call. If we stop at Easter Island, it will only be 4 sea days, but if we miss the port, it will be almost 11 continuous days at sea. While the schedule lists Pitcairn Island between Easter Island and Papeete, it is not a port of call, as it only entails an 8 hour scenic cruise around the island.

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Day 78 – At Sea – August 7th, 2105

Posted on August 8, 2015 by oriana77

Manta, Ecuador to Callao, Peru

After the Panama Canal this is the first of two very welcome and relaxing sea days, as we meander slowly down the west coast of South America towards Callao, the port city for Lima in Peru. Today’s most notable sight was fish boats, literally hundreds, if not thousands of them. Late afternoon, when sitting on the balcony, we spotted a tanker on the port quarter, and when checking it out with the binoculars we spotted small fish boats, also on the horizon, stretching from ahead all the way astern on the port or inshore side.

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Day 71 – At Sea – July 31st, 2015

Posted on August 2, 2015 by oriana77

Charleston, USA to Curacao, NA

A day of changes, particularly regarding the weather and entertainment. The day started out with clear skies, but with the ship rocking and rolling in the gale force E’ly winds. By late afternoon it was completely overcast, although the wind did ease off to about 25 kts.

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