One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things - Henry Miller

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Off San Diego
















Tuesday, 10 August 2010
Happy birthday to all those celebrating birthdays over the last week or so - hope you all enjoyed your special day. Love, kisses and hugs to you all.
Sorry for the long silence. I’ve been suffering from the Norfolk Island complaint – “morla will do”. I am rather surprised at how many tomorrows have slipped by during this time.
We loved the Caribbean and our trip through the Panama was one of the highlights of the tour. Have a look at all the people gathered at the exit at Miraflores Lock to see us pass through...lots of Aussie, Aussie, Aussie...Oi,Oi,Ois exchanged between ship and shore.
In Acapulco we came closer to solving the mystery of our “cannon ball” (a round stone I found when we first built our house in Gladstone)...We had already learnt from one of our lecturers that the Spanish did make cannons out of granite...and low and behold on display in the Acapulco Museum in the Fuerte de San Diego were these cannon balls, exact replicas of the stone I found in Gladstone.
In Manzanillo we travelled out along the Cutuylan Peninsula to a turtle sanctuary and helped release the previous nights hatchings of the Olive Ridley turtles that they are trying to protect along with two other types – the eastern pacific green turtle and the rarer leatherbacks.
Since then we’ve had two more sea days as we’ve made our way to Los Angeles...beautiful warm balmy days of sunshine and smooth seas...tried to catch photos of dolphins playing under our deck ...but could only catch the splashes that showed where they’d been.
Today I toured the galley and listen to the Executive Chef, Manlio Cuzzolin, explain the catering side of ship life. The mind boggles when you hear that each day the average amount of ... used is:-
· Potatoes 400kg
· Eggs 9000 units
· Coffee 1210 litres
· Watermelons 400 kg
And they use 227L of detergent to clean up after us! Tomorrow is a turnaround day and the start of the final leg of our journey. So tomorrow about 80-85 tons of food will be loaded on board for this leg.
“Never let a chance go by” has to be the motto of this ship. On the last day of each leg they have a big discount sale. Our tour of the galley poured us out into the back of the dining room where the sale for this leg was set up. You couldn’t get out without having to battle your way through the whole sale...These bright eyed little bears were looking up eagerly into our faces as we made our way out through the galley door...I do hope somebody came and bought some. They looked so eager to be bought when I took their photo.
Time is running out. It will be back to reality soon. Only five more ports after Los Angeles. We are back up to 32 degrees north but from tomorrow it’s a downhill run to Australia. We gain another hour tonight so have another 25 hour day. Unfortunately mid pacific we have to pay back time and will have to skip a whole day.

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