Our First Days at Sea

 Since leaving the port of Key West, we are on our second successive sea day.  The water has been quite calm overall with minimal movement on the boat.  The temperature outside has been balmy, in the 80’s and breezy, with a wind speed of about 17 miles an hour.  The water has registered warmer than the air so the water temp is in the mid 80’s although we have not yet experienced that first hand. 

Yesterday was our first day at sea.  It was misty on and off for most of the morning.  It was a geography lesson for me.  First let’s learn about port and starboard. Following is the clearest explanation I have found.  Of course I didn’t look very hard, and only read this one, but it seems to be very clear.

Since port and starboard never change, they are unambiguous references that are independent of a mariner’s orientation, and, thus, mariners use these nautical terms instead of left and right to avoid confusion. When looking forward, toward the bow of a ship, port and starboard refer to the left and right sides, respectively.

In the early days of boating, before ships had rudders on their centerlines, boats were controlled using a steering oar. Most sailors were right-handed, so the steering oar was placed over or through the right side of the stern. Sailors began calling the right side the steering side, which soon became "starboard" by combining two Old English words: stéor (meaning "steer") and bord (meaning "the side of a boat").

As the size of boats grew, so did the steering oar, making it much easier to tie a boat up to a dock on the side opposite the oar. This side became known as larboard, or "the loading side." Over time, larboard—too easily confused with starboard—was replaced with port. After all, this was the side that faced the port, allowing supplies to be ported aboard by porters.

So, we are buzzing along the sea and I look off the deck to starboard and in the distance I see a shoreline with trees.  I look at the nautical map available for us on the tv and realize we are half-way down the Cuban coast, and that I am seeing Cuba.  Cuba was originally a stop on last year’s cruise itinerary for us   (the one that didn’t go), but when President Trump changed the law again eliminating leisure travel from the US to Cuba it was dropped from that itinerary.  It was never a part of this itinerary.  So I am looking that direction and seeing land all day long.  I am not sure what I was expecting, but I did not expect to see Cuba every time I looked to starboard.  It took me a while to figure it out, but I looked up the length of Cuba and it turns out to be over 700 miles, 777 to be exact.  We are traveling at 18 knots.  Somehow my head was picturing a small island that we would pass by and zip around towards South America in no time.  Boats do not travel as fast as planes.  Who knew?  As you mathematical geniuses can figure out, it took us all day to travel the length of Cuba before ducking between Haiti and Cuba sometime last night in the dark and hitting open water for our run to Cartegena.

We find plenty to do on the ship.  We eat and sleep and play some bridge.  These first few days have seen us trying to organize our room for a 196-day journey.  Today’s post will eventually contain a before and after.  As you can see much has changed.  The animals are just hanging out.  We eat and sleep and eat some more.  The souffle of the day has been fabulous each evening.  To this point we have eaten alone at all the meals.  Last night we were willing to be joined, but nobody came so we just enjoyed our time together.  We went to the ventriloquist show last night and it was very good.  The string quartet on board does not meet my standards.  The show cast is from Mexico, Argentina, Jamaica, and the US.  I couldn’t understand the words until I realized they were singing with accents and then I could understand them better.  We attended the Captain’s Reception last night which offered free drinks and appetizers for a couple of hours and was a chance for the officers who run the ship to be introduced.  I wonder how cruisers who paid big bucks for the unlimited alcohol package feel about this.   

Looking forward to Christmas carol sing along just before dinner tonight.  I’m in tails tonight, and Jennifer will have on a stunning red gown.  One of the things we have not seen on this cruise is the ubiquitous photography where they take your picture for every possible reason and then sell you the residual.  That has become a big money maker for theme parks and cruises since everything went digital.  Nary a photographer so far and I don’t think that is likely to change.  We’ll try to get someone to take a picture of us to share.  Not sure if we’ll make the 11:00 Christmas Eve service or not.  It just doesn’t seem like Christmas Eve when you are from Iowa and your surroundings are sunny and 80 plus degrees.