Captain's talk

Tuesday, February 3, 2009 – sea day heading to Apia
Mostly blue skies and slightly cloudy – warm!
Swam at 8 and it was wonderful – only three of us in the pool and they left and I had it all to myself! It is one floor above the stateroom so it is an easy walk up, through the electric doors and out into the morning air.

There is an induction ceremony for those crossing the equator for the first time via ship…we signed up for tomorrow’s event. 10AM discussion on white and gold pearls from the South Sea. 11AM computer class on Adobe Photo shop “layers” and the Captain’s informal talk on life at sea. Captain Paul Wright is very talkative and has a great sense of humor.

Ship facts: When we transit the Panama Canal, there is only a 2 foot clearance on each side of the ship. 26 feet of the ship are under water and the ship is 180 feet above water. This is a diesel/electric ship and absolutely no paper charts are used; they are all electronic! Here are a few of his comments:
- He was piloting the QE2 into the NY harbor on July 4, 2000. The harbor was full and the ship is not easily handled. They had three tugs pushing her and a senior NY pilot onboard when one of the back tugs failed to push. They were drifting perilously close to a Japanese war ship and did end up hitting the Japanese ship! Being the gentleman he is, he sent the Staff Captain over to meet with the Captain of the vessel (he then admitted he also went along! – his sense of humor!) and they found out a very high ranking Japanese Admiral was onboard also! They both apologized and the Admiral just stared at them. They kept apologizing and finally the Admiral spoke, “It is an honor to be kissed by a Queen.”

- He lives in Cornwall, England and is away from home frequently as he is the Master of the Queen Victoria. The residents of his town are not aware of what he does for a living. He is “gone three months at a time and they still don’t know what I do for a living. They probably think I’ve been in jail or something.” One day he went down to the dock near his home and saw a man in a small boat. He mentioned he was thinking of buying a boat himself and wanted to know if the man could give him any advice. The man said, “Don’t get too big a boat. You don’t want to embarrass yourself.”

Lunch again with friends and I went outside to lay in the sun!! It was wonderful. I found a nice niche on the 10th deck in the corner with a full view ahead of the seas (and we are still rolling across the Pacific!!) and a great breeze coming up under the windbreak.
I read about Western Samoa and slept! Then I ran back into the pool and the waves were crashing much harder than this morning. It was quite refreshing. Also managed some loads of laundry!

Formal night tonight and those who joined in LA had their Captain’s party. We had a nice dinner with the harpist playing the background. The entertainment was Adam Johnson playing classical piano of Brahms, Prokofiev and Hungarian rhapsodies (Dad would have loved it!) and Kenny Martyn on the clarinet playing Benny Goodman.
Slept rocking to the ship – the elevator feels like it is going sideways as it goes up and down!