Day 1, June 27th, 1st Day At Sea
The day started with the morning stretch and walk on the bow. The stretch was good and as John and I power-walked our 20 laps, we started to meet a few people. It turns out that the cruise director, Arman’s, wife was with us.
Since, we’re not in the packet at all for obvious reasons and have handwritten name tags, my line later when we were talking to the Internet director is that we’re stowaways! He laughed and said he would keep my secret. I promised we wouldn’t eat much!
Today was a day at sea, so I will have to scrounge to come up with photos (hard to send because of the poor internet here). In fact, we’re going to have at least 5 days at sea on this voyage which gives the professors on board a captive audience. Today was a college day— Intro to astronomy, Intro to Anthropology, Eclipse 101, Eclipse 102., 103, etc…And these lectures broken by Tahitian dance lessons, meals and short naps. It’s going well, but there is part of me that’s thinking, ‘This is not my life. Dad should be here.” Dad sent me a note that he is here— in spirit. That is so nice to hear!
After the last talk came a brief break before the captain’s party and dinner. The ship is so small that everyone goes to all the big stuff. There are two travel groups here: Wilderness Travel and Travel Quest. We all do everything together, but we are always seated with others from Travel Quest and will have no problem meeting everyone from our group.
Lastly, a Tahitian dance in the Main Salon. There is core group of natives traveling with us who wear many hats. They serve, the know our names, the sing with some instrumentation, dance in native costume, and appear welcoming at every turn. It’s a very nice touch!
Bed late, time change at 2 am. Another time change tomorrow. And— just to keep us off balance— the ship’s movement means we walk like drunken sailors everywhere we go!
Fun times!
