Day 23: 20231016 Monday, October 16, 2023- At Sea Pago Pago to Auckland
Last night, we slipped through a wormhole in the space time continuum and bypassed Sunday October 15 altogether, winding up on Monday, October 16 as we crossed the International date line.
As we head further south, the temperature is dropping. Passengers are wearing sweaters and vests as the outside temperature is now in the 60’s. The sky has been partly cloudy with an occasional brief passing shower. Yesterday, Janet spotted a single albatross skimming the waves. That was the first sea bird we have seen on the open Pacific. She also spotted a whale spout in the distance. There has been very little in the way of marine life visible from the ship during the majority of her transpacific crossing. We also saw no signs of the great Pacific Garbage gyre. Indeed, outside of the ports of call, there has been no floating plants, turtles or even any flying fish in the ship’s wake. All of our other coastal cruises have demonstrated much more marine life around the ship.
Janet and Ben have both continued to suffer the effects of some unknown upper respiratory virus with coughing that interrupts sleep. It is clear that a large percentage of the ship’s passengers have similarly dealt with the same virus. There are pockets of passengers who are masking up, but the majority of passengers are unmasked. Ben masked up when he was febrile and coughing during the first 3 days of the syndrome, but so long as our med supply held out, the coughing was easy enough to suppress. We’re both looking forward to being back to 100% health when we arrive in Sydney.
The ship is gearing up for its arrival in Auckland. Quite a few passengers will be leaving the ship, and another 600 new passengers will board for the Auckland to Sydney leg.
We finished up the progressive trivia in 5th place, but when the winning team received their recognition, it was a bit surprising to see 11 people all posing together for the photo. The maximum team size is supposed to be 6, but they explained they had substitutes for illness and other reasons, but having 11 brains to tap could explain their better overall performance. Janet traded 22 winning tickets in for string bags and wine stoppers to be distributed as gifts to our room steward and waitstaff because they don’t get any ship swag.
Tomorrow, we arrive in Auckland and have an excursion to Waiheke Island, notable for its wineries. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.
