At Sea on the Silver Whisper
The 30 days of this cruise have mostly sea days with about 8 days on land so many of our days are spent traveling at sea from place to place. We are now at sea in the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia on day two of three sea days. The Tasman has the reputation of being rough but has been kind to us so far. On a typical day we are up and having coffee on pool deck by 6:00 am to 6:30 am but not today as the Casino kept us up late(we are now one day ahead of you and seven hours earlier). We follow up with breakfast which can be anything you can imagine but has been Raisin Bran or oatmeal with skim milk lately. Walking and lectures take us up to lunch either on deck or at La Terraza outside. Lunch often includes the fresh fish you see and a little wine (or a lot depending on if Henry is serving). After lunch is typically slow for a while (doing blog now) before the big sea day event of water volleyball. We usually have six per side with three to four entertainers both male & female joining. It is usually all the same passengers and we are very competitive and have loads of fun playing for 45 minutes. Its pretty relaxing, oh don't forget 2:00 pm, just reached that time now. 2:00 is Silver Sea pool work out time. Their tradition is people in the pool, workout leader at the head of the pool directing and then loud music and all the staff comes up around the pool to join in, lots of fun to watch. Pool volleyball is tough for a couple reasons. Surge is number one. Teams switch from shallow end to deep end. The other is water depth. They lower the pool for pool work out but then despite our pleas they raise if for volleyball. The shallow end is ok but the deep end is next to impossible with water 6' deep and surge going almost twice that. It your at the net you often find yourself on the wrong side. Oh well, I have an hour before volleyball and can't decide on a nap or go walking on deck.
Tuna & Parrot fish from Tonga
White Tuna from Auckland
New Zealand Green Muscles for lunch on deck
Parrot fish from Tonga
On pool deck barbie cooking lobster for lunch
Today's Lunch another Yellow fin Tuna, rare on deck.
Lobsters
Bill's room balloons for his Birthday! We shared his cake for dinner desert with our dinner at Hot Rocks on the pool deck that night.
Pool deck dinner table, they call it Hot Rocks at night. You can escape formal and semi-formal here and cook dinner on a "hot rock" or they will cook it for you. We cooked our own once but there is a bit of "splatter".
La Terraza dinner at "family night" Sunday with entertainers
Three of the six singers on board. We play pool volleyball with them every sea day. The guy in the middle we call "spiker"
We had the captains table for this group of friends for family night. Left to right: Jax, Harry, Roy (Jax husband-England & Dubai), Dawn, Paul, Bill, Peggy (Harry's wife-New York & Jersey shores), Ben, Jerry (Newly weds that got on in Papeete from Edina, MN. Dinner tonight with the Staff Captain and a big farewell dinner tomorrow night as we get off soon and so do Ben & Jerry.
Bills Birthday night. Peggy gave him a blow up palm tree pool drink holder
Ship building competition on deck. Ours is the closer plainer sail boat we named the Silver Wind. Captain fluffy (not ship captain) & Polly Cox have the other more fancy boat. They won on design and looks and we won on cargo carry capacity (30 cans of coke vs. their 23) with our secret weapon below boat cargo hold. We could have taken on 100 cans but no need. We shared first place prize which was 250 Silver sea points (10,000 for a pen?) and our whole crew got 250 each, Dawn, Paul, Bill, Harry, Peggy. Ours didn't have the looks but she was sea worthy and strong. We (Bill) got maintenance to cut up some 3/4" pvc pipes that helped hold things together along with duct tape bought in Tonga, tuperware from Tonga, hangers from closet, napkins from lunch for sails, etc. Fluffy & Cox rumor has it, cheat.
Boat construction week takes much of the room and stresses out Captain Dawn
Birthday Dinner, Happy Birthday Mr. Bill!
Birthday Dinner, White wine, Red Wine, Drambuie & desert.
In water testing of the boats