December 13 - Sixth Day at Sea

Friday, the 13th !  Beware of black cats and don’t walk under a ladder.  Out here in the not so Pacific Ocean, we continue to rock and roll.  The weather has put the lie to the captain’s announcement a few days ago; it didn’t calm down once we crossed the Equator. Today it’s also overcast and I think it’s because we’re on the edge of a low-pressure system moving west.  Hopefully by the time we get to Bora Bora tomorrow and Papeete, Tahiti the next day it will have moved away.

It’s hard to make lazy sea days seem exciting or even worth writing about. But I feel like I should keep writing what is essentially my journal.  Of course we’ve been playing trivia at noon.  Today is the last day in this series and we have a slight lead but that can change with just one question.  I haven’t given away the prizes I won with the last set, so I don’t mind whether we win or lose but I know that perhaps other people do.

I’ve been to a few more lectures.  One by the retired general about the rise of China as a world power and potential threat was very interesting, but once again I don’t think I learned anything new.  I was just reminded of things I’d heard before.  There have been some very interesting talks about using my iPhone to take photos.  If I have some time I need to go over the handouts and experiment with some of the features I never knew were there. 

An interesting phenomenon has occurred on this cruise.  I travel as a Solo traveler, but now my little community of fellow solos has become like a little family.  We’ve sailed together enough and spent a lot of time laughing and having fun and the relationships have changed a little.  We frequently are seated at the same hosted tables when we accept the  invitations.  We’ve had enough shared experiences that we can joke around and sometimes playfully pull the hosts’ leg.

It's later in the day and time for a brief update.  We lost at Trivia.  That's okay; there's always the next cumulative series of days.   Tomorrow I get to see Bora Bora which in my mind will always be Bali Hai.  I know the movie South Pacific was actually filmed on the island of Kauia in Hawaii, but the photos of Bora Bora look a lot like the mythical Bali Hai. So I can pretend I'm there.  Aloha for now.