I think perhaps I’m a fairweather traveller. I’m also just a touch melodramatic.
I’m currently sailing the high seas in stormy weather and, without my trusty sea-sick pills, I wouldn’t be faring well at all. Okay, so the high seas are 3m (10ft) swells, the sky is clear and the sun is shining, but what I said about the sea-sick pills was right. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough pills to last the whole two weeks I’ll be aboard, and the person I’m travelling with decided they didn’t need any so are dipping into my stash.
I see disaster looming.
Day 2.
The weather hasn’t changed. It’s still choppy but fair. My stash of sea-sick pills is diminishing rapidly. I’m booked for acupuncture today so that might help. After that, I’ll be spending most of the afternoon writing—as long as my head and stomach agree to remain calm. I’ll claw my way along the deck and drag myself up the stairs to the seventh level of hell (where the library is). Now you understand the melodrama comment from yesterday.
The weather remains fine and blustery with 4m (13ft) swells. Our speed has reduced significantly so that everything stays in its place (including the contents of the passengers’ stomaches), so we’re several hours behind schedule. The pools have been emptied but it hasn’t been necessary to tie the furniture down yet. There’s no shortage of fresh air and sunshine.
Day 3.
They cancelled Auckland. I thought the weather had been improving. Sure it was foggy and misty and visibility is down to practically nothing, but we’re not rocking so much. Apparently that’s because the ship’s barely moving. We’re so far behind schedule there’s no way at all to catch up. The berth at Auckland won’t be available for us by the time we get there so they’ve cancelled Auckland completely. We won’t be stopping at Auckland at all, but going directly to Tauranga. It’s not a total disaster. The wine tasting today was very good. They let us drink the whole glass after we’d tasted it!
I went out last night and this morning to see the ocean and it’s magnificent. If I stand on the deck and look towards the stern I can see the back end of the ship rising high above the horizon, then dipping way down below. It’s like a crazy optical illusion.