World cruise 46

April 22

The ship was practicing for "Dancing with the Stars" all night. Toward morning she shifted into some mix of salsa and paso doble with a bunch of wicked can-can kick steps thrown in for (good/bad) measure. It was a definite relief to get inside the breakwater and docked at Porta Delgada.

Right after we got tied up, the Regal Princess arrived. As big as she is, she had to turn around out in the rough water then back into her dock space. I swear she slid along not 3 feet from the dock. These ships with the rotating azipod motors and side thrusters can put themselves almost anywhere in almost any direction without a tugboat's help.

I was not feeling up to a bus tour winding up twisty roads to a village in a volcanic crater in the rain, so opted to skip that one today. Of course, right after all the tours left, I was feeling fine and the sun was out. For the rest of the day, the weather cycled between cloudy and sunny, but always with a strong, chilly wind so I don't feel too bad about skipping my last bus tour of the trip.

It's a pretty port. Friends who have been here before as recently as 1.5 years ago say that the port area has been completely redone.

It appears to have a massive public swimming area with fresh water pools not filled yet and a sectioned off ocean swimming area plus a bunch of shops, little cafes, etc. We watched a number of people come down these steps and swim around for a while. Either they are extremely hardy souls, or there might be a hot spring or even a magma chamber below the area to warm the water. We did learn that the ocean water temperature was around 59F ... Brrrr!

There were certainly plenty of waves breaking on up the shore ... and this was at low tide.

Margaret went on a tour of parks, hot springs and a tea plantation. Want to bet whether she came back with more tea? No bet ... she did.

Usually when a ship is just ready to cast off and sail away, it blows a blast or two on its nice deep-throated steam whistle. When the Regal Princess sailed this afternoon, she played the theme from "Love Boat." I don't know if she has multiple tuned steam whistles like a calliope, or just a recording played through huge amps and speakers. At any rate it was the silliest thing I've heard in ages!

April 23

Margaret went off on a 4x4 excursion "off the beaten track" this morning while I had a quiet morning on board.

The afternoon was quiet also until we sailed. As soon as we got outside the breakwater we started to bounce every whichaway. This certainly confirms the Captain's decision to skip Horta and stay in Porta Delgada even though we never got more than one or two short rain showers while there.

I was literally bouncing off the walls just trying to cross the cabin. For the safety of myself and any others on whom I might land, I decided that I had no business getting out and about for dinner. So it was room service dinner for me.

Fortunately, I have virtually no tendency toward motion sickness. All that moving around just makes me sleepy.

April 24

Well, yesterday the Captain said things ought to get smoother by late morning today. It's 11:00 a.m., and we're still bouncing alomg, although I guess it's some better than before. Anyway, I'm still in our cabin. I figure I'm sparing everyone the sight of me trying to get up off the floor. Margaret has been out for breakfast and has gone to a lecture, but even she is hanging onto the handrails out there.

Sure enough, things did get better in the afternoon. We've still got a bit of rock 'n' roll, but not nearly as much. So we went to the Indonesian Crew Show this afternoon. It is always a packed house and an enthusiastic audience, but this year the show was even better than usual. We had gotten there early enough to get seats in the first row of the balcony ... A good spot to see the action, but only a few photos came out. The girl in the first photo is Ani, one of our favorite people at the Lido.

Now that we're actually out in the Atlantic headed home, everybody is talking about packing. Thank heavens for free FedEx shipping! FedEx agents came aboard in Ponta Delgada and brought lots of pre-printed labels for both of us (although everything is going to my place so the name doesn't matter too much). It's also a good thing that the ship gave us each a rolling duffle bag and that my suitcases unzip for extra space. Not that I bought much myself, you understand, but someone did have a good time in the shops so I may have to consolidate my stuff and lend her a suitcase.

April 25

It was a fairly smooth day, but grey and rainy. We went to a fancy lunch in the Pinnacle Grill. The theme was "Show and Tail" meaning bring your favorite party animal and tell where you got it. Several versions of elephants and camels showed up, and one woman brought a photo of her kissing a penguin at Ski Dubai. I brought Snavely, my Thai lizard (I guess he's a paperweight as he seems to be filled with sand.)

Right after that we went early to get good seats for the Filipino Crew Show. It was also much fancier in its production values than I've seen in the past, but still had many of the same elements as usual.

By late afternoon the wind had picked up, so things were a tad rocky again, at least back here in the aft end of the ship.