Oh my beautiful blue Pacific Ocean ~
On this leg of the voyage, I rarely missed sunsets or a sunrise -these I quickly realized were gifts of the journey to me. And if the seas were not rough, I’d find myself relaxing on an uncrowded deck in a comfortable sun-worshipping lounge chair, legs up and all!
It certainly felt good to just soak up the sun -nap style, getting hypnotized by watching the ocean go by or leisurely flip through the pages of a magazine, that is to say, if I could keep my eyes open long enough in this lazy position.
Taking the most important daily walks from one end of the ship to the other and breathing in deeply the freshest salty air was always invigorating and enjoyable.
Not every time but certainly at least half the time I was out there, I’d see some dolphins and an occasional whale or three. The other fish I took notice of were schools of Pacific Bluefin Tuna in the course of their migration.
There were others watching along the rails at any given part of the ship, at any time of the day and when a pod, a school or what have you passed alongside the ship, there was a whole lot of cheering coming out of the excited men. This was ocean entertainment at its finest!
It was an awesome site -as was the whole of it- to see the flying fish and catching glimpses of billfish who were also being watched carefully by the ever-stalking seabirds along the way.
Every now and then I’d spy a ship waaay out in the distance on the horizon. One minute she’s there and another -gone!
Not that any passed by close enough to say hello … 🔭 even if I had a telescope. Well, maybe but then they’d have to have one too just to see me wave!
Occasionally the Skipper’s voice blaring out of the bullhorn startled us. It was like he’d wait for the perfect moment to catch us unawares. He’d say things like, “I see you all out there having fun. Good! Go ahead and enjoy yourselves. Make the most of this time at sea, it’s good for you!” I think he wanted to make sure we didn’t fall victim to sea madness … or something!
Along with some form of exercising, the strolling or brisk walks, any style of lounging or napping and daily duties, we’d play cards, most often, poker. We played in my charge area, the officer’s saloon.
These poker nights gave way to opportune time to share stories with one another; be it of home, passing thoughts or what experiences we had while on this Asian tour.
Our evening snacks always lined up; sandwich makings, non-alcoholic beverages and snackable what-nots. Beer 🍻or wine 🍷 but no 🥃 hard liquor; I’ll mention here, if we wanted it, the beer or wine that is to say, we had to buy our own and bring it on board.
Btw: “Why is the rum always gone?” Captain Jack Sparrow
That reminds me I didn’t tell you how we mainly got our beer earlier in the trip. The seasoned veterans of our ship told us about this barter. We had cartons of American cigarettes on board and so while in the Philippines, when we saw a small boat approaching our ship, we’d load up a largish basket with some of those cartons.
It was attached to a very strong rope and then lowered down to those guys. They were zippy in the unloading of this large basket and then refilling it with the favorite beer of their country, 🍺 San Miguel Beer.
Cartons for 6-packs! What a deal I thought.
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billfish because I’m not entirely certain if I was seeing swordfish, marlins or sailfish … not so close to the ship they were spotted and so without binoculares handy at those times unfortunately, I couldn’t really tell. I had thought in my mind these must be one of them.
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