They may be able to lift
Bill’s scooter onto the tender tomorrow so that we can tool around in Raiatea. That is only possible because he can take a step with help. He and his scooter together are too heavy otherwise. Also, they said we will exit only from the bow from now on and it’s not
expected to be rough. No more alternating between the fore and aft exits any
more. We will be dropping anchor inside protected waters so it shouldn’t be too
bad.
After mourning the loss of all our shore trips, I am again looking forward to
them. Bill is less enthusiastic but, being a good sport, he is willing to try.
I asked for a
listing of which ports will be tender only on the next 30 day segment.
The ship
will dock almost everywhere in Central and South America. Corinto, Nicaragua is
usually a dock situation but it depends on the phase of the tides because we
dock at the mouth of a river. Surprisingly, Fuerte Amador, Panama is a tender
situation. I am excited to see the Embara Village so I think we will go on that
one in any case.
The only unknown situation is at Ixtapa, Mexico. It’s a
replacement port Acapulco which is thought to be too dangerous.
We signed up
for the ship excursion to release the baby turtles in Manzanillo but the shore
excursion person says it is a long walk on the beach so we may cancel that one.
We have seen
some flying fish since we boarded. Bill entered a contest about why flying fish
fly and the winning answers were very clever. Bill’s entry said that the fish are
building Frequent Flyer mileage so they can stay in the premium reefs. That
turned out to be too ordinary. Several of the entries were poems and puns. Some
were long stories that incorporated both. Next time I think I will say that
they are sick of the Republican primaries and will do anything to escape
including drowning themselves in the air.
We used some
of our precious internet minutes to connect the Kindle Fire which was upset
that it couldn’t find the Internet. The applications failed one by one as we
moved out of range. We held onto to Angry Birds since Jan 4 but it went sour
two days ago and we were desperate. Most of my library books are expiring
unread this week because I couldn’t open them. The only one that hung on was
the Parallel Universes which I am still enjoying.
Bill still
has access to all the books on his Kindle. They came from the Gutenberg Project
and Baen Publishing Enterprises which is specializes in science fiction. He is
currently reading Lt. Leary Commanding which he has already read twice
before. He rereads his favorites all the time. He has all three books in this
series.
Speaking of Bill rereading, he also watches his favorite movies over
and over. Right after our wedding, I discovered that he had watched the
original Star Trek series so often that
he could do the dialogue with the sound turned down. I don’t know many times I
have seen the movie, “When Worlds Collide”.
Actually, a
mutual love of science fiction was a pleasant discovery when we were dating. I
am more into the real science lately as it reads like fiction.
I told the
astronomy lecturer about the woman I encountered on board who doesn’t believe
that men landed on the moon. She said she could possibly believe that except
that they landed 16 times. The truth is hard to hide 16 times.
