2-26-13

It was Half Moon Cay day.  The kids loved it, I think it is their favorite destination.  They played and swam and then discovered the world below them.  The kids club people were there and let them use masks to see underwater.  They saw fish and coral and some pink sea slug looking thing that stung Michael when he tried to pet it.  They say pink fish, purple and yellow fish and some were as big as my head!  It was like the best day ever!

Of course, I didn't get to see it really.  When the three days of first call with no calls streak ended, it ended with a dull thud.  I was up from 0200 to 0500 taking care of a woman whose cabin mates called despite her objections.  When I arrived she was lying there {This part redacted for our more sensitive readers and to protect the privacy of the innocent - Managment.}, It was awful.  One of the cabin mates kept apologizing to me for having to do such work and I told there was an ER nurse in Minnesota right now working a 12 hour shift doing similar work that would pay to trade places with me.  Hard to feel sorry for yourself sometimes. 

So, back to bed after a much needed shower and it was around a quarter of 6.  I had to be up by 7 to make the first tender over because it was Half Moon Cay day and third call isn't really a day off.  We got ashore and did all the inventory.  Then I manned the fort until a replacement arrived. While the kids were discovering the delights of an underwater tropical world, I was discovering the delights of the backs of my eyelids on the ship.  I still haven't caught up, but after bed tonight I think I'll be fine. 

This evening the kids were good so they got to go to club HAL.  Sarah and I decided to go to the Officer's bar and have a drink.  After a drink or two and some fun socializing we decided to head out to the bow.  On this ship, the bow isn't really accessible to the passengers on a regular basis.  The Officer's bar opens on to it, mostly smokers go out.  Sarah and I headed out and snuggled up against the gunwale and watched the moon over the water...so romantic.  Until the spotlight from the bridge lit us up.  I turned and waved and the light went out.  So we snuggled up again and the light comes back on.  OK, not so romantic.  We headed back in.

Inside we related our story and the wife of the 3rd officers said her husband was up on bridge watch.  I knew him.  So when he and the staff captain show up in the bar a few minutes later we find out they thought I was the HRO and she was a cast member and they were getting the gossip of the century.  They were quite disappointed to find out it was just an old married couple.  Sigh. 

It was really nice hanging out and getting to know some of the people onboard.  They are obviously characters.