Sunday, August 24, 2008

Day Eight





Another early starting day. This one was the Inner Passage, an area that's famous for whale (and other marine animal) sightings. So we were up early to see what we could see. Up to the deck and Relia got another walk around. Shortly after we got up there, we sailed into fog and didn't come out until noonish.
We had morning plans anyway. We competed in 'Friends' trivia. Tied for the lead and lost on the tiebreaker of what date did the original episode air on.
Then we went to Relia's onboard birthday party. This was a surprise to us and to some of the other guests of our group. The giftbags were composed of things like soap and mints. There were some great gifts, though and Relia was very pleased. The cake was made out of a stack of yogurt cups and she really wanted to play with the candles. Disaster averted and no fingers were burned.
In the afternoon, the fog burned off, the sun came out and we decided to whale watch from the stern. Actually, right next to the wall climbing. The FP Gal got her Mom to come up and climb. Then we did so ourselves. That was the highpoint of our physical exertion on the trip. (Actually, lugging the suitcases, carefully not weighing more than 49 lbs, was probably more exerting.)
The water from the wake was fascinating. It formed a long trail behind us and looked almost like a melted bit of glass. Waves would come up to it but not enter it's boundary. I could have stared at it for hours. Do Navy ships do the same thing?
We spent some time laying out on deck, with the FP Gal falling asleep in the sun. Every cruise should have some time like this, right? I even got a little bit sunburned on the top of my head.
That night was the finale for the karoke contest. They wanted us to sing the same song that we qualified with so I did 'Sea of Love' again (video here). I went sixth of nine and felt very good about it. Didn't win, though. A guy from Utah did 'Fight for Your Right to Party' and was incredible. The song doesn't call for a good singing voice but he was very entertaining and I don't feel the least bit bad about his winning.
Afterward we took a last look at the moon over the water. A gorgeous end to a beautiful cruise.

2 comments:

Hans said...

Yes, Navy ships have the same wake. When you're at full power on a destroyer, the wake rooster-tails and is about ten feet higher than the stern. Pretty cool.

Kate said...

Karaoke? I would have loved to hear you sing! And I stared at the wake on the ship for hours on end when I went.