the good, the bad and the ugly

First I'll start with the good. We've had a wonderful trip around the world! We're now back in the good ole US of A, and Lord willing, only 12 days from home. The bad is that yesterday in Dutch Harbor (where "The World's Deadliest Catch" is filmed), the weather was rainy, cold and just all around nasty. The ship did not dock, so going ashore meant a 30 minute tender ride in. Dutch Harbor is very small and there was not a lot to do there so some passengers (myself included) chose to stay onboard. 

The ugly is what's happening today! Sometime during the night, the ship began really rockin' and rollin'! It has continued to do the same all day. We've not seen the sea like this in the previous 168 days we've been onboard. And due to rough seas, our port stop in Kodiak, Alaska has been cancelled. Thankfully, we are in no danger, except for the possibility of falling down while the ship is pitching or losing our tummies due to motion sickness.

We didn't even experience this kind of motion when we went through the Drake Passage which is known for its rough seas. Our room is on the 8th floor and believe it or not, at times today the spray has come up as high as Deck 9! However, as long as we're not looking out at the waves, we are o.k. (if one spends much time watching the ocean, it won't be long before that queasy feeling kicks in). We have the RX nausea patches and Meclizine that both help with sea sickness, but thankfully neither of us has had to use them.

We're hoping we'll get to see some wildlife while in our Alaskan ports. Marianne Houston, a fellow passenger and an amazing photographer, posted some beautiful photos of a bald eagle sitting on the ship's antenna yesterday on her blog. She graciously allowed me to share them on this post. Both the eagle - and her photos - are amazing! Ronnie also took several photos of bald eagles while in port yesterday. They were sitting on top of their nest but unfortunately, the distance was too great to capture them in clear focus with just his phone camera.

This being my 7th straight day onboard, there's not much to share. I almost forgot, today is Irena's birthday! Irena is one of two persons who service our room twice daily - Marvin (from Mexico) and Irena (from Russia). They are both wonderful. We left some treats for her on the bed this morning and probably other folks did as well. She's such a hard worker and she always greets us with a smile. I was thinking how not fun it must be to be working on a pitching ship on your birthday!

We have reservations in the ship's Polo Grill restaurant tonight. However, I'm voting for room service, staying in, working on my photos and watching a movie in the room (we learned only recently that we could order popcorn to our room). Re: photos - there's literally no telling how many I've taken since we left home in mid-January! I'm starting the task of going through them to select maybe 10-15 from each port with the goal of putting together a coffee table book. That may sound simple but it will take many, many hours to accomplish this and I'm thinking I should give myself a head start on these lazy sea days. Once we return home, there will be lots of appointments and "catch up" to do before life returns to normal.

photo credit: Marianne Houston

photo credit: Marianne Houston