Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

July 29

A second day at sea – very relaxing.  I am continuing the bridge lessons.  After getting me into it, Norm seems to have given up!  Oh well, we will be on the ship for 6 months, maybe he will take it up again.

While I was just finishing this morning’s lesson, the Captain of the ship made an announcement that due to the extreme fog we have experienced in the last 40 hours, he was unable to maintain the speed needed to get us to the port of Nuuk in Greenland tomorrow.  So we are going instead to the second port, Paamiut, tomorrow, then to Nuuk on Friday.  And, due to icy conditions in the sea around Qaqortoq, we will not be going to that port at all, but will have another sea day on Saturday.  So we won’t be having Kaffemik with a local family after all.  We will just have to see and learn as much as we can in our shore time the next two days.

I did have my hair cut yesterday and love the way the Ukrainian hairdresser did it.  No worries, Marie, I will be back!  I will try to post a photo when I get fast wifi.  Looks like that might be Iceland on Tuesday.

In the meantime, for those interested in the Labrador Sea, it is covered in ice between December and June, and this being July, there will still be plenty of ice as we venture further north.  It is one of the few regions where the deep ocean exchanges gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide directly with the atmosphere, so it can be thought of as a lung in the earth system.  This would have implications if global warming indeed switch off the convection system, some people think as early as 2030.  Marine ecosystems would be severely impacted.

Stay tuned for our experiences in Greenland and hopefully some photos.

july 28

We are cruising the Strait of Belle Isle and it is so foggy you can’t see more than a few feet and the ship’s foghorn blows every few minutes!

We had a talk and Q and A with the Greenland Captain of the pilot boat that will guide us on the trip and along the coastline of Greenland. Here are a few facts I learned:

Greenland is a huge country by land mass but only has 56,000 people. It is owned by Denmark but there is a strong desire by some of the people to be more independent, so although the money and the political system are Danish, the people speak both Danish and Greenlandic and really want to preserve the Greenlandic.

95% of the population lives on the west coast, and the other 5% live in small settlements of about 20 people each where they only get supplies every few months and in really rough winters it might be 11 months. The north is all ice. In the south, which they call the “banana coast”, they do grow some crops like potatoes, and they have cattle. But no bananas! The only real industry is fishing, and they generate their power by water.

We will be at sea today and tomorrow to reach Greenland, and when we arrive we will visit a different part each day, traveling on shore via tender since there are no cruise ports there. We will visit Nuuk, Pammiut and Qaqortoq. We will explore each, and in Qaqortoq we will have Kaffemik in a private home with a family. Kaffemik is how Greenlanders celebrate many events -a tradition of inviting friends for coffee, tea and cake.  

One of the questions asked of the Pilot Captain was “how would you entice me to buy a condo in Greenland?”  He was stumped for a minute, then said “for the wildness, the nature”.  I do hope to see at least one of the many whales that summer in these waters.

We are leaving the St. Laurence today, passed by Quebec City last night at dinner. There was a hot air balloon over the city, what a beautiful sight, the Chateau Frontenac with the balloon in the sky. I did take a photo but wifi is too slow to post it, may add it later.
We are headed to Corner Brook, Newfoundland and will arrive tomorrow.

On the topic of time, we had to move our clocks one hour ahead before Montreal, then move them back two days later. Then last night, we moved them ahead one hour again. Here’s the surprise to me… Tonight, we move them ahead just 1/2 hour!  Then, before we arrive in Greenland, we move ahead another 1/2 hour. Good thing I have my dual time face watch, I could get very confused.

On the topic of the age of the passengers, we thought that almost all the passengers would be in our age range or older, especially the world cruise travelers who we assumed would need to be retired. Well, most of the passengers are in our age range, but on the first segment, there were several families with young children, one from Mexico that included grandparents, parents and grandchildren, one family from Belgium with the most beautiful children, they could have been models and several other young families. There was a French family with twin sons of about 20. One of them won the Texas hold ’em tournament, he was GOOD! I met his father playing blackjack. Then we found out that the oldest passenger was a man of 101, soon to be 102. A bit hard of hearing but very delightful. Also several honeymoon couples and a young (probably 35ish) couple who is on the world cruise!

There are a lot of new passengers who got on in Montreal and we haven’t seen enough of them to determine the demographic yet. Last night the entertainer at the show asked about years of marriage and there was a couple who had been married 60 years, so we can guess!

A new artist came on for this segment and I will take some of her classes. She brought a friend along as her assistant in the artist’s studio. We had dinner with them last night. Suzanne Stohl, the artist, is a corporate trainer whose first love is art. She is a potter and a painter. Interesting!

So today, I may join Norm in the bridge lessons, we will see if I have the patience for it. Seems that he is spending time studying notes between classes, which are only held on sea days, so I will keep you posted on my enthusiasm for THAT!

Even though we are here for 6 months, every time a new segment starts, we get the amenities again, so a new bottle of champagne was delivered. We haven’t even drunk the first one yet. They keep our room refrigerator filled with sodas, beer and water, all included, and now we have 2 bottles of champagne. They also allow you to bring liquor on from the ports, so Norm bought wine in Montreal. This is mostly for cocktail hour in our room or on the balcony, we are buying wine for dinner which they keep until the next time you want it when you don’t finish the bottle. This segment we bought a wine package. Tonight we have the Captains cocktail party again, where the officers are introduced. Of course, it is a repeat for us, but the cocktails and canapés are worth the repeat trip..also meeting new passengers.

On the topic of food, I posted some menus earlier, and the food continues to be amazing. We have never gone to the dining room for breakfast or lunch, we prefer the Terrace, where they have everything to choose from. Norm has an egg white omelet with vegetables every morning, usually accompanied by salmon or herring, and I stay pretty much with my Greek yogurt and fruit. Yesterday at lunch they had a Mexican theme,so I added the freshly made chips and guacamole to my usual salad. We love the variety in the dining room at dinner. They bake all the bread on board, make all the delicious ice cream and all of the pasta. What a treat!

We did go to Polo, the steak house, and had dinner with a couple from Georgia who just got on in Montreal that day. He is a retired United pilot and she is a retired Delta flight attendant who met later in life at an airline ski club in Switzerland. In port yesterday we met a couple who were on this ship when it had the engine fire in St. Lucia. We were in St. Lucia 2 days after that and saw the ship there before it was towed to Puerto Rico! So you can see that our conversations are interesting.

So those are some observations about shipboard life on this sea day. Stay tuned for Newfoundland.