Dateline: off the coast of somewhere up north

I’m sitting here in my nightgown, surrounded by flotsam and jetsam of all sorts…things that are supposed to be upright, or on tables, or in drawers but are now not. In fact, the drawers themselves are amongst the clutter on the floor. We’ve been experiencing a pretty wild storm–winds of 82 knots according to the captain.  And 35 ft. waves.

L

Sorry about the quality of the shots, but we are in lively motion as I shoot…

I’m not yet game to be up and about enough to get dressed–hence the nightgown. I did manage to creep across the room far enough to salvage a banana that had been flung in my direction when the rather large stainless steel cornucopia-thingy bit the dust, along with all the fruit that was in it. Apples and oranges and grapes are now rolling merrily around the room.  One of the two snappy pedestal-type speakers to the sound system is now laying across the doorway to my bedroom looking very sad and sorry, its pieces strewn about. Its mate in a similar position in the corner.

The worst of the storm is said to be behind us. That’s cheery news, indeed, but it sounds like there are a few more hours to come. We are somewhere between southern Greenland and far north Newfoundland. It’s the North Atlantic Ocean, after all.  I’d be surprised if we didn’t have some rough sea, but this is a bit extreme.  Fortunately I don’t get seasick–at least I haven’t been sick during this episode. Knock on wood.

It was pretty rough last evening, and through the night, but the trouble started for real about 4:00 a.m. Before the crashing and banging from inside the ship, there was a lot (!) of Very Loud Booming and Thudding as the ship struck various large items, most sounded like a London bus. Could have been ice; could have been shipping containers–I’m told there are thousands floating just below the surface of the water all around the world, having fallen off freighters. Whatever the cause, the explosive crashes and booms were not conducive to a nice nights sleep.  It wasn’t only the boat which was shuddering!

The pitching and rolling are to be expected, of course. One can adapt to those. The lurching, on the other hand, is like stepping on dog poo–it’s unexpected and you can’t retrace your steps to avoid where you’ve landed. I’m not keen to break another extremity, so I’ll just sit it out for now.

Later

Well, another five hours have passed, the stuff on the floor has quadrupled, and I’m still not going anywhere!  Lunch was exciting.  My friend, Susan, came in to join me–both of us having ordered lunch in.  I felt guilty asking crew to deliver it, but it was bound to be much less traumatic for them than pulling us up off the floor.  Everything on the table kept trying to migrate to Susan’s lap.  My chair managed to tip over once–with me in it–but as we (the chair and I) were near a wall I was able to break the fall instead of a leg.  We wound up putting all the dishes on the floor after we were finished eating.  They were headed that way anyway.  This is one exciting ride, I’m telling you.                MM