Rock and Roll!

We are here

I slept in until almost 7, and didn’t feel like fighting for a space in the stretch or abs classes, so I just lounged around reading until the dining room opened for breakfast at 8. My tablemates were fine, although very into nutritionism. I’ve been having the granola, strawberry and yogurt breakfast parfait (2 of them), but today I switched back to oatmeal. The rougher seas seem to have slowed the kitchen down a little – dinner last night seemed slower than usual, and breakfast and lunch today did as well.

After breakfast I ran through Nourah a couple of times and then went off to teach class. I was feeling a little low energy so things didn’t flow as well as they did yesterday, but I had my core of stalwarts and another 5 new people, so we still had a good size class. I have a bunch of people who can’t get down on the floor – or, more likely, couldn’t get up from the floor - and also part of the floor is cold tile that’s not much fun to be on, so that is limiting my floor play. The most fun thing is that we are still in 12-15 foot swells, so the ship rocks from side to side and rolls fore and aft – this is especially fun when you’re doing the second song of Feeling, Touched by God, which has some front and back and side to side moves that are challenging to do on a moving dance floor. Our focus today was stability and mobility – stability has a whole new meaning when the floor’s not stable.

Because we can’t get down on the floor I like to go up to the gym and stretch after class. The gym is very high and far forward and is a fun place to be. Then I went back to the room and read until lunchtime. We had tablemates who were hard to make conversation with, so lunch seemed to go on longer than it actually did. Lunchtime is when the Captain does the weather and seas report, and this weather is supposed to go on for another 24-36 hours, which works for me. He also explained that the ship is designed to be able to flex slightly in these kind of seas – a couple of inches total from bow to stern – and that this would cause creaking noises that were nothing to be worried about. He said he was sorry about the noise and asked us to bear with it. Once again I found myself wishing I could be an invisible observer at the front desk listening to what people choose to complain about.

After lunch I went to napkin folding, where I sat at a table with three other women, one of who had been at breakfast the morning of Punta Delgado with crazy vodka smuggling lady, whose name is Arlene. We did fairly standard folds so I was able to show off, always a good thing. Then we turned in our napkins and I went back to the cabin. The ship started to do a major fore-and-aft roll at that point, throwing spray up from the bow and generally being totally awesome. Dave left for his lecture and I did a little writing. Then I found a blanket and wrapped myself up and took a nap on our verandah, waking periodically when we hit a particularly big swell. The blanket was covered with salt spray at the end of my nap.

My alarm went off at 2:45 and I headed upstairs to the gym to do the actual BodySculpt BootCamp (I don’t know why you have to put all those caps in the middle of the words.  It probably makes a better workout) that is the basis for the BodyFit that I teach at home. Nobody has been doing it this trip, so Jesse was surprised when I showed up, and then some other poor guy heard us talking and decided he’d do it too. Because here’s what: the principle of muscle specificity says, not surprisingly, that your muscles are best at doing what they are used to doing. That’s why competitive swimmers do the bulk of their training in the water, and why baseball players practice hitting, not shooting baskets. So when I come on the ship swinging 8 lb weights, whoever ends up in class with me feels like they’re not in good shape, and I have to explain that this is what my muscles are trained to do. It was a good workout, even if Jesse insisted on adding a fifth exercise to each set. We did a couple nice abs moves, one in spinal twist position with a weight held perpendicular to the body that my BodyFit class will get to love as much as I did.

After class I changed into my bathing suit and headed to the pool. Imagine the best wave pool you’ve ever been in and then put it on a cruise ship. At first it was just me and a family with two kids, but eventually more and more adults came in. It was so funny because they’d get in with this serious “I need to do a few laps” mindset (which is pointless in this tiny pool) and then the waves would start slinging them all over the pool and they’d start smiling and laughing. It was totally excellent and it’s my plan to be in the pool until either the waves die down, they close the pool, or my chlorine allergy kicks in. Until then if you need me between 4 and 5 pm I’ll be in the midships Lido pool – although I may try the aft one tomorrow. Because while the whole ship is rolling from front to back, the ends of the ship have a larger amplitude  - think about it.

Meanwhile Dave had another lecture day – Mars in the morning, the rise of Julius Ceaser and navigational mapping (two separate lectures) in the afternoon. This is part of why we love cruising – we can do the things that appeal to us and still spend time together. In the navigational lecture he learned the difference between sailing a rhumb line and a great circle course. You have internet – look it up. We’re taking the rhumb line.

After pool time and lecture time we got cleaned up for dinner, which was at the Pinnacle Grill again. Jeff and Pam have never cruised on Holland before and wanted to try the Pinnacle, but didn’t want to miss dinner with 304, so they suggested that we all go together. Which we did, and it was a blast. For one thing they just brought us all the side dishes (except spinach, which they’ve run out of) so we got to try everything. For another thing, we’re an oddly matched group that works well, so it’s just fun to hang out. I did feel sorry for the couple of other small tables that were around the outside of our room, because we were a little loud and not really conducive to a romantic meal. We’re all pretty talkative except Keith, who will go entire meals without saying anything. Except you know he’s listening, because every so often he chips in with a one-line zinger that makes everybody lose it. It’s a great group.

Normally Pam and Jeff and Paula and Jim head to trivia at 7:30, but they didn’t today, so we missed the early seating for the show. We went back to the room and stepped out onto our verandah, which was completely soaked with spray that the ship has been throwing as it crashes through the waves. There was a beautiful moon just off the front of the ship. Dave took a short nap, and then we headed up to the show, which was comedian Rick Starr (maybe he’s related to my new cousin?). He was very funny in a low key, I’d really like to hang out with this guy kind of way. One thing I really liked is he only made one joke about the cruise, because honestly there are just a limited number of jokes you can make and we’ve heard them all. And so far nobody has made the airplane seatbelt joke, so we’re doing well.

The moon was still out when the show got over, so we popped up to the secret way to 9-forward but by then it had gone behind a cloud. The extra hour of exercise that I get sloshing around in the pool has me pretty tired out. Fortunately we get another hour tonight. Which we’ve had about enough of, thank you very much.

Tonight’s towel animal: bunny – a big one.