Gulf of Carpentaria Musings

Supplemental - Monday, 25 January 2010, Gulf of Carpentaria

There's three possible ways the captain may explain the skipping of a scheduled cruise stop. The technical method calls for a detailed discussion of winds, waves, tender hull dimensions, port authorities' warnings, and detailing of attempts of various techniques to overcome all of the above but to no avail. This usually satisfies all but the most experienced cruise guests who would prefer to hear what I call the compensation announcement. This consists of a crocodile tears overly sad statement of the loss of the port only to be replaced by a gleeful disclosure of a hastily arranged unscheduled new port of call which is better than that lost. Thursday Island, a 1¼ square mile rock with 3,000 inhabitants who are the descendants of clam shell divers could have been easily overshadowed by a small detour to Darwin or perhaps the easily accessible Lombok which is just across the strait from Bali. The compensation announcement was quite common in the days of the beloved m/V Song of Flower and even a few years ago on Silver Cloud when Olympia was substituted just weeks before the Athens Olympics for Santorini due to excessive swells. The third announcement, all too common on Silversea lately, is the defensive CYA dissertation. You know it. It's the "safety is our upmost important job, we take this seriously, it is unavoidable, and furthermore, it was someone else's fault".  The damn thing lasted for about 10 long minutes this morning. At least it worked (for the cruise line) as no one seemed to queue up at Reception Desk to demand their cruise fare back based on "Thursday Island was the reason I booked the cruise."

Barbara and I just went to the lunch buffet to enjoy the bountiful feast and enjoy an unplanned sea day dodging rain showers and having a chance to finish our first books of the trip on Carl Sagan and the history of quantum physics respectively.  In my first posting today I did mean to report on our breakfast early this morning as we orbited Thursday Island while the captain was preparing his list of wows for his option 3 announcement.  The waiter came by with the coffee pot just after Barbara had left our two person table. He said, "Madame, more coffee?" I mumbled, "I'm not a madame". He said, "For madame. Oh, she's not here." I guess he was fixated on the half empty cup. Well, you had to be there. Perhaps it was the sight of Thursday Island appearing alternatively on port and starboard sides of the ship.

Italian meal tonight in the alternative dining room. The veal should be fantastic, and the wine doesn't have any beasts on the label. Meanwhile I am about the ask our butler to polish my sandals.