Cruising, part 2

So the word for today is nausea. The slight choppy seas I mentioned the other day have become slightly larger choppy seas. Forget the pale, nearly translucent blue you see in the pictures. The Caribbean today is a darker blue, almost purple, you might see around Newfoundland with white caps. I got up out of bed this morning and headed to a trivia contest (I finished third) and by the end of it came to the conclusion that this whole being upright thing was vastly over-rated and retreated to the room to lie down. Cathy went out for a bit as well, before reaching the same conclusion and retreating.

I eventually bit the bullet and went to the store on-board and bought some anti-nausea meds. I now feel better, although we’ll see how long that lasts. Long enough to get some lunch down. Now the trick is making sure it stays down. I haven’t thrown-up, which is good. Here’s hoping the trend continues.

I know it’s silly because it’s the open ocean, but I really thought the Caribbean would be smoother sailing. Goes to show what I know when it comes all things seafaring. There’s a reason why I’m a townie and not a bayman.

Anyway, tomorrow we hit St. Maarten, where there are shopping opportunities galore, especially if you believe all the literature being pumped out by the boat’s crew. Handily little maps of places you can go which have met with Carnival’s exacting standards of what makes a good merchant (for which Carnival probably gets a kick-back). Especially if you want to buy gold and jewels. There must be about a half dozen diamond exchanges near the dock where we disembark. It never ends. Still, it’ll be nice to hit land and now weave like a drunken sailor every time I try to stand-up.

Today’s on-board observation is the number of teenagers on the Miracle. They’re not annoying me, which is impressive really. But it is interesting to see how many of them are here with their girlfriends/boyfriends. I was ironing a shirt last night (supper was a formal affair) and was chatting with a teenage boy around 16 who was doing the same, trying to look impressive for his girlfriend. And we’ve seen plenty of teenagers who are obviously couples.

All I’m saying is that if I were 16 years old, a cruise ship in the Caribbean with my girlfriend would be a pretty cool place to be. I think that would be a fun vacation. As long as I didn’t have a Jewish mother. Because man, there are a bunch of them on-board. And I’ve watched plenty of TV shows and movies with Jewish moms and I thought it was just bad writing and exaggerating a cliche. But they seem to be pretty much on the mark. It’s kind of scary to watch them in action, they’re that intimidating. Puts Catholic mothers to shame, and that’s saying something.

By the way, we have taken plenty of photos, but given the slow Internet speeds on board (makes Iqaluit look fast), and how much time we have purchased, those pics will have to wait until later.

Enjoy your Boxing Day sales.