November 25th, 2024Kyle’s Rant

The cruise so far…  

We picked up the ship in Los Angeles on November 7 for a 17-night voyage,  down the west coast of south America through the Panama Canal and eventually onto Florida – where there is a bit of concern about a hurricane visiting the port at the same time we dock.  

Anyway, we have just left Antigua and find ourselves at the half way point. And to steal a line from Good Morning America “it is hot, dam hot, hot and wet, which is okay if you’re with the ladies but not so good if you’re in the jungle.” And this is their autumn, and according to the locals summer is “hell”.

The food halls onboard, particularly the buffets are full of huge Americans, an older mob, mainly an eat-in crowd.

But you can’t let the copious consumption of canapes fool you, although half of them are electric chair bound, as it turns out they can move fast. Even faster if they are on their feet, as two couples from either side of the Trump camp found out.

There was a bit of lip to one another followed by a bit of biffo, and then the wives joined across the buffet.

Their cruise ended the next day with an unceremonious departure from the boat, after being locked up, while everyone else went onto their shore excursions.  

One thing that has left me gob smacked and with a feeling of throwing my hands up in the air in terms of climate change is the pollution. This seems to be due to the rich getting richer and the poor getting the picture. Thanks Midnight Oil.

Most of these countries however seem to be rich in resources with oil, jade, silver and coal to name a few, being hauled out of the earth. Where are the royalties going?  

Then there was an information session on the ship, just asking the usual questions like how many eggs do you need onboard and what happens to the food we don’t eat.  All I suppose in an effort to justify the never ending whirring of the turnstiles at the buffet.

But Donna piped up and asked a beauty with the 20-minute answer from a senior officer flooring me. She asked “what happened during Covid?”  

So they had left Sydney in early March with a full complement of passengers  aboard. They got word that the world was starting to shut down and tried to re-enter Sydney with their mainly Australian passengers to no avail.

So, they bounced up and down the Pacific eventually tying up in Hawaii. The company chartered planes for the passengers and then took off for Miami where they sat for months.

By this time,  they were onboard distancing with the crew maintaining the two-metre rule wearing masks 24/7. All but a couple of decks had been closed to preserve power and all the bars, restaurants and meeting rooms were covered with sheets.  

Eventually in October, 2020 the Norwegian Jewel, which we currently call home,  was ushered to a private island in the Caribbean where she was pressed into action as a quarantine ship.

Most of the crew went home via other ships leaving a skeleton crew of 98 keeping things going for two years while some of their family members died back home.  

This has got me thinking about the bad old days of Covid and how there has never actually been an end, it just kind of drifted away.

It has not exactly been like the celebrations around the end of WWII and we have no way to mark the event, and process our feelings. Long lockdown days that drove us all spare and tore families  apart.

Extra-long rant over…