8/30/2023 

 

In the Labrador Sea

 

        

 

So, we have a sea day and that means lots of activity on board.  Lectures, dance classes, eating, walking the promenade and more eating are just some of the activities available.  We could also just sit in one of the comfortable spots and watch the sea go by as we pretend to read a book. (Or, in Shirley’s case – actually read a book.  )

 

Thinking about the voyage, one of the striking things is the people one meets, and, how they differ from other cruise lines.  Viking has a no child policy and has many enrichment programs designed for the niche of people they want cruising.  Other cruise lines specialize in different niches and that is as it should be.  For Shirley and Paul (Bob and Ann too) this niche is perfect.  And so, we meet a lot of people like us (PLU).  That is not a value judgement at all, but an observation of reality.

I would like to highlight that by a few examples:

 

Cheryl and Doug are retired lawyers from Kansas City.  They have an interesting back story.  Cheryl lived a couple of years with an Inuit village doing lawyer things for the Inuit (Oil had been discovered and … well corporations do as they do.)  They are active, we met them on our hike up the Volcano on Heimaey.  Cheryl gave Shirley words of encouragement and they made it to the next level.  Later on throughout the cruise we would run into them on the same excursions, in lounges and around the ship and chatted.  Cheryl and Shirley like the same authors and book genres.  We seem to meet the nicest people.

 

Then there is Sharon.  A spry octogenarian who we first met in the line dancing class and subsequently chatted.  Another book lover (Louise Penny, for example).  Sharon became a nurse in 1964 and recounted the many changes she has seen.  Her husband Ralph is suffering from early Alzheimer’s disease.  Ralph can carry on a conversation, although it's mostly comments in between Sharon’s stories.  We ate with this delightful couple a few times. They will be continuing on this ship for a tour up the coast and down the St. Lawerence to Montreal.  They live in Milwaukee.

 

James and Cheryl are from Melbourne, Australia and are veteran cruisers.  Before this cruise, they cruised from Amsterdam up to Bergen and then through Shetland Islands to Iceland.  They tend to do back to back cruises because it is so far to travel from Australia.  It was fascinating hearing about life in Australia and how it’s not so different than any place in the west.

 

There are others.  Conversation is ready and amiable.  There are usual subjects always starting with travel stories and ending up with someone’s story.  We all seem to be lifelong learners, affluent, curious, polite, same generation (boomers) and good at the idle chat.  As with other cruise friendships, we have found that rarely do people stay in touch after the cruise.  People go back to their lives and file the cruise under pleasant memory and work to file the thousands of pictures.

 

A word about pictures – specifically pictures about wildlife seen on this trip.  Our Naturalist, Richard Lovelock has been taking amazing pictures.  His pictures can be seen here.  His web site (richardlovelock.com) is worth a visit.  

 

A word about Hurricane Franklin.  The Captain addressed it a bit in his talk this morning.  We will sail into the gulf of St. Lawrence putting Newfoundland between Franklin and us.  There may be rough seas, but we do not expect anything bad.  

 

        

 

Tomorrow we are in the Atlantic Time zone.  Tomorrow we have another sea day.  I could get used to this 