Cruising the Philippine Sea

It was a bumpy ride last night and it continued into the morning. Before we fully woke up, still well snuggled in bed, I felt like there were children jumping on the bed. There was lots of swaying, ups and downs and occasional loud banging noises from pounding through the waves. According to the navigation information shown on our television, the winds were gusting up to 89 km/hr.
Neither of us were feeling badly from the motion so we had a full breakfast and attended a 10:00am lecture on the influence of early Japanese movies on western and international movies. It seemed like an unlikely link to me, but he showed side by side situations, screen shots and movie clips comparing many early Japanese films, and many western films that followed and it was quite remarkable how the Japanese situations had been incorporated into more modern day western films.
The wind was so strong that despite the sliding door to the veranda being firmly closed, there was an almost ear piercing whistling. When we mentioned it to Gretha, our cabin steward, she reported it.
We had a late lunch in one of the protected areas of the pool deck. The wind was so strong that they had removed all the towels from the chaises around the pool because they would have blown off. It was a shame because except for the wind and rocking, the top deck would have been full of people enjoying the pool, but it was closed. When we returned from lunch, the whistling was gone because they had taped over the locking side of the verandah door.
At 2:00pm, we watched an excellent, 2hr.15 minute movie “Memoirs of a Geisha “. However, because the theatre is in the front of the boat and the wind had increased even more, it was indeed a bumpy time.
The story was quite an eye opener as she started her life as an abused and orphaned little girl. However, through sheer determination she finally became a famous and well respected Geisha.
Back up to the cabin and at 5.00pm, the captain announced that because of the heavy seas and the deployment of the stabilizers, our speed has been significantly reduced, which means it is unlikely that we will make it to tomorrow’s port Naha, Japan by the scheduled 8.30am.
We thought that because of the motion on the ship, that the famous “block party" scheduled for 6.00pm tonight, would be canceled but it wasn’t, and as the captain came around, I asked him how high the waves were. The answer was 30 feet at noon hour!
We did go down for dinner but can’t remember which restaurant it was.
The entertainment this evening was a magic show which we did not attend.Читать далее