We are opposite the Pacific coast of Panama right now (7 degrees Latitude, 82 degrees longitude) cruising at 14 knots, heading for our rendezvous with the Panama Canal tomorrow morning.
Since we have been in Guatemala, the guides on our excursions have been saying that we are in the rainy season here in Central America. We have been getting ample demonstrations of that at night, with thunderstorms well off to our port side near land. Some great lightning shows, but rarely do we hear thunder as the storms are too distant.
This morning, however, things get closer. We had been seeing lightning during the night, but we wake up to it as well, with accompanying thunder, so we know the weather is closer. We awaken to it as well. As things do in the tropics, these storms come and go. Around 8:10, we go up to Waves Grill for breakfast. Waves is open to the pool deck, and we see that it is raining, pretty steadily. Around 8;15, though, it really becomes torrential – and loud. We are sitting with our friend Mary when the water begins to wash from the pool deck into Waves. This is our first encounter with such rain on the journey, and, frankly, we are enjoying the novelty. As the ship does its slow pitching and rolling, the water ebbs and flows. It is now about half an inch deep throughout the restaurant area. We sit and watch while crewmembers gather with mops and squeegees to push the water toward the scuppers. In about fifteen minutes, the rain subsides, but we have been thoroughly entertained.
Cruise Director Ray comes on around 9:30am to give us the activity rundown for the day. In a previous message, he has told us that our schedule through the Panama Canal is not set, so he will be announcing that later. In the meantime, today will be unusual for us in that we will participate in some. Ray tells us about the Around the World Quilt (a photo of which begins this post) that has been in the making for the past six months, urging us to buy raffle tickets from one of the Entertainment staff members. All the money goes to the crew welfare fund to help offset their fees for tours. He signs off by saying “Buy your tickets from Amy!”
So we decide to do just that. We head for Horizons on Deck 10 where we know we will find Amy who staffs Coffee Chat and Needlepoint. We buy three tickets, even though we really don’t know what to do with the quilt of we won. Gail, another ATW passenger, suggests that, should we win, we should give it to Ray to auction off at the exclusive ATW auction coming up at 11am. Good idea. That’s what we will do.
But before anything else happens, we must attend the Mandatory Safety Drill at 10:15. This will be the last one. We decide that we will go down early without the lifevests, which is allowable since we aren’t coming directly from our stateroom to our muster station, Insignia Lounge. We figure to just stay there after the drill to attend the ATW Auction at 11:00 in the same place.
Luckily, we meet Brian and Barbara at the drill, and we decide to attend the ATQ Auction together. Brian suggests the front row right near the auctioneer (Cruise Director Ray). Turns out to be the perfect ringside seats.
Oceania Cruises has been going all out on every event that is held for us Around The World guests, and this is no exception. Besides the raffle for the quilt, there is a live auction for various items. These items include dinners for a guest plus two of the guest’s chosen crewmembers at the various dining venues, a couple of handmade pillows with the map of the around the world voyage on them, dinner with Executive Chef Farid, another quilt about half the size of the ATW quilt, Insignia flags signed by all us ATW guests, an Insignia flag signed by the entire crew and “Cruise Director for a Day” where a guest will make all the shipboard announcements, host Team Trivia, eat in the crew mess and do most all of the tasks that Ray does. Then there is Steve’s favorite: charts drawn up by the bridge of the actual route of the ship during our voyage. As with the raffle, all the money raised will go to the Crew Welfare Fund, so of course everybody is incented to join in the action and bid up the items.
The auction kicks off promptly at 11:00, and Cruise Director Ray Carr is an excellent auctioneer. He starts out with some of the dinners, and he really keeps things moving, cajoling guests to keep bidding. There are probably 75 guests in the room, so there are three “spotters” to help him see those who are bidding. These dinners fetch a minimum of $200, with Ray able to convince most bidders to throw caution to the wind. Our friend Paula, for instance, ends up in a bidding war with another guest, and “wins” the auction – for $500. There are three sets of charts, and we decide to set a limit of $400 as a bid for one of these sets.
When the first set of charts comes up, Steve’s limit of $400 is quickly reached. This set goes for $800. More dinners, and other items. Then the second set comes up. Steve bids but again the bidding gets out of reach, and that set goes for even more.
More items are auctioned off, and now there are quite a few bidders in the hunt for stuff. The third set of charts comes up and Steve starts it off. He stays in the hunt until his $400 limit. He looks over at Cathy, who says:” If you want it, keep going.” That’s all he needs to hear. Now he is a bidding war with one other guy, and it goes back and forth. Steve finally bids $825, the other bidder says $850. Steve is pretty much finished, hesitates and the bidding is over. The other guy takes it for $850.
The winner of the ATW quilt raffle is drawn, and we are all pleased that it fetched so much money for the fund because many people spent a great deal of their time and talent creating this beautiful keepsake. Below are some photos of a few of the squares and the smaller version that was auctioned so you can see the creativity that went into this quilt.
The auction ends with everyone in great spirits. It is almost time for lunch, so we continue our fun day with the O’Dells and have lunch in the Grand Dining Room with them.
The Grand Dining Room in at the stern of the ship on Deck 5. We leave the Grand Dining Room and proceed toward the bow. As we do so, we pass by the doors that lead out to the open deck part of Deck 5, where there are lounge chairs to sit in. It’s about 1:15 and Peter Croyle’s lecture is at 2:00pm in Insignia lounge in the bow of Deck 5, so Brian suggests we spend some time lying on the deck chairs.
Good idea. Truth be told, we had always planned to spend time doing this but never seemed to get around to it. The weather today is perfect for this activity. There is very little wind, it’s raining (the deck is located below the life boats and so it’s covered) so the sun isn’t shining on you, and we have some time to kill. Brian retrieves books for them and I go get my laptop to write this post. We pass a pleasant forty minutes out there.
Cathy heads back to the stateroom to watch Peter on the television (too much motion for her to spend time in Insignia Lounge) and I go to hear Peter. His lecture is well done and is a good intro to our trip through the Panama Canal tomorrow. By the way, we have been watching two or three documentaries (including the excellent PBS Nova episode written by David McCollough) on Channel 6 for the past three days, so we are pretty up on the history of this famous waterway.
After the lecture, we just relax in our stateroom. Pat Watt calls at 4 to confirm the time we will come to her stateroom to view the Panama Canal. She is in stateroom 6001, which is on Deck 6 overlooking the bow of the ship, a perfect vantage point. We will be there at 8:00am tomorrow.
At 6:30, we head back to the Grand dining Room. Our friends Paul and Sherry from Vancouver are celebrating their 30thwedding anniversary and we are among the twenty-five people invited to honor the occasion. We sit at a table with the O’Dells, Ed and Kathy from Denver and a couple whose name we never did get. It was a fun evening full of good conversation and joy for Paul and Sherry.
We head back to the room. Finally we have had a Sea Day full of activity, and we wrote the post the same day so we actually remember what we did!
