Milford Sound and the Tasman Sea

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Entering Milford Sound

Bruce and Gail

The Regent Mariner arrived at the mouth of the Milford Sound today at 2:30.  All of the Vintage Club members and their guests (that's me) were invited to Kay and Bills suite for a

Milford cruising party.  Kay and Bill are in the far forward suite that Stevie and I shared last year, where the views of the steep mountains that plunge into the sea to form this spectacular fiord are best.  We visited the sound yesterday via helicopter and today by ship.  I think we've got it covered.  

Cruising the Milford Sound

After cocktails with the group in the Milford Sound, we returned to the suite and decided to stay in this evening for room service and movies.  I mean, how can anyone screw up a cheeseburger, right?  Wrong!  Room service prepares items with no deviations to the listing on the menu.  So when we asked for bacon cheeseburgers, we were told NO DEVIATIONS.  At which time, we could have simply said, "Ok, we'll have two cheeseburgers with a side of a BLT sandwich, minus the LT and bread."  But that seemed rather wasteful, so we just went for the cheeseburgers as sold on the menu.  NO DEVIATIONS.  We tuned in to a movie called "23 Catch" because a friend of mine wrote and produced the movie and another friend had a small part in the movie.  Well, the cheeseburger with NO DEVIATIONS moved into Michelin Star status compared to the movie.  Lillian, you did an amazing job.  Your Academy Award winning performance was superb!  But please don't star in any more movies unless Steven Spielberg is involved.  NO DEVIATIONS!

By now, we were well into the Tasman and the calm seas were short lived.  The gentle 5 foot swells rapidly increased to 20 - 25 foot swells.  Winds were roaring by at 40 miles per hour and rain was pounding the decks of the ship.  We were in for a rough ride!!

The morning forecast was for more of the same … rough seas!  As I sat down with my computer, the glasses and cups in the shelves were crashing together.  The door was covered with salt and water drops from the wild waves and rain.  The wind was howling through the sliding glass door and I was wedged in to the sofa to keep from going airborne with the pounding waves.  Expletives were pouring from my mouth and Jess calmly said … “Oh, you working on your blog again?”   And yes.  He was right.  The wild ride doesn’t bother me half as much as the poor wifi reception on this ship.  Expletive!  Expletive!!  (Delete, delete*#!)  It has become so frustrating that I’ve decided to just finish writing when we reach shore.  So … since there really isn’t much to report here … I’m out for a while.

Working on my blog poolside in the Tasman Sea BEFORE the bad weather moved in.