May 26, 2022 – At Sea – Pacific Ocean – Coast of Mexico – Mostly Cloudy - 80°s F

COVID ISOLATION Day 2

Once I turned out the lights, I had no memory of falling asleep – I got up at 5 AM or so and must have gone into some kind of twilight sleep because the next time I checked my watch it was 6:45 AM.  

Sunrise at Sea

I still do not have any symptoms – I have a tickle in my throat but I always have that in the morning – no congestion, no aches, no fever, etc.  Doesn’t mean anything but it’s a start.

It's cloudy outside but the ocean is like a lake.

My breakfast came about 7:20 AM – Special K with the sorriest banana I’ve seen in a while, skim milk, scrambled eggs, and a toasted bagel with butter.  I also order a bakery basket as emergency food when I can’t get anything to eat later in the day (a great suggestion from Ellen). 

I went to ConneXions 1 at 8:00 AM to get my antigen test and was greeted by about 20 of my closest “close contact” compadres.  I can only imagine how many people will show up by the 9 AM close of testing.  I also noted that, when the tech was checking me in, that she was working off a spreadsheet of names that filled the page – and maybe a page underneath that.  There were probably a hundred plus names on that spreadsheet and she checked me off.  There are only 1300 passengers on board so that number of names is “amazing”.  People waiting to get tested were exchanging war stories mostly related to not getting their meals.  Considering the situation on the ship, Room Service must be overwhelmed and doing the best they can.  Two people checked everyone in – double-checked names and birthdates and pulled prepared cards with names and barcodes for accessioning.  Two techs did the swabbing – I noticed that today, the tech swabbed each nostril 12 times – the first time we did testing (FLL passengers only) it was six times and a few days ago, it was 10 times.  Some of this may be tech specific but I am wondering if the testing crew is making sure they get righteous samples for testing.

I am live now, basking in the sun coming through my window and awaiting any word on the testing earlier this morning (9:34 AM).

10:20 AM now and still no word.  I just tuned up today’s talk a bit – enlarging images and changing the order of images.  The Sun in pouring into the room – it’s just nice to bask in the sunlight.  Finally, at 10:45 AM, I called the Med Center and they told me that all positives had been notified.  So another day, another NEGATIVE Antigen test.

I got into my presentation clothes (the left sock was not easy) and went to the theater to catch most of Bob Donaldson’s talk about Climate Change.  Again, all of his projections are dire – he did have a nice turnout.  When he was finished, about 90 percent of the theater left and my thought was this will be a small turnout day.

I waited a bit before going up to the stage to set up.  The set up again was quick – I also asked the tech if the mics are sanitized between speakers and he said they were – I had brought along a disinfectant wipe to do so if needed.  Then came the long wait – about 20 minutes until I started.  I usually mingle with the audience but now I had to stay on the stage and not speak to the audience.  This did give me an opportunity to watch an audience – maybe different people – return to fill quite a few of the seats (even those in the balcony and royal boxes).  It was a good turnout.

I started off by thanking everyone for wearing their masks correctly (100 percent compliance or close to that).  A few people applauded – I just stated that the Captain and ship wanted to keep everyone healthy and safe.  Even though I am negative for COVID, almost inevitably I develop a kind of laryngitis on ships (maybe it’s all the cleaning solutions) but I took a cough drop before I started and I did not have any trouble.  The talk, “Forensic Detectives: Identifying the Famous and Infamous” went well – I did not spot anyone leaving – and ended right on time (every nice applause).  I mentioned Bob’s talk during mine (“What can we do to fix things”) and indicated that it was a nice presentation.  At the end of mine, Bob gave me a thumbs up.  Bonding between speakers.  I chatted from the stage with a few people but left as soon as I could.

I ordered Veggie Quesadillas from the Britannia Restaurant (via the Pursers Desk) and Mushroom Soup.  They were both OK.  I also ordered a Grolsch Beer and Lemon Meringue Pie (actually a tart).  I saved the tart for later and took the beer and drank most of it on Deck 3.

It was a bit warm and there were a lot of people on the deck so I went back to the room.  I finished my Spenser novel, “Kickback”.  I tried the tart but it was not all that lemony so it is now in the hall with the rest of my lunch.  Not the best novel from Ace lately but it did have some good banter between Hawk and Spenser.

I, of course, did not attend the second show by singer, Claude-Eric Brunelle.  He was very good the first time and we hope we can see him again on another voyage.

I told Lucy that she didn’t need to do the room tonight and I was rewarded with four chocolates.

I ordered dinner from the Restaurant through Room Service and I am waiting for it to arrive now – real time 7:18 PM.  Dinner did arrive around an hour later – the Corn Chowder was OK, the Roma Tomatoes and Mozzarella Cheese combo was very good and the Spinach Manicotti was excellent.  I did not like the carrot cake.  Along with the meal, I got lunch and dinner menus for tomorrow – I checked off my selections and put the sheet on the tray with the dishes and it was scheduled to be picked up later.  We’ll see how that works out.

Not feeling all that hot this evening – ever since my talk, my throat has been raspy – not painful just raspy.  I feel like this a lot on ships.  I finished another book and will get some more books tomorrow when we get into port.

Lights were out at 10:45 PM but it took another little chunk of Ambien to do the trick.  I will pay the price for the extra Ambien tomorrow.