ingridandleotravels

February 07, 2019

Day 19 – at sea on the way to Tonga – NOT – now on to Auckland!

First major change. The Captain looked at the weather en-route to Tonga and decided that we should skip Tonga and go directly to Auckland, NZ. Most people were disappointed not to go to Tonga, but not if we were going to experience dangerous weather. My weather girl, Ingrid, immediately downloaded the Pacific weather map and agreed strongly with the Captain that diverting around Tonga was the right choice!

Well last night we had quite a treat. We were selected, Ingrid, me, Jan and George, along with another couple, Richard and Kathy (Richard was a Naval Academy Graduate), to have dinner with a crew member. The crew member ended up being Mary Jane, the HR director on the ship. She was great and told us of her history with many ships, including the Pacific Princess. We shared many stories ranging around the globe and we actually closed down the restaurant as everyone else had left. I think it helped that MJ provided unlimited wine refills of Ingrid’s favorite Sauvignon Blanc. What a wonderful evening that lead to even a more exciting event that we can’t even tell you about yet.

We enjoyed another talk by Dr. Frank Sandstrom, this one on Bush pilots throughout the world. I’m also learning more about using Final Cut Pro X to make videos and Frank asked me to help him put together a promotional video that he can use to promote his talks on upcoming cruises. There is so much to do that even though we bypassed Tonga giving us additional sea days, there is never enough time to get everything done. My fly tying has fallen off, but hopefully I will be able to catch up during the extra sea days.