Day 4

Our day started at 0700 with our wake up call. We were only slightly dozing anyway. We knew we had breakfast coming to the room between 0800 and 0830 so it was up and out for both of us while the little one slept in. Off to deck 3 we went and circled the ship three times for a mile walk. Then back to the cabin to have breakfast. Eggs, bacon, etc. Showers and then off to face the day. About the time breakfast had come we were travelling at NW at about 24 knots. I could feel the ship slowing and shortly after that I could see a pilot ship off the port side pulling away from us. Our speed increased as the pilots left us. I remembered that the captain's bulletin said that we would be discharging our pilots when we got closer to the open ocean. A pilot is someone who has local knowledge of the waters that a ship travels in. It is the pilot's job to assist the navigator in negotiating the waterways and making the crew away of any hazards to their navigation. Frederick's nursemaid Ruth from The Pirates of Penzance was told to apprentice him to a pilot, but upon being hard of hearing and that the fact that the two words were so alike, she apprenticed him to a pirate. Later that morning we went on a tour of the galley. At first I thought, who wants to see a n industrial kitchen? But I'm glad that I went. Since they are preparing meals for huge amounts of people it was interesting to see just how amazingly big it was. By my count 284 of the 790 crew memebers are food service staff. The galley prepares 90% of the food for 1850 Guests and 790 Crew.
Daily the galley prepares about 220 loaves of bread, 4000 dinner rolls, 800 croissants, and 800 danish.Each dinner the Poissonier, that fancy french for the fish guy, prepares about 440lbs. of fresh fish. The per week average consumption of meat and meat products is about 11830lbs.
After the galley tour it was off to the Lido deck, deck 9 for some pool time for the kids. I was able to get on the internet and make another post to this blog.
After the pool it was time for lunch in the Lido dining room. A casual buffet that has a little of everything. After lunch we broke apart into groups. I went and explored more of the ship until about 1515hrs. when it was time for Dutch High Tea. I'm not much of a tea drinker but I knew that there would be finger foods and sweets.
After tea we went back to our cabin to prepare for formal night.
So on 7/30/06 at 1650Hrs. PDT 1150Hrs. UTC 1950Hrs. EDT
we have travelled 422 NM from Vancouver.
Our current location is:53Deg 27.57 N 130Deg 42.67 Won a heading of 342.9 Deg
That's East of Queen Charlotte IslandWe are scheduled to arrive in Juneau at 1400hrs. tomorrow.
Formal night went well. Afterwards we had a group meeting about our first port, Juneau. We needed to coordinate everyone's schedule. After that we spent some time going our seperate ways. My group met up around 2100Hrs. to walk around on the deck. The sun had not set yet but it was extremely windy and it made the 60 deg. temperature feel chilly. After our walk we returned to our cabin for much needed sleep. Fortunately for us we gain a hour due to switching over to Alaska time. We are set for an early wakeup to go out onto the deck as we pass Tracy Arm. We are then due to arrive in Juneau at 1400Hrs.