As our friends Sally and Ange drove us to Port Everglades in
Fort Lauderdale on the 6th of January, Sally, a veteran world
cruiser, told us, “You will be getting on the ship today and getting off
tomorrow!” We have been reminded of her statement many times as we sailed the
world, but never has it been so apt as it is now. Our stateroom is heaping with items to be
packed – some already organized, others a jumbled mess as they try to find a
temporary home in the suitcases that are being packed for the journey
home. In some ways it hardly seems
possible that we have been living on the ship for nearly 112 days, but when we
think of all the things that have happened, it seems like forever since we’ve
been home.
Captain Jonathan announced as we readied for our departure
from our last port, Funchal, Madeira that at that point we had sailed 32,759
nautical miles and had somewhere over 3000 more to go to reach Fort Lauderdale,
putting us in the vicinity of 36,000 nautical miles or nearly 40,000 statute
miles. That’s a lot of water slipping
under the hull of the ms Amsterdam since our departure back on January 6th,
and of course it does not include the miles we’ve done on land. Our friend Al has been keeping a careful log
and was hoping to say that we had gone far enough to circle the world twice. We probably can’t claim that, but we
certainly have gone more than 1½ time around!
During this time we’ve had some amazing adventures! While doing so, we’ve reestablished ties with
old friends that we had met on previous cruises and made many, many new friends
whom we hope to travel with again sometime. We were absolutely delighted to be able to
share the first 50 days with our friend Pam from New Lenox, especially since
she had always wanted to go to Antarctica and this gave her the opportunity. (We
also are so glad that her husband Paul was so understanding to urge her to do
it and enjoy herself, as well as her friends who helped out when needed so she
could feel comfortable being away.) We
were also thrilled that our friend Al from Arizona joined us on the
cruise. We knew it would be difficult
for him being the first since his wife Carol passed away late in 2010. We had met Ros & Gary from Australia on
last summer’s Voyage of the Vikings so we looked forward to seeing them again
when they boarded in Sydney (as Pam got off).
We were also extremely fortunate to get to know two wonderful couples
who shared our table with us: Bill &
Candy from Atlanta joined us between Buenos Aires and Sydney, and we all hit it
off immediately, thoroughly enjoying each others’ company. We weren’t sure how we would react to having
someone replace Pam and Bill & Candy, but when we met Gerda & John who
were cruising from Sydney to Barcelona, we couldn’t have been happier to get to
know these friendly Australians who thought the way we did and had wonderful
senses of humor. We also established
friendships with Nancy & Bob, two retired professors from West Virginia who
always seemed to sit near us during lectures.
We had some very interesting conversations with them, and we are looking
forward to seeing them again on another cruise.
So many of the people on floor became friends as we met over breakfast,
lunch, or in the Neptune Lounge: Sherry & Ron (thanks for the popcorn,
Sherry!!!), Marnie & Dennis, Jan & Dick, Brenda & Bob, Peggy &
Jim, Jamie & Dan, just to name a few.
The staff and crew of the Amsterdam have once again done a
fantastic job of keeping us happy, entertained, and very well-fed
(unfortunately)! We were so pleased to
once again have Yohat as our dining steward and were delighted to find Herfan,
whom we had also had as our steward on the 2009 Grand Voyage, promoted to the
Pinnacle Grill staff. That meant that
Herfan spent quite a bit of time in the Neptune Lounge, right across the hall
from us. We were happy to see Say, our
2009 cabin steward, frequently, although we didn’t have him as our steward this
year. Instead we had two very friendly
and accommodating stewards, Evan, who was always calm and serene and friendly,
and DJ, who was quite gregarious and could be a real comic! We were so pleased to see once again a couple
of the Pinnacle staff, Kim, the manager, and Tina a steward, both of whom had
been on the 2009 trip, and we enjoyed getting to know the other Pinnacle staff
members. Hanz and Sienna were front desk
staff who were assigned to the Neptune Lounge, and nothing seemed to be too
difficult for them to do. We were also
glad to get to know Jack and Gloria, AAA representatives on the ship, who were
our go-to people for any questions relating to AAA.
The list could go on and on, but I won’t attempt to name more
other than the announcement made at the Mariner Society award reception. Captain Jonathan had been moved from the
Nieuw Amsterdam at the last minute to replace the previous captain, who had had
to cancel out of the World Voyage at the last minute due to family-related
reasons. Captain Jonathan hadn’t been
able to say whether he would remain assigned to the Amsterdam or if he would
return to the Nieuw Amsterdam again.
However he reported that he has been assigned to the Amsterdam now and
would be doing the World Cruise next year also!
Those people who choose to do the 2013 World Cruise I’m sure will be as
pleased as we have been with him! He’s
by far the most friendly and approachable captain we’ve met on any of the
cruises we have done! So this was great
news for world cruisers, in our opinion!
We’ve learned so much from the Explorations Speakers
provided throughout the cruise; these people have provided us excellent
insights into the lands and waters we have traveled: history, geography,
zoology, culture, and even various aspects of folklore, all of which have
greatly enriched our enjoyment of our ports and life at sea.
As we sailed the world, we have visited all seven continents
(Antarctica and Africa are new to us) and four of the five oceans, having been
in the waters of the Atlantic, Southern, Pacific, and Indian Oceans in that
order. (I’m not sure when they added
that fifth ocean because when I taught Geography as part of History, there were
only four. Now they have added the
Southern Ocean.) The only one we
“missed” was the Arctic, which we were in last summer. So we can honestly say that within the past
year we’ve been in all five of those oceans!
Al has also kept a running list of seas we’ve sailed. I am hoping to get a full list from him, but
to name a few, we’ve sailed the Caribbean, South China, Arabian, Red,
Mediterranean, Aegean, Ionian, Adriatic, and Sargasso. We’ve visited 15 new countries: Dominica,
Barbados, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Indonesia (home to so many of our dining
and cabin stewards), China, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India,
Egypt, and Portugal. We’ve also added
some “distant” islands belonging to countries we’d already visited: Falklands (owned by the United Kingdom),
Easter Island (belonging to Chile and the most remote island in the world,
about 2600 miles from the nearest neighbor), and Corsica (a part of France in
the Mediterranean).
We have also been in the Amazon River basin and crossed the
Nile River – the two that vie to claim the title of longest river in the
world. We have weathered the waters of
Cape Horn, the Drake Passage and the Strait of Magellan, as well as forging
through pirate territory and traversing the amazing Suez Canal. We have been to
the tops of mountains and witnessed Mount Etna spewing ash into the air. We
have passed through deep valleys cut by glaciers and v-shaped valleys nestled
between mountains that towered above them.
We have seen the pristine waters and magnificent views of
Antarctica with its shining white snowcapped landscape, waters teeming with
penguins skimming along the surface as well as icebergs bobbing past, sometimes
with seals, other times with penguins.
We have watched whales (at least three different species – humpback,
orca, and minke) greet us with a dorsal fin or a fluke, and we have seen dolphins
joyously arcing over the surface or spinning in the air as if sending hellos to
their human counterparts on the ship.
We’ve been among the fortunate people who have witnessed those
magnificent soaring sea birds, the albatross, following us as we sailed through
the cold climates of the Southern Hemisphere and have watched the tiny
hummingbirds darting about searching for nectar in the rainforest of
Dominica. We were fascinated by the
red-footed booby which found a perch on the flagpole of the ship where he sat
for hours as we approached Australia.
We’ve seen the very rare platypus, the funny little wombat, the
aggressive cassowary, the sleepy koala, and the formidable saltwater crocodile,
all fascinating animals indigenous to Australia; and we learned to tell the
difference between kangaroos and wallabies.
We visited the island of Komodo where we saw the rare but deadly Komodo
dragon. We saw exotic animals at the
Night Safari in Singapore, rode an elephant, and watched wild camels crossing
the desert of the Sinai. We saw more
donkeys used as beasts of burden than we had ever dreamed still existed.
We have visited the ruins of ancient cultures in Egypt and
Greece and have visited modern new countries such as Singapore. We’ve seen war-torn countries like Vietnam
and the Falklands. We’ve seen incredible
richness in Montevideo and Singapore and incredible poverty in some of the
Southeast Asian countries. We’ve seen places
where we could practically eat off the floor and places where the filth was
almost unimaginable.
Yet everywhere we’ve been greeted with the warm friendly
smiles of the citizens who are so proud of their heritage and ready to share
their culture, customs, and lifestyles with us.
We’ve been introduced to the various cultures and have enjoyed seeing a
wide variety of native dances: the samba of Brazil, the tango of Argentina, the
whirling dervish of Egypt, the flamenco of Spain, as well as cultural music and
dances from Hong Kong, Vietnam, and India.
We’ve learned about very different religions: Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist, and agree that
we were interested in learning about them.
Everywhere we’ve gone we’ve been
impressed by the enthusiastic welcome we’ve received and the eagerness of the
people to show off their heritage.
So as we head across the Atlantic and our thoughts turn
toward home, we are sad to see our long voyage coming to an end. Bruce announced at Good Morning Amsterdam
that they expect to unload 18,000 pieces of luggage at the end of the world
cruise. My goodness, that sounds like a
lot of luggage! To get them organized
and sent on their way within a few hours sounds like a very daunting task. Just getting our own items packed seems
daunting.
We so appreciate the help of those who have done so much for
us: Marcia, our travel agent, who
continued to problem-solve for us while we were gone; Pat, who so willingly
took care of our mail and especially our bills; Rick, who checked on our houses
regularly to make sure that all was well; our neighbors, who kept a constant
eye out for us.
Chuck commented that this was the longest he had been out of
the United States. I was away longer
when I spent a semester studying in Grenoble, France. I left the US on February 9th and
returned home on June 21st of that year, making my time away 131
days, just 19 days longer than this cruise.
So now we look toward making the circle complete when we arrive back in the
port where we started our journey so many months ago: Fort Lauderdale, where we can once again set
foot on American soil – home sweet home!
Breathes there a man with soul so dead
Who never to himself has said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned,
As home this footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand!
Sir Walter Scott
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned,
As home this footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand!
Sir Walter Scott
BT