Day 29 – Sail the South Pacific Ocean

I probably overdid things yesterday, which didn’t help my cold. It just doesn’t want to go away. So, since it’s another sea day, I decided to stay in the room today, rest, hydrate, and try to get better. Besides, no one wants to be around me when I’m coughing! Room service and Viking TV certainly made this decision much easier.

One of this morning’s lectures was right up my alley, Captain Tom Anderson’s talk on “World Heritage Sites in Oceania.” During my career in historic preservation, I was never directly involved with this program, which protects sites with outstanding value to the common heritage of humanity, but I was certainly familiar with it. These are also the sites that Tim and I try to visit when we travel. However, I knew little about how the program came to be, and I appreciated Captain Tom’s explanation. His photographs of many of these sites were beautiful.

World Heritage Sites in Oceania

I was also looking forward to Dr. Bryan Babcock’s lecture on “Matisse and the Polynesian Islands,” since Matisse is one of my favorite painters. Apparently, a passenger had approached Dr. Babcock earlier and asked if he meant Gauguin, instead of Matisse. Although many people are familiar with Gauguin and Polynesia, Polynesia’s influence on Matisse is less well known, including by me. I was not expecting a comprehensive art history lesson and was pleasantly surprised. I learned a lot.

Matisse and the Polynesian Islands

A recent commenter on the blog posed an interesting question that I thought deserved a response in a blog post.

What did you take that you wish you did not, and what should you have brought? Obviously these answers will change as the voyage progresses!

I packed a total of six suitcases, including two large ones that were shipped by Luggage Forward to the ship. In addition, I had several boxes shipped from Amazon to my friend in Miami. Was this too much stuff? Maybe, but maybe not, since we will need clothes for both tropical and cold weather climates. The cold weather clothes remain in a suitcase under the bed, but everything else fit in the closet and drawers. Although I likely could have done with fewer clothes, I’m happy to have a bit of variety.

One of my favorite things that was shipped to my friend was a large pack of velvet hangers, since Viking’s lovely wooden hangers take up too much room. Yes, I could have asked for wire hangers, but velvet ones are much better for clothes. Likewise, I ordered skirt/pants hangers, since hanging pants take up less room than folding them over a hanger rod.

Collapsible boxes from Dollar Tree have also proved to be essential for me to contain similar items and make them easier to find. They also make the room much neater and more organized.

I do wish I had brought fewer Command hooks, although these take up little room. These hooks used to adhere to the cabin walls much better than magnetic hooks, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. So, I wish I had brought a selection of magnetic hooks. Luckily, a very nice person gave me an extra box that she had packed.

I’m very glad I brought all the toiletries we might need for six months, although I did shop for a few more items when we were in Los Angeles. Likewise, I thought I had brought a full assortment of over-the counter medications, but I still needed more.

Our Medicine Drawer

I would recommend bringing lots of these items, especially things for head colds and flu-like symptoms, since colds always seem to spread on a ship. When Tim went to the Medical Center on the ship for his cold, he was given Robitussin dry cough medicine. Although we had cough syrup for a different type of cough, I wish I had brought different varieties of cough syrup and more cough drops. Unfortunately, you will probably need them on a long cruise.

I had mentioned in an earlier post that I wish I had brought my real camera. Cell phone cameras are great for most of the photos I take, but a long zoom lens will be needed for animal shots, especially on our safaris in Africa.

I’ll try to remember to update this post as the voyage continues.