20130309 AT SEA on the way to Santa Ana , Solomon Islands
currently running from Cyclone Sandra!
It's 730am on Sunday morning and we're enjoying a latte in the Leda Lounge on board Orion. The sun is trying to break through and we're hoping that we've left Cyclone Sandra behind us! Sandra was heading south east - East and for the last 38 hours we have been running as fast as the Orion can go in a North West direction to avoid Cyclone Sandra. It made for a very (and I mean VERY ) bumpy ride but it appears that Captain Vincent has got us away from the worst of the weather! There is also a tropical low (may yet become a cyclone to the East of where we were so we were running against this huge wind tunnel (they called it the perfect storm) as we raced away. We also had to miss a very special island visit to UTUPUA which is such a shame but there was no protection for the ORION to anchor anywhere near this coral atoll, so the Captain and Mick Fogg Expedition Leader said we just couldn't risk it.
Yesterday was very rough, damp and windy but we're hoping today will allow us to get close towards our next destination of Santa Ana in the Solomon Islands, although the entry is going to be renegotiated when we arrive since the planned anchorage is in North West Bay which is exactly the direction where the wind is coming from - the excitement continues!!
We still have sea sickness pills left and yes, we have been using them! Outside the swells are 3 to 4 metres and every now and then we crash and the massive amounts of white spray go flying past the windows! The ship's bow goes up and comes crashing down about every 5 seconds, sometimes making the whole ship shudder. The ocean is pretty grey with lots of white caps and white spray rolling down the sides of the waves. As soon as I stood up this morning, after a very disturbed night, I felt quite sick so took a sea sick pill and the whole day I took it very steady - by the end of the day and pill number two I felt pretty good!
We attended several talks today with guest lecturer David Silkenberg (from Norway, originally from USA) and Expedition staff member Harry. There is a lecture theatre on deck 6 of the Orion with enough seats to accommodate everyone and excellent facilities. Needless to say being right up front and on the top deck we did some rocking and rolling when we were there! David's lecture was all about geography and the tectonic plates, the moving and shifting, how volcanoes erupt - very interesting for sure and he was interesting and easy to listen to. Harry's lecture was about coral - when these animals started to first live and how they have changed and developed over time, and he showed us many photos of various types of coral and fish. Justin (from Orion head office staff but an Expedition member on this cruise) also gave a lecture about the government on the Solomon Islands, and corruption, and civil wars and how the islands were divided up after WWII.
In addition Terry slept for a couple of hours on the back deck where we could get fresh air and stay out of the wind and rain which was really fierce at times. I slept a couple of hours in the cabin in the afternoon, either the sleeping pills and / or the rocking and rolling making its' effect known! Certainly being at the front of the Orion we really feel the up and down motion of the ship in these huge swells, but it is so much more stable than the Tere Moana that we were on in January- I would not enjoy being on the Tere Moana in the seas that we are riding today! We enjoyed scones with strawberry jam and fresh cream in the Leda lounge at 4pm, accompanied by Terry (not Umbach) plating soft Spanish guitar while we ate - so very pleasant!
Before dinner Mick Fogg gave us an update on the weather - Cyclone Sandra is still heading East and not as South East as forecast so we are still feeling the effects as well as of the low depression just East of us. Then we watched a slide show which was the recap of our time on board so far - some great photos that theExpedition Staff have taken during the first four days. We sat with a couple,John and Jo, in their 40's from Chester, England at dinner, along with Rick and Helene from Noosa Heads in Aussie. It was an enjoyable dinner and lots of interesting conversation from these very well travelled passengers. In fact, the clients on this cruise are amazing in regard to their travels - they have been to so many places in the world, many have travelled on many Orion cruise itineraries, and without fail they all have at least one or two more trips already booked and planned! For dinner it is a la carte each evening, and tonight I started with cauliflower soup (I guess for those of you who know me well you will be quite impressed that I ate white soup!) and Terry started with nasi goreng and we both followed with lamb shank (excellent) followed by ice cream - presentation was amazing! Most definitely we were not going to do justice to the 5 course gustation menu tonight!
We were back in our stateroom before 10pm - the fact that there are empty sick bags tucked in behind all the railings along the corridors as we walked to the stateroom confirming just how rough the ocean outside really is! We fell into bed and all the crashing and banging behind our heads confirmed our expectations that it would be a very restless night!
Cheers ..... Jan Umbach
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