Day 8 - The Lost Day

July 8th

Cruise Ship Log

July 8, 2007 - Gydnia: At 0800 it was decided that due to the adverse weather conditions it was deemed to dangerous to proceed into Gydnia, we turned the ship around and made our way slowly toward Oslo.

Noon Position:
55 01.0 N 017 51.5 E

Pressure: 1007.0 kPa

Wind: W Force 9

Temperature:15° C

Sky: Cloudy


I woke up around 2 a.m. and Chris was walking around our cabin. I realized the boat was rocking worse than I had ever felt. Shortly before our alarm was set to go off, the captain announced we were not yet where we needed to be for our planned docking, the rough seas had delayed our progress, and he would keep us updated. After the alarm went off I got up to shower so I would be ready to get off the ship when it docked. As soon as I got out of the shower, a message came over the speakers that we would not be docking in Poland for the day. The ship would direct its course to Oslo as would have been the plan for the afternoon and hopefully we would be able to make up the time and dock in Oslo as scheduled in two days.

the waves keeping us at sea

Chris was feeling really sick from all the rocking, but since we did not have to get off the ship he wanted to eat in the dining room, rather than the buffet. He wanted to do this for most of the trip, but they stopped serving at 9 a.m. and most mornings we had to get off the ship very early, so were unable to partake in this option. We always electe to sleep more rather than get up earlier than we have to. We both got dressed quickly and headed down to the Portofino dining room.

Since everyone was trapped on board, we were not the only ones with this idea. We took our place in line, hoping to get in before the cut off time. At the front of the line, since it was just the two of us, they asked if we would sit with others at the large tables. Not really caring where we sat as long as we got food, we agreed and we were seated with four other couples all of whom were over the age of 60. The conversations at our table were very interesting, everyone shared where they were from and what things they had done in Russia. One of the women at the table said that someone in her group had lost their luggage on the way in and when she went to claim it, there were more than 500 other pieces of luggage lined up to be claimed. One gentleman heard that at least 100 people were missing their luggage at the beginning of the trip, which is a large number -- or a small if you thought about how many people were on the ship. Some had heard that the entry into Poland was a very narrow passageway to steer, and the week before the seas had been even worse so that group did not make it to Poland either. Many of the couples followed our sentiments and wished that we had skipped Estonia and made it into Poland. Estonia was beautiful, however manufactured the view was, but getting another stamp in your passport is always cool, and Grandma Derecola was from that area, so it was important to Chris.

The breakfast was pretty good -- better than the buffet. I had pancakes, but everything was rushed because they needed to turn the dining room over for lunch. Once we were done, we joined everyone else on the cruise ship to purchase Dramamine before going back to our room. We were catching up on our journals and doing other little chores when Tina called and asked if we wanted to play bingo. We met up with the group in the Vista Lounge for five games of bingo. The intelligence level of the passengers was put into question when every game had people calling invalid bingo. We had none, valid or invalid in our group. Following the game, Chris told everyone that lunch was served in Portofino’s dining room, so rather than eating lunch at the buffet, we all went there. The advantage to this was we were able to eat ice cream with our lunch.

Since we split up again I lay on the bed and watched TV until Chris was ready to do something else. Next thing I knew, it was an hour and a half later and I had been sleeping with my shoes on. Tina called and woke us both up, she bought bingo cards for us for the afternoon game. By the time we made it down, the first game was already done and the second game was about to start.


Brian gave me one of his sets of cards. I was still waking up and it looked like I had a bingo, so I asked Brian to look at it. I did and I won $150. I split the winnings with Brian, since I had taken half of his cards and the bingo could have very easily been his.
No one in our group won anything else and we all needed to get ready for dinner so we returned to our rooms.

Because of all the rocking, I managed to burn my hand while curling my hair. However, the pain was worth it when we got to dinner. It was the best meal on board the ship -- smoked salmon, lobster bisque and King Crab Legs. I never cared for seconds with the other meals we had eaten, but I did with crab. Afterwards, it was time to change clothes again, with Angela and Brian spending the evening with us. We went to the casino again and I lost way too much money for the night rather quickly. I had been trying to hit it big by playing larger amounts at the roulette table than I normally did. When it was gone, I watched Chris try the three card poker tournament. Unfortunately he lost twice. After watching some of the action at the craps table, I went to bed to read. When Chris made it back to the room he had won some of his money back.