Here I am finally going to blog again, boy do I feel lazy. I went the whole last cruise without blogging and now i'm not sure where to start. To those of you who actually read this, procrastination obviously does not work.
Last cruise was a short one and we went to islands that I have already been to like Mystery Island, Isle of Pines and Noumea. I only got off the ship at Mystery Island. I sun bathed and went snorkeling. On the ship I was pretty busy. Since it was my first cruise being Crew Club VP, the president and I made a crazy fun schedule for the crew and there was many late nights for me. We had game night and gave away 250 dollars in a foos ball tournament, acoustic night, Karaoke, and a club night. It was a lot of events compared to what was going on for the crew.
I saw more whales when we left Isle of pines. I decided to take a walk to the upper deck and search. Sure enough, five minutes after I started I saw three of them. I have a feeling they are the same whales that I saw weeks before because they were close to the same area and one of them had a flipped over dorsal fin (like free Willy has..) I'm pretty sure they were killer whales. I love finding things in the ocean. People get really angry when I tell them I saw whales because some people have been on many contracts and never seen anything. Im a hunter!
When we got back to Sydney which was October 13th I had a great day by myself. I was on a mission to go surfing. I have never been surfing and it has always been a dream. I woke up early, ate and left the ship. I walked about 20 minutes to the ferry's (which is by the Sydney Opera house) and jumped on the Manly ferry. It takes about 30 minutes to get to Manly and only costed 13 dollars. I ended up sitting by an older gentleman that told me a lot about manly and said the beach is amazing. As I was walking, there were so many cool shops and people with surf gear. The feeling of the area was so awesome. I have never been to a California beach, but I would think that they could be quite similar. I walked into the first surf shop that I saw and chatted with a guy. He was cool and said the surf is not good now but it will be good in an hour or so as the tide gets lower. He was going to rent me everything for 20 bucks, wet suit and surf board. That was exciting! I was looking on line before and there were lessons and stuff for 2 hours that would be 60 to 70 dollars and so I decided to teach myself and watch others.
I shopped around a bit and to see if I was getting a good deal from this guy and sure enough he was hooking it up. I went back to him and got my gear. I used an 8 foot board which is on the bigger end because it was my first time. I headed out to the water and could not believe I was actually going to finally do this. From watching others I kind of had an idea so I ran in and paddled out. I stayed near a surfing class so I could watch and see what the instructors were doing but stayed far enough away to not bother them. I hung out with a 70 year old man that had a surfing kayak thing, it was cool. The first wave I went for did not work out and so I had try something different and paddle harder. A wave came and I paddled hard and caught it with the old man. I popped up and surfed. I definitely was sloppy on the board, but I got up and surfed the wave. The man and I were chatting, while waiting for good waves to come. It was the best feeling to be out there chilling in the water. He said he could not believe it was my first time and that I was able to get up on my second wave.
The waves were still not that good but I hit a few in that area. I decided to move down more where it looked like the wave were bigger. As I was walking the shore, more surfers started to show up and the waves were getting bigger. I jumped in and headed near some other good surfers. I ended up going near them to hit the waves they were hitting. Sure enough I hit this massive wave and caught it. It was way bigger than I expected and fast. I was so out of my mind I could barley get up on the board. I had both my feet down but didn’t fully stand until the end. I didn't fall but didn't get to surf it to the fullest. That was the wave that would have made my day! I then went back out. At this time, when you get to far into shore, its hard to get past the breaking point for the waves, they beat you up a little. As I finally got back out, these other surfers were hitting waves left and right. They new how to find which waves are going to be good and which way they are breaking. I didn't have a clue and once and a great while would get lucky and hit one. I did get demolished by a few waves. As I was paddling to hit a wave, I was to far in front of it and the wave literally came down on me and shoved me under the water. That is when you really can feel the power of some of these waves. It was so fun! I now have a place to go in Sydney and surf all summer long.
This cruise is going well so far for being a really long one. Its 16 days long and we are going to Fiji which only happens once and great while. We went to an island 2 days ago which was our first port of this cruise, but most of the crew didn't get off. The passengers go first then the crew can go. A few of us waited but the tenders had a hard time getting people ashore and it took to long. Looking at the island was so cool because it didn't look tropical like most of the islands we see. It was really hilly with with cool cliffs and trees like we are in the mountains. The dancers from england said it looked like you we were in england.
Im not sure what else to blab about and I know I talked a lot about surfing. I am sorry but that was probably my high light lately. Tomorrow we will be at port and I am not sure what I will do yet. Today Matt and I payed on the lido deck which is outside by the pools and played a 1pm and 3pm set. We have another at 11pm in the connexions bar tonight, then acoustic night in the crew bar. I think I have typed a lot and so I am going to hit the gym up. Cheers!!!
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