My first voyage, Princendam, Circle of the Sun, 2006

[Aussie Gal]

Susie,

 

What a horrific week you are having. I am thinking of you as you face this news. From what you have posted I feel as though I know you as a strong person and know that you will give it all.

 

I met someone just recently who has had MS for quite a few years and yet is still out and about enjoying life. She has learnt not to get stressed or tired and she finds this helps.

 

It is wonderful that you and your mother were able to have such a great cruise together. I am sure the memories will be therapeutic to you in the next few months.

 

 

Jennie

[Aussie Gal]

Post twice!

 

Jennie

[wynkys]

Susie,

Hang in there and know that our thoughts and prayers are with you.

 

Wayne

[susiesails]

I checked my emails to see if anyone replied to this very sad news and I didn't get any emails. Hmmm, well the news must of been too much for them coming from me a complete stranger. So I decided to post my next piece and came here and had all these wonderful replies.

Gosh, thank you all. I appreciate all your comments. I was stunned to see so many replies. Again, thanks to each of you.

We are having guests for the weekend, at my girlfriends place just down the road. I have a turkey thawing to bake tomorrow, I have made the sweet potato pie that I had in Barbados and I am making lasagna after I get off the computer. This way there will be plenty to eat, and I can use my energy to play music and play in the river with my friends when they are actually here. Those are my plans for the weekend.

I plan on making a maiden voyage (hahahha) with my new red kayak today! susiesails

[susiesails]

Well I just got back from the crossing the equator party. King Neptune and his Queen visited us on the Lido Deck and let me tell you this ship knows how to throw a party. The handed out free drinks from Cuba to everyone (Mojito's)and then brought the pollywogs up to deck and put them in his jail. Then the ships officers came in their summer whites and witnessed the whole thing. We had plenty of pollywogs this time. (I was one but they didn't do me, thank goodness.)

Soon the king and queen came on deck in their finery and paraded around the deck. They got up on their thrones and started the proceedings.

Each pollywog was brought up in front of the Court and they were accused of their crimes in front of the whole assembly. As each one was pronounced guilty, they had to go and kiss the fish and it was a huge, real fish, sitting on a real ice carving. Then they were taken to the doctor and nurses to be checked. The staff had on hand many things to christen them with. Gallons of chocolate pudding, fresh squeezed orange juice, flour, green slime, spaghetti, and other things were used. All of this was thrown onto the guilty as they lay on the examining tables.

Then the assembly had to give them their fate: Being dunked into the water or survive. Only the ship's doctor and nurse were allowed to survive, so they had to sit on the side of the pool baking in the hot sun, with all this stuff on them.

They saved the favorite for last and she is the assistant cruise director and got the worst of all the stuff thrown on her. I don't think there was a spot on her that wasn't covered. She too was allowed to survive and got to sit in the sun to bake. It lasted about 25 minutes and boy it was fun. When you cross the Equator officially all the crew involved were behaving just like little kids. The ships horn blew for along time before the party started at the official crossing line. All in all, great fun. Until next time, Susiesails

[susiesails]

Recipe #34258

 

Great for Autumn and Winter gatherings.

6 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces (about 4 cups) 1/2 cup butter or margarine 1/4 cup milk 1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained 1/2 teaspoon salt (to taste) 1/2 teaspoon pepper (to taste) miniature marshmallows

14-16 servings

Change size or US/metric

 

Change to: servings US Metric

 

1 hour 5 minutes 15 mins prep</B>

 

1. Place potatoes in 8-10 quart saucepot; add water to cover; bring to boil over high heat.
   
2. Lower heat to simmer and cook, covered, 15-20 minutes, or until tender.
   
3. Heat oven to 325 degrees F.
   
4. Drain potatoes thoroughly, then mash until smooth.
   
5. Beat in butter, milk, pineapple, salt, and pepper.
   
6. Spoon into 9"x13" baking dish or 3 quart casserole; top with marshmallows.
   
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes until marshmallows have lightly browned.
   
8. Note: Casserole may be prepared in advance and set aside or refrigerated until baking time; in that case, baking time must be increased so potatoes will heat through, and marshmallows should not be added until last 15 minutes of baking time.

I left out the marshmellows, I will let you all know how this tasted. susiesails

[Grumpy1]

Recipe #34258

 

I left out the marshmellows, I will let you all know how this tasted. susiesails

:eek: YOU WHAT!! That's the best part!! I was all set to head your way and crash the party until you committed the unpardonable sin of leaving out the marshmallows:( ....:D

[susiesails]

Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself

.

Ok, Ok, I will put marshmellows on half of the dang thing. So come on up or down or what ever, the more the merrier. Susiesails

[susiesails]

As we headed south down the coast of Brazil, we again had a time change to Rio time. We were traveling about 15 miles out from the shore and had beautiful sailing as we rounded the huge bump that is the far eastern coast of Brazil. After leaving the very muddy water of the Amazon, I was so happy to again feel the swells start to rock the ship. I actually enjoy the feeling of the waves, gently rocking you. The water had turned so blue and what a beautiful blue it is. I definitely appreciated the color of the water after looking at brown water of the amazon for 3 days.

This morning we were excited to see a very small riverboat, coming to greet us at breakfast in the middle of the ocean. It meant land was near! Ah, I was excited to see the promised beautiful beaches of Natal and its city that housed 750,000 people. As we drew closer, we all suddenly said, "What is that?" It looked like clouds but it was so low we knew it couldn't be. It was the beautiful white sand beaches of Natal.

This morning, I got up my nerve and went down to the Ocean bar and played and sang my heart out for 2 hours. I had so been missing my music, so I took charge of my life and went and played and sang. I am telling you that room is so clean as one of the staff Ruly discovered me singing and hung around finding things to do as he listened to me sing. His smile was huge whenever he looked at me. I kind of serenaded many of the people as they went into the dining room to enjoy another breakfast. I was able to fill up my soul again, as I have been drained recently from all the jaded people who never stop complaining on this trip. It was really getting to me, so I filled myself back up. I have been missing my music very much.

Mom and I attended the lecture about the Rise of Brazil and during the talk; the captain came on the loud speaker and reported to us that it is impossible for us to enter Natal. I guess the winds coming-out of the south are 30 knots per hour and with a channel water speed of 3 ½ knots and a very narrow channel heading straight west, it makes it impossible to enter the port. You should have heard the groans in the Queens lounge. Our shore leave has been cancelled.

I realized just a bit ago that I am overflowing with happiness after playing music today. What a great feeling. I was invited to the movies by mom and the movie was "Hitch". Now I had seen parts of this movie before, only parts as my hubby stick is the one with the remote and has to keep checking other channels so he doesn't miss anything. I had a great time watching the love doctor work his magic for other people but who was clueless when it came to his own love affair.

I had the funniest thing happen to me after the movie in the Java lounge. I sat mom down; she does love her lattes, and went up to order 2 latte's. One of the men at the counter seats called to me and I turned to look at him and his friend. As I had never seen them before and they were wearing tan shirts with the sun shining behind them, I thought they were crew engineers. Smiling at them I called out, "I have a question for you". They looked happy at that and then I realized what a strange question I was going to call out to them. I told them, "This is probably the strangest question you have ever gotten from woman". They looked agreeable and told me to go ahead.

When I asked my question I saw the surprise on their faces. I watched second one put his head down on the counter and I could see his shoulders shaking with laughter. He laughed and laughed. As soon as I saw their reaction, I asked "Are you crew?' The first one slowly shook his head, grinning at me and the second one just kept laughing. I realized I had made a serious blunder. The one who had been laughing had been giving me the man interested in a woman signal that I had missed. Well, why not miss it, I have a perfectly great man at home and I am not interested in other men. That is why he was laughing. Hey, I warned him, that I had a strange question. Oh, you want to know the question I asked, do you? Ok here it is, "How do the toilets work here?" Hahahahhaha!

When we awoke on Jan 18th the ship was already entering the busy port of Recife, Brazil. What a humongous city! It is as big as Chicago or New York or more. My mouth fell open as I looked at this city for the first time. It had miles and miles of huge skyscrapers and you could almost see the city hum even this early in the day. (6:30 am) Without a doubt this was the largest city we have seen since leaving the United States. Recife is the capital of the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. It is located in northeastern Brazil. It is the chief urban city of northeast Brazil and an important transportation hub for this huge area. It is called the America's Venice as it has many waterways thru the city. It exports vast quantities of sugar, cotton and coffee. It was first settled in 1535 by the Portuguese as a port for the nearby city of Olinda. The Americans had an allied airbase here during World War II, as it was the closest port between the United States and Africa. There are many universities, museums and much culture. It has ruins of what is thought to be the first synogue in the new world, which flourished during the Dutch period. I would have thought all this terribly boring during my school years, but when one is here I naturally want to know how it got to be how it is today. I am a sponge for knowledge.

As soon as we docked I invited mom to go ashore with me for an impromptu run into the city. I settled her in our room when she refused. I had hooked up with a couple going ashore to the Casa da Cultura. I thought, "oh good, I am going to a museum of culture". I was pretty excited about that. NO, not correct! We ended up in the prison that has been converted to a hand crafted market. It was very interesting going into the different cells, not very large at all but at least they had windows. The cells at Devils Island had no windows at all.

The official language is Portuguese, which is not like Spanish at all. The skin of the people here in Brazil is very darkly tanned because of the 4 million black African slaves brought there in the past to work the sugar plantations by the Dutch. I found them to be friendly and some could understand my poor Spanish which made me very happy.

Mom and I got on a spiffy air-conditioned bus to go to our next shore excursion which was good as it was terribly hot and humid (temperature, 91F). We went to a church built in 1535 after driving for almost an hour thru very poor neighborhoods, or as some of the neighborhoods had swimming pools, maybe we passed thru many different classes of neighberhoods. The undeveloped land was wild with jungle and everywhere was tall coconut palms, planted many, many years ago. I learned if the people make 1 dollar US a day, they are doing well. There are so many churches in this huge city. Most are catholic as the Jesuits settled this area a long time ago.

The beaches are so beautiful, (the bathing suits very skimpy also) there are so many of them as this is the Brazilian Venice. The mangroves surround many areas and help to clean the water as they use the channels as the water filtration plant.

We also went to Fort Orange, which was a Dutch fort. Near the fort is a small marine museum that has manatees that have been saved from being trapped on the reefs that surround the area. It was fun watching them drink what the guide called sweet water; we would call it fresh water, as opposed to seawater. They take good care of the manatees there. Everywhere are beautiful blooming trees and shrubs, also cashew trees, mango trees and breadfruit.

Next we went to the old sugar cane plantation, which is in the process of being restored. It was interesting to watch the city go by as we headed back to the ship. The neighborhoods are very congested and the houses are very small by American standards. I noticed there are no screens on the windows. I doubt there are many clothes washers or dryers as there was wash strung up everywhere to dry. I noticed some of the cloth diapers were pretty threadbare.

I purchased a couple of dresses at the prison shops and I have gotten comments from 6 women about the one I have on today. (I used my own money.)

The woman I was shopping with told me, "Susie, I don't think you are as big as you think you are." When I put on this broomstick dress this morning, my mouth fell open when I looked at my desirable curves. I am definitely not the woman I used to be. Yippee, I am losing weight, even with all this good food.

The flying fish have changed again. When I first saw them outside Barbados, they were like large thick bullets, maybe 9-12 inches long, sleek and silver in the sun. They were about as long as a hairbrush. Next after we left the Amazon, they were just tiny, like hummingbirds. Now they are again changed, the fins that look like wings are larger and they can go for long distances. Their tail is different also, as it is long and thin, more like a straw.

During our daily message from the captain at 1 pm, he announced he had received a message from the port of Rio de Janeiro that said they were closing the port from 9 am to 3 pm on Saturday, the day after tomorrow. He told us we either had to arrive earlier or later. They are laying a cable across the port. So he decided to arrive earlier and we are now traveling at 22 knots, probably the fastest we have traveled yet. So you walk more sideways than forward now as you go on your way when the ship hits the swells. Until next time, Susiesails

[kryos]

I checked my emails to see if anyone replied to this very sad news and I didn't get any emails. Hmmm, well the news must of been too much for them coming from me a complete stranger. So I decided to post my next piece and came here and had all these wonderful replies.

Sometimes it's difficult to find an email address on the personal profile. That's why people put their good wishes right here on the thread. Plus, it saves having your email box get filled up with dozens of emails from wellwishers. Know that all of us reading this thread share the pain of your news and wish you all the best in your newest challenge. If there is anything I can do, just email me ... kry.os@verizon.net ...

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[mountainmare]

Susie I just got caught up on your posts. I'll add my well wishes for you and am sending you happy thoughts and lots of good energy.

 

Your joy for living shines through your writing--you are so very special.

[Lizzielady65]

You are so very special. My thoughts and prayers are with you. You seem so very strong; I'm sure you will pull through this as you have so many times before.

 

Your journal of the cruise has been so interesting! Thank you for each and every entry!

[Cruising Jake]

May your incredible optimistic attitude toward life carry you through this next time of your life.

[susiesails]

I so want to thank each and everyone of you for your well wishes. As I have been so sad this week, I have so appreciated getting that one email everyday in my mailbox that says I have another post in Cruise Critic. I can't tell you how much this has strengthened me and given me such happiness. I thank you all again.

But I have learned one thing thru all the adversity I have lived with in my life and that is this, sadness and suffering only gets you so far in life. I choose to not be a thing of pity but to live my life to the fullness that God intended each one of us to have.

So enough sadness I say, let's get back to the wonderful life God has given each one of us and live it to the fullness he intended.

I took my maiden voyage on my shiny new red kayak and I wish I had taken pen and paper so I could take each one of you with me. I had a great ride, cruising down Bryant river. It took me 3 1/2 hours to go the distance from Hodgeson Mill to my girlfriend's home. I had intended to go down to my home but got a bit too tired out for the first time since last year.

I have figured out that where I live is every bit as pretty as many of the places we saw on our cruise around the world. The pristine waters of the Bryant with it's small riffles and rapids, the wildlife, the hills and vegetation are just so beautiful to behold. I truly an so lucky to live in such a beautiful place. I have wanted to start a thread about my permanent shore excursions, as I take every day as one. I do and see so many things that other people don't get a chance to do, I would like to write about those things too.

I do have to say the service on the river was a bit different than on the ship. I had no one handing me my slice of 98% fat free ham, or my cheese stick but I enjoyed them every bit as much as I did the 5 star service on the ship. My low calorie peach ice tea was the best ambrosia I could have brought with me as I paddled my beloved river.

Wildlife list, recently I have been lucky enough to see the following: a baldheaded eagle come down out out of the branches of a tree and hover over the water with talons extended to catch that special fish and then as we exclaimed out loud while it hovered, it looked at us and flew downstream. I saw a second bald eagle but can't remember the circumstances at present. I saw turtles, so many of them I can't even count, from large snapping turtles to the tiniest, smaller than my thumb nail. I saw one snake wrapped around a twig on a tree on shore, not a copperhead. The fish: rainbow trout, brown trout, gar, red eared bluegills, perch many others. The deer are in abundance here, and I have been lucky enough to see many fawns. I have seem many hawks of many different varieties. I even got to see one dive bombing down to earth to catch it's prey in it's extended talons. I have always want to see that and now I finally have. Can you tell I like nature? There are many animals I am leaving out here, but will try to do better.

Like I said I wish I had taken pen and paper as my memory is suffering a bit right now. Ok, sorry this is so non descript. I will do better when I go next, like today!!!!! Bye, I am ditching you all for another ride on the river. susiesails

[Grumpy1]

It's not everyday that the weather and other circumstances allow you to be on the river, so enjoy it whenever you can. We'll be here when you have time to post some more. That does sound like a really nice river for kayaking and enjoying the wildlife.

[lizf]

Susie-

It all sounds so wonderful! But then you make the dreariest day seem lovely somehow. Bless you, girl. So sorry the tests proved something like this, but so much better to know the enemy. You are better equiped to do the battle. I know you will remain strong and we are riding that river with you. Thanks for describing the eagle with its talons extended and all the wildlife. I can just picture it in my mind. How very luck you are. Till later. Liz

[mim100]

Hi Susie....I finally got caught up on all the posts in your thread and wanted to join all the other posters in sending you lots of positive energy and well wishes....it's been great fun reading your reviews....keep 'em coming...they are very much appreciated...your writing style and attitude are a breath of fresh air :)

[susiesails]

I could keep posting the things I have already written on the ship, but them so much would be lost by not including all the stuff on my video's. Give me some time to get them on my laptop so I can really write fully about my adventures. thanks, susiesails

[Grumpy1]

I could keep posting the things I have already written on the ship, but them so much would be lost by not including all the stuff on my video's. Give me some time to get them on my laptop so I can really write fully about my adventures. thanks, susiesails

I noticed that you went from Devil's Island to Recife without any detail of the Amazon River portion. I was hoping you would backtrack and pick that up, but I didn't want to say anything. I'm glad to hear that we will be hearing more of the Grand Adventure, :) but take your time.

[susiesails]

I just want you all to know I have finally set up a laptop and camera work station and am currently watching my first video and reliving my adventures with mom. I sure wish you could all watch it with me as I am having a grand time.

I forgot how beautiful the sunsets are when you can see the entire sky at once, no sunset on land compares to the beauty and majesty of a sunset at sea in my book.

So stay tuned, I am on this new chapter! susiesails

[arzz]

We are enjoying every word -- when you can write is soon enough

 

Thanks for a wonderful time and keep on hanging in there!

[susiesails]

Video I Barbados

The sunsets that first week were just gorgeous. When you can see the whole horizon, it is such an amazing way to watch a true sunset. I have seen sunsets in the past but nothing like being at sea where the whole sky is available to view the complete color changes of the pinks, purples, blues, all mixed with white fluffy clouds and a few mares’ tails.

Barbados: the scene opens as the captain and crew are bringing the vessel in to port, I must have gotten up late as the boat is almost docked. It just had the few feet left to go as the crew brought this huge vessel literally moving in to the dock, sideways. How do they do that????? I said on the video, “Just imagine parking this big baby!” I can tell from my voice that I was happily enchanted with it all.

It was raining a bit when we came in and I reported it was going to clear up nicely and man did it ever. We had blue skies and warm temperatures all day on the 9th of January! As I had never to any port before, (I don’t count Fort Lauderdale, I didn’t even know that was the port!) all this was fascinating to me, but you have probably figured out by now that I am fascinated by most things. The buildings on the dock were huge, warehouses by the look of the buildings. What necessities of life did they hold and where was it going?

The ship or the port had a steel band come and serenade us as we left the ship to go our way on our first shore excursions since leaving Fort Lauderdale on this so beautiful day. As we entered the actual port on land, we had to go thru some duty free shopping buildings. I looked at the stuff for sale but we went on our way as we didn’t want to be late to visit with my cyber friend, Myky.

My hair has said goodbye to winter and is now curling nicely in the humidity. My hair hates winter, as I have my dad’s island genes. I don’t have to do anything to my hair if I have a good haircut, just give it a shake and then I can go. Not so in winter, when I have to hide in the bathroom for at least 45 minutes after a bath or shower to trick my hair into believing it is warm outside while I blow it dry. The things we do to look presentable!

Ok, back o Barbados…I was amazed at all the bicycles I was seeing on the road, I don’t think I have never seen so many bikes anywhere all at the same time. Driving on the other side of the street was a bit daunting to me. I have learned to just close my eyes when I think there is danger, instead of crying out when I am riding with someone. I think I had my eyes closed quite a bit as I have not been where they drive on the other side of the road since 1990 when I was in Ireland for 3 weeks.

I stopped at a table at the lido restaurant that morning to ask a friend what she was going to do in Barbados. Her reply was, “Ach, Barbados, do you have any idea how many times I have been to Barbados”. (Here she waved her had as if to dismiss something in an Imperious way) “I am not even going to get off the ship”. I tell you, I felt sorry for her, that she had been here so many times she was not even going to leave the ship. I found out later she stopped counting her cruises at 200. Poor dear. I knew so many people who would have given their eye teeth to be in her shoes at the moment and have loved every minute of Barbados. It must be terrible to not to be able to see the wonder in everything, anything!

The next stop was at St Nicolas Abby. It was built in 1650. Wow! Oh, the drive up there was so gorgeous, vegetation everywhere along the way. The Abby charged a fee to get in so we just wandered around the flower gardens and enjoyed getting to know each other in person after our long relationship in the cyber world.

The white washed building (house, villa, plantation, I really didn’t know what to call it.) was just so lovely, smaller than I thought it would be though. The entry way was covered in thick flowering vines and the shade looked so inviting as we stood in the now hot sun.

The birds were singing so beautifully. Bird songs I didn’t remember from my zoo days. (I lived 1 mile from the Milwaukee zoo when I was growing up and we spent a lot of time there when I was little. I especially loved the bird house and spent so much time watching the birds fly in this beautiful lush, green open building and loved to listen to the sound of the waterfalls and to watch the flamingos as the many, many birds sang and twittered in the tees. I think that was my start of my love of watching nature, there in the Milwaukee zoo.)

At the Abby, I could hear the ocean waves from where I was standing but I couldn’t see the water. I could see a long green, very level yard and instantly recognized the game played there: crocket. We played that all the time when we were little at home. We all enjoyed socking each other’s balls as far as we could when our balls were touching. Ah, sigh, this shady cool green yard bought back good memories for me.

Our next stop I have called the wild side of Barbados. We were on the top of a large, very tall hill and I couldn’t see many houses from there You could see the ribbon of gravel road wind it’s way down the hill in a crazy, drunken fashion. It was all lush sugar cane and vegetation growing in wild perfusion. It was very windy there as I watched the surf roll in and crash on the windward white sand beach.

The palm trees growing along the water were in constant motion from the strong wind that was blowing from who knew where (ah, that is so intriguing to me, what would those people be like and what would their land look like?). We ate our lunch at a place called Bonito. What a wonderful island buffet meal we had! We treated our hosts, all of them and had a great time. I wish I had taken video of that lunch but I didn’t. I remember eating the flying fish and really enjoyed it.

The beach outside our restaurant had a few huge boulders of different sizes in the surf. I couldn’t imagine what force had tossed them there and when! Some of them were just immense, huge grey things. The sense I got was that they were really benign things, as if they had some small benevolent life in them. Hmmmm.

They seemed to hug the coast as in the true sense of hug and I thought, ‘there is thick green moss growing on them so you just knew they had lived there for a long time’.

The graceful lines of the wind shaped palms that danced in the wind before me was just like a movie set. Oh silly me, movies mimic life, and here I was in such a wonderful place that they could make a movie there. Ah, life is so wonderful. I was truly appreciative of what I was viewing with my own eyes. How very lucky I was to be sharing this adventure with mom. I could tell mom was enjoying herself when she was playing with my friend’s 6 year old daughter. Mya’s skin is a warm honey color that radiates the sun back at you, as if she had been baked in the sun to just the right color. I had seen that color skin before on my cousins children who lives in Genoa, Italy.

I loved the way the aquamarine water seemed to glide up to the shore, much gentler waves here than at the last beach. No roaring, crashing, foaming white, driven surf pounding the coast here, but a nice gentle, long ride in on a good boogie board. Yippee!

The island has a limestone base that filters their water. My friends thought it was pretty good but we must have taken some of it aboard as we had a chlorine taste in the water for a few days after we left Barbados which we did not have before.

As we left the Bridgetown port, the ship started to rock almost immediately. One of my friends on board told me we were in for some wind and we rocked and rolled our way away from the island and on our way to Devils Island, French Guiana.

Did I tell you I have 27 video's? Susiesails

[Old As Dirt Mom]

27 videos, you say? Well, I'm here to follow your entire cruise. If your reviews take as long to write as the original cruise itself, that's no problem for me! There's nothing like living a wonderful part of your life over again, is there?:) Now, if we could only do that in "real time"!

[doverite]

I'll also be awaiting the next 26 installments. Thanks so much:)

[susiesails]

I got out my daily schedules and maps they gave us for each port and I am busy writing away. I have to stay in the house today to wait for a call from a doctor so I am back at this considerable task of documenting our trip. I have started pouring over emails I sent to get some of the information as I didn't document things very well at first. My writing style matured over my trip, so you are getting the results of my writing attempts over many months. So stay tuned.... susiesails