HOW HAS OUR SEABOURN ODYSSEY CRUISE BEEN SO FAR?

Our Seabourn Odyssey cruise is the best we've experienced.  Astounding, when you consider that there is now hanging over us a huge problem:  A COVID OUTBREAK!  On the other hand, we remain healthy.  The cruise has had perfect weather, whereas a few weeks ago two cyclonic storms devastated the area of the Coral Seas we crossed.  On the other side of Australia, Cyclone Herman was up to 125 MPH two days ago.

Incidentally, the Seabourn Odyssey was indeed sold, to Mitsui of Japan, but will still run the ship until next year.  The ship will then be renovated for the Japanese cruise market.  Carnival Corporation has sold or retired 24 cruise ships since suspending operation in 2020 because of the pandemic.  Once up to 104, they now have 90 ships.  Mitsui OSK is particularly progressive, and has announced plans to build a zero emission wind sail, hydrogen-producing cargo ship next year, the Wind Hunter.

While Happiness 1 went away because of the outbreak, life remains good.  We decided to be very careful about venturing out of our room.  We have almost a whole month left, for we arrive back in Honolulu on April 30.

Sure, in addition to that piece of bad news, there are other flaws, mostly minor.  For example, while we can also take a tub bath, the shower stall is really small.  You can't help but bump your elbows somewhere.

The toilet paper system sucks.  It's awkwardly placed behind you, and is engineered to minimize paper usage.  The toilet paper is inconveniently too thin, so it that breaks off so that you need to raise the cover to continue.

However, I found a solution.  I now use the bottom roll, which is where the second roll is stored.  The supply of rolls and tissue paper and towels and everything else is bountiful.  

We ask for a bottle Raymond Cabernet, and we get it.  Glenmorangie and Cragganmore?  We have excessive adequacy.  

Interesting, though, that in the few days we will be in Fiji and will be limited to what we can drink from a bar or restaurant.  No bottles.  Apparently, liquor and violence have been a serious problem in Fiji, and special steps are taken to curtail use.

I remember a lot mosquitos there, so will skip the tour.  Friends board tomorrow.

Another problem is that the toilet flush is way too loud.  And the performance is less than 100%.  All cruise ships these days have them.  Wakes people up at night.

Yet another minor one is that the room slippers they provide are too thick.  I tend to slip out of it.  My solution was to replace them with a pair from Marriott.

A very helpful person is one of their computer guys, Diego.

Also, the internet works amazingly well.  I feared that once on the high seas in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with no population base, the performance would sink.  I remember in my earlier years taking an hour just to download a photo.  Apparently, the technology has been significantly upgraded.  However, some links, like to You Tube, are not available.  My computer on board works almost as well as at home.

Just after lunch we actually passed an island.  Not sure what it's called, but sort of looked like a film we saw last night, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (Rotten Tomatoes 20/47...we are running out of films), or maybe the 1960 version of The Lost World, the latter with dinosaurs.  Directed by Irwin Allen, starring Michael Rennie, Jill St. John, Claude Rains and Fernando Lamas.  But only got a 20% rating from Rotten Tomatoes.

Here is the hallway outside my door where I do most of my walking to bring up the pedometer reading.  Starts from the front of the ship to the theater.  The problem is that with this outbreak, I wonder if it's safe, even if I wear a mask.

The other end is the front of the ship.  There is a heavy door to open, but that's good for a different kind of exercise.

There remain, of course, other pluses.  For example, the food and service are great.  When at home, caviar perhaps two or three times/year.  On this ship, many times/week, and even twice in one day.  But there is a downside.  Too much sodium.  

All the meats are exceptional, like Kurobata pork, an assortment of beef and several types of lamb racks.  The soufflé is perfection.  Maybe their best tasting food item is the pork skin.  The problem is that it is just about too hard, which has just about convinced me that I should stop eating it in fear that my teeth could crack.  There is no dentistry service on the ship.

Our favorite wines so far are a Raymond Cabernet Sauvignon from California and a Grant Burge Shiraz from Australia.  We brought on board a Sparkling Shiraz, which is the best heavy-bodied champagne I've ever had.

Here is an artistic Odyssey stairway scene.

Well, I yesterday went to the Colonnade for lunch, for they have an outdoor section.  This was the Odyssey Food Festival.  I roamed around and took dishes from both this restaurant and The Patio, and found an ideal table with the view of the aft.

I certainly can't exercise in their wellness center, and am not sure where I could walk, so I took a nap.  We weren't hungry at all for dinner, but ordered room service:

Only walked 693 steps today.  Will need to find some way to exercise from this afternoon.

As you might know by now, LSU easily beat Iowa, 102-85 although Caitlin Clark still scored 30 points, had 8 assists and 2 rebounds, breaking the tournament scoring record.  This was LSU's first national championship in women's basketball, reaching the highest score ever in the finals.  Making 9 out of 11 3-pointers, with Jasmine Carter sinking 7 of 8.  Take her out, and it would have been a close game.  Angel Reese had another double-double, her 30th for the season, breaking another record.

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WE ARE LEAVING NEW CALEDONIA AND ARE HEADING TOWARD FIJI

I am adding this quite late for a good reason.  

• As I predicted in my blog of March 16, watch Caitlin Clark of Iowa.  
• Well, she only scored 41 points, with 8 assists and 6 rebounds, in an incredible upset of heavily favored South Carolina.  Maybe the best single performance in the history of the Big Dance, women's or men's.  

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  Iowa faces my team, LSU, which got trounced by South Carolina last month.  That's Angel Reese, for these two might be the best women playing at the college level this year.
• Why I'm adding this now is that my next blog will be published after that Iowa-LSU game is over, which begins at 7:30AM Fiji time tomorrow, but at 3:30PM EDT on Sunday in the U.S.  
• How to watch?  Click on this.  
• We left the Coral Sea and are now in the South Pacific Ocean.  Amazing that I am able to send this with nothing in sight around us for hundreds of miles.

I also said that if you wanted a long shot on the men's side, pick San Diego State.  They will play Connecticut on Monday at 9:20PM EDT.

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New Caledonia is a French group of 140 islands 750 miles east of Australia and 11,000 miles from France.  Noumea, the capital, is 3,841 miles from Honolulu, which is about that distance away from Houston.  The total land area of New Caledonia is 7,172 square miles, which is smaller than the Big Island of Hawaii with 10,930.

Early traces of human presence go back to perhaps 1600 BC.  Captain James Cook was the first European to sight these islands in 1774.  He named named it New Caledonia because it reminded him on Scotland.

Slavery became a business enterprise in the 1800s, called black birding.  Cannibalism was widespread, for in 1849 the crew of American ship Cutter was killed and eaten.  In 1853, under orders from Emperor Napoleon III, France took formal possession of New Caledonia, making the location a penal colony in 1864.  By 1897, 22,000 of them were sent there.  Note that the first convicts came to Australia in 1787.

Nickel was found there in 1876, leading to imported laborers from throughout the region, including Japan.    Today, New Caledonia ranks #4 in the world in nickel production.  The USA is #10.

The indigenous Kanak people were confined to reservations.  There were uprisings.  Europeans brought smallpox and measles, which killed numerous natives.

In 1941, some 300 men volunteered to fight in World War II.  In 1942, New Caledonia became an important Allied base.  This is the naval group that neutralized the Japanese Navy in the Battle of the Coral Sea that year.  Perhaps as many as 50,000 American troops were stationed on these islands, matching the entire local population.  Even Bob Hope went there.

In 1946 New Caledonia became a French overseas territory, and anyone here was granted citizenship.  Nickel continued to be important.  However the years from 1976 to 1988 saw violence and disorder from the Kanak independence movement.  A vote in 2018 rejected independence.  The legal term is that New Caledonia is a territory suitable generis, a transition system with France gradually transferring certain powers.  Look for Noumea and New Caledonia someday, maybe soon, being renamed to more closely reflect indigenous terms.

The population at last count in 2019 was 271,407, with 41% being Kanak.  The spoken language everywhere is French, although there are 28 different Kanak languages.  The predominant religion is Christianity.  The GDP is about 10% that of Hawaii and larger than Guam.  

One term used here Is Kanaks, or Kanak people.  These are the indigenous Melanesian inhabitants of mostly New Caledonia.  In Hawaii, Kanakas is used for people from Polynesia, and that name is generalized to anyone from the various Pacific islands, even in California and Chile.

Here is an interesting mapping showing the GDP/capita relative to the USA in $/capita for the year, which more closely represents the relative economy (note that here, Hawaii is at $62,818 and Australia at $54,255, with New Caledonia at $34,780).

Tesla in 2021 gained a nickel partnership, an important mineral for lithium-ion batteries.

The Odyssey went to Noumea, which I reported on two days ago, and Easo, Lifou.  Easo is the capital, largest and most populated of the Loyalty Islands.

First, today a tacos lunch on The Patio, and what seven jiggers of Craggenmore Scotch look like, each.  You can speculate why this is being shown.

A caviar celebration on our veranda departing New Caledonia during sunset.  Venus, I think.

I went out only once, for lunch.  I did not wear my pedometer in the room, so only walked 178 steps.  Won't be much better in the future, for I fear walking in the corridor because of covid, and worry about doing that outside when the ship is moving.

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