A 19,000 Mile Circle

I will arrive at 5 am two weeks from today in Auckland New Zealand, Star Alliance willing, to embark two days later on an additional 7,000 mile voyage back to Los Angeles, my starting point in late September. My cruise travel agent phoned me right after I paid for the recent Silver Shadow voyage from Los Angeles to Papeete with an offer for a “crazy deal” on Regent Seven Seas (was Radisson Seven Seas after it was just Seven Seas Cruises) m/s Mariner from Auckland to LA. The per diem would be ½ of that of the last cruise for about ½ the days; so it would be only (!) ¼ the price added for a trip back to SUMMER. I looked up the itinerary and said to him, “Hey, this cruise goes back to Tahiti right after I’ve just been there.” He said, “Is this a complaint?” He had me with that. The appeal of getting off the ship in LA only one hour time zone away and a 2 ½ hour flight away from Boulder was just too much to turn down. Oh well, it’s better than watching the money disappear without my doing anything with it. (Perhaps this will land me an appointment as Secretary of the Treasury. Makes as much sense as….)

Seven Seas Cruise Line started with one ship, the fabled m/v Song of Flower. Most of you know I was an Enrichment Lecturer in the 1990s for a number of yearly month long engagements on that converted ferry boat (but good), the precursor of the American style super luxury class cruise ships. The back of my head appeared for years in a picture of the “Pool Deck Café” in all the Song of Flower brochures, a picture taken in the Red Sea during the embargo of Iraq. (Make of that what you will.) I’m the guy with a towel around my shoulders looking quizzically at Bob Harrison, the fabled Crew Director, “JJ Stewart”, as he attempted to instruct the ship’s passengers in how to snorkel in the ship’s swimming pool, an activity not particularly craved since there was a viewing port in the library that allowed guests to observe the activities in the pool under water. (Make of THAT what you will.)

The upcoming cruise will “complete the circle”, LA to LA, on two ships and comprising a sea voyage of over 19,000 miles. Country count will go to 125 or so with the Cook and Marquesas Islands added, but who’s counting.