Farewell to Dolphin Dave

                            

 Borealis Saturday 16th April 2023

A nothing much happening day.

As I slept very badly I had a somewhat late morning. I still managed to join some of the veteran dolphin watchers with Dolphin Dave, Rosie and the hard-bitten anorak brigade. But nor too long. Itis still windy although the sea is exceptionally calm. 

I spent four hours in the middle of the night trying to get some sense from online Barclay Bank into payment of my barclaycard, even after Stefan had made the payment on April 12th.  As I slept very badly I had a somewhat late morning. I still managed to join some of the veteran dolphin watchers with Dolphin Dave, Rosie and the hard-bitten anorak brigade. But not too long. It is still windy although the sea is exceptionally calm. 

I got a note from Tom telling me that I am to repeat my lecture on Borealis in the footsteps of  Phileas Fogg on Tuesday 18th April, the day after our visit to San Francisco. I got an updated version on my lecture printed out by Guest Services. 

At lunch, at which Albina had accompanied me, I sat with an older gentleman who explained that he is now on his fortieth cruise, 6 of which were with Fred Olsen. So many of the people I meet on board are those who in the later years of their life spend their existence floating in never never land, with skewed time bubbles of endless time changes, vacuuming up foreign cultures and contrasting life experiences but only at skin deep level. They still remain anchored to the values and traditions of their home countries and do not seem to transfer the values and experiences on to any practical change at home. They mostly seem to live without purpose other than to impress their friends and families with how they spend their future kids' inheritance. I would think that the richness of the cultures that have brushed past them should somehow have benefited society either in their country of origin or in the far flung countries of the earth they visit. However, mostly I think these lessons go no further. 

As I had begun to feel tired in the afternoon, from the earlier lack of sleep, I dozed off after lunch and just got up in time to attend a fascinating lecture on the history of the Golden Gate Bridge. This was followed by David Chilcott presented more than a hundred photographs of the wildlife he had collected during his stay on board during the cruise from Hong Kong to San Francisco. The widest range of birds and beautiful flying fish were dwarfed by his amazing collection of whale sightings, including one of a blue whale visible as it floated nearby largely submerged but still visible. I could not help photographing one of his pictures of a humpback whale which he had captured just before we reached Honolulu. It is amazing that all these pictures could be made while I had just sailed through and saw virtually nothing. But then he spent hour after hour perched at various vantage points around the vessel, strong winds permitting, while I got on with other more comfortable pursuits. One of those rugged heroes you find in adventure stories, but a very polite one, always willing to answer questions.

 For dinner I spent a pleasant chat with a journalist, also called Rosie, who was always busy making notes each day. She also complimented me on my lecture. We discussed the relative merits of the cultures we had imbibed at the main ports of call.

 I tried to join a star gazing group just before midnight but on the exposed Deck 9 it was almost impossible because of the cold wind. to hold on to the tablet with the stargazing app. Also I could not see anything other than Venus so I gave up and went downstairs.