Off Season Cruising

[Maui]

I really enjoy your posts. I like hearing about your experiences and destinations that I’ve only dreamed of. I spent five months in Georgetown, Exumas last winter. I brought my 38’ Californian down from New York and back. Now I’m in Phuket, Thailand looking for a boat to cruise this side of the world. Just joined the Phuket Yacht Club yesterday. I found an amazing group of racing sailors and cruisers. Just like being home.

[koliver]

Cabo San Lucas is now a bustling city the size of Victoria BC, The big ships all anchor out and tender their huge numbers in. Where they land is like many other cruise ship destinations and, being Mexico, has all the trappings of the Mexican tourist industry.

The marina used to be a swamp, then a small airfield, then was built as a marina. The largest boat inside when we landed is a very large (175'(?)) Lurssen, tied near a ~100'. Neither had a name visible.

AIS revealed neither, but did reveal "La Datcha", anchored out near us. Further searching revealed that this yacht is on charter, and is owned by a Russian Billionaire who, since the war in Ukraine began, has a net worth that has dropped from over $8B to under $1B. ?Sanctions?

Our choice of shore excursions took us to the nearby town of San Jose del Cabo, pop ~150k, where we saw no street vendors, everything was clean, in what shops we entered, nobody was pressuring us to make a purchase, all were friendly. Much nicer than Cabo. The Mission there is pictured below.
We are now back out at sea. Clear skies and winds under 10knots NW, seas 3m, on a long, easy period, on the nose. Dolphins (common) in the bow waves occasionally. Lots of brown boobies keeping pace and fishing for flying fish.

LA tomorrow, where we offload 1/2 of the passengers and they are replaced. LA is the only port where we lose or gain passengers, so our full load will remain at around 800.

Tom, we did find the infirmary, as Janet had an eye thing. Very quiet. She got service without needing to wait, and that is now behind us.

[koliver]

Day 36 of 138
Today we are again at sea. We enjoy this multitude of sea days. The shipboard entertainment is superb, with top quality lecturers and musicians, some on board for long portions of this cruise, some for short portions. In addition there are many opportunities to get to a quiet space to read, knit or whatever. In LA, there was the "Naming Ceremony" for this brand new vessel. The naming was done in part by the new "Godmother," a former Astronaut, current author and artist, allong with 2 "Godmothers" of other vessels in the fleet.
After the ceremony a special dinner was shared by all 850 guests on the ship plus another 400 ashore, then we departed for Hawaii.

In Hawaii we docked in Honolulu and had a variety of tours available. Honolulu has grown a bit since our last visit in 1974! We did spend some time on Waikiki beach and another beach, before departing for French Polynesia.

Internet was unavailable for a few days while we were far from any shore, but this moring I learned that our Starlink is again up and running. There are 6 small Starlink antennae visible on the top of the ship, apparently the same small ones as are in common use on our boats. My attached photos are: The tiny Pilot boat in Bora Bora, the H signal flag showing the Pilot is aboard, iconic Bora Bora, same for Moorea, which followed Bora Bora by a day, and the Venus Point lighthouse on Tahiti, where Cook observed the transit of Venus across the sun in 1769. That was a scientific achievement for which Cook was sent with his small fleet, around the world bearing the secret orders to make those scientific observations and thus advance Science with an accurate measurement of the distance between Earth and the Sun.

In Bora Bora, snorkelling was superb. A school of Eagle Rays, 70 or more in 10m depth, gorgeous corals, millions of pretty fish, as our guide circumnavigated the island to find all the best spots.

[ofer]

I enjoy the thread. thanks for your contribution

[sunchaser]

Keith
Given you guys are cycling enthusiasts do they have decent work out equipment onboard? We find working out to be essential when boat bound. Keep up the posts, good reading 👍

[koliver]

Originally Posted by sunchaser

Keith
Given you guys are cycling enthusiasts do they have decent work out equipment onboard? We find working out to be essential when boat bound. Keep up the posts, good reading 👍

Tom
I didn't pack my bike along, but yes, there is a large room full of exercise equipment that the guys who know these things say is the best. There must be a dozen or so stations with a variety of equipment. Personally, I can't stand remaining in one place that long so have never bothered with stationary equipment. The tracks aboard are, on deck 2, a full circumference at 4 laps to the mile and on decks 8 and 9 ( the sundeck up top) 5 laps to the mile). Only on the roughest days is deck 2 closed, as it gets strong winds and spray in rough conditions. I have had to lean hard into a 35 knot headwind ( add our 16knot speed) to get to the tunnel round the bow. Up top is less comfortable in windiy conditions but gets almost no spray. We do a 2 miler every morning and another mile or so most afternoons. That seems to be enough for us, adding in all the stairs we use as we have not seen the inside of any elevators.

[koliver]

Originally Posted by sunchaser

Keep posting Keith, it sounds like a great trip. Is the infirmary quiet?

This morning we did the "behind the scenes" tour with the hotel mgr. He gets a daily from the Dr. So we have a definite zero Covid aboard as of this morning's report. That may have been true for quite a while.
The crew removed their masks a while ago. LA was and will remain the last time passengers embarked, so we should be good all the way to London.

[koliver]

The guy in charge of communications explained the lack of internet as a hole in Starlink service in the open reaches of the ocean, that we have now passed through. He doesn't expect any more of those as we move along our route to London.

[koliver]

We are now sailing SW with a following wind and sea. 13kn boat speed, 3.5 m waves following at 190° to 200°, moving fwd at about half again our boat speed, with 35 kn wind in the same direction. All this results in a pleasant motion. We slowed due to a course change, as tendering in to Waitangi in the Bay of Islands isn't going to work with swells in the anchorage being too much for safe tendering. We are now scheduled to pick up the Auckland pilot at 17:00 tomorrow and get dockside with tugboat assistance.

[BruceK]

Unfortunate you will miss Waitangi/Bay of Islands. We missed going ashore too last November, for different reasons.
Waitangi is where The Treaty of Waitangi was signed between Britain and the Maori Chiefs. The day of signing is NZ`s National Day. I went there on a motor-home trip many years ago.

[koliver]

We are now crossing the Tasman Sea, having visited Auckland, Tauranga, Napier and Wellington, and cruising through the Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound.
In Auckland we toured Devonport and Waiheke Island, watched a friend leap off the Sky Tower, and searched for any enthusiasm towards America's Cup 2024. All but that last search were successful. Barcelona, Spain is standing in for Auckland for the races and Auckland is demonstrably bummed. The only T-shirts I could find were leftovers from 2021. We did have a pair of 1/2 size Emirates sails on foils streak past doing 30+ in 10 knots of wind.
Napier was missed when we visited by cruise ship in 2020, due to the tricky entry to the small harbour in a wind. This time, our Captain backed in and around a corner, to enable a bow out departure. Sure enough, there was a wind at departure time, so the harbour tugs tied on and stood by, then once we were away the tugs did a little partying, turning 360s and tooting a salute.

Edit: I tried attaching photos to this post, but as we are in an area of the Southern Ocean that Elon Musk hasn't adequately covered just yet, that is not happening just now. Once we get to Aus things are supposed to get much better, Musk wise.

[Insequent]

I think Musk has plenty of satellites in relevant orbit, but geo-fencing access. I thought your ship would have the (expensive) double-dish maritime version which should not be subject to the same problems.

Are you visiting Brisbane?

[Airstream345]

Originally Posted by koliver

We are now crossing the Tasman Sea, having visited Auckland, Tauranga, Napier and Wellington, and cruising through the Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound.

In Auckland we toured Devonport and Waiheke Island, watched a friend leap off the Sky Tower, and searched for any enthusiasm towards America's Cup 2024. All but that last search were successful. Barcelona, Spain is standing in for Auckland for the races and Auckland is demonstrably bummed. The only T-shirts I could find were leftovers from 2021. We did have a pair of 1/2 size Emirates sails on foils streak past doing 30+ in 10 knots of wind.

Napier was missed when we visited by cruise ship in 2020, due to the tricky entry to the small harbour in a wind. This time, our Captain backed in and around a corner, to enable a bow out departure. Sure enough, there was a wind at departure time, so the harbour tugs tied on and stood by, then once we were away the tugs did a little partying, turning 360s and tooting a salute.



Edit: I tried attaching photos to this post, but as we are in an area of the Southern Ocean that Elon Musk hasn't adequately covered just yet, that is not happening just now. Once we get to Aus things are supposed to get much better, Musk wise.

Remarkable. We’re in Napier today and saw the cruise ship backed in. We are here for a few days then back to Wellington in time for the cyclone. Then back to Seattle next week.

Lots of cruise ship passengers out and about today. Would’ve been amazing to run into one another!

[koliver]

Originally Posted by Airstream345

Remarkable. We’re in Napier today and saw the cruise ship backed in. We are here for a few days then back to Wellington in time for the cyclone. Then back to Seattle next week.

Lots of cruise ship passengers out and about today. Would’ve been amazing to run into one another!

We are crossing the Tasman Sea, yesterday and today, after visiting Wellington and Doubtful Sound.
The ship in at Napier today is the sister ship Viking Mars, though I don't know if it is the same as when you were there (likely is). Watching the docking towboats party was a treat, as was watching this big ship getting in and out again.
We walked around the town for a couple of hours. before leaving. Yes, it would have been awesome to have run into you.

[koliver]

Originally Posted by Insequent

I think Musk has plenty of satellites in relevant orbit, but geo-fencing access. I thought your ship would have the (expensive) double-dish maritime version which should not be subject to the same problems.

Are you visiting Brisbane?

On board, we are told that there are 3500 Starlink satellites, of an approved total of 42000, so out in the vast open ocean there are not enough to give us good coverage. We are also told that this being the newest ship in the Viking Fleet, it is also the only one with Starlink.

IIRC, the first generation of satellites are not interconnected by laser, so require a shore station within 200 miles, which is, of course, a limiting factor out in the open ocean. I have no idea how many of those 3500 are first generation. When we are within 200 miles of shore the coverage is noticeably better.

There are 6 Starlink dishy things visible up top, but zero that look like the newer, bigger, commercial dishy things.

We are not visiting Brisbane. It was on the original itinerary, but somehow that got changed to Mooloolaba.

[slowgoesit]

Keith, your cruise ship travels are one of the few cruises we would ever consider. Relatively stable population, and a long cruise. Most others we would avoid like the plague. Keep the updates coming!

[koliver]

Originally Posted by slowgoesit

Keith, your cruise ship travels are one of the few cruises we would ever consider. Relatively stable population, and a long cruise. Most others we would avoid like the plague. Keep the updates coming!

Scot

Many here have expressed a loathing for "Cruising". I think you can define this kind of traveling differently from that. We chose this type specifically to avoid all those things: Casinos, Smoking, huge numbers, etc.

We are now back in the land of decent internet, so I will soon add some pictures taken in the land of poor bandwidth.

[koliver]

Pictures
Our friend Ron leaping from the Sky Tower in Auckland
A beach on Waiheke Island, near Auckland
A winery on Waiheke
Docking tug with us getting out of Napier

[koliver]

When we arrived in Hobart, the Australian Wooden Boat Festival of 2023 was underway, having started the day before. I managed to talk to a guy on what I thought might be a really nice boat. The sign had a name of the guy who did the maintenance, so when I saw a guy wiping the rainwater off of the house wall, I asked if he was that guy (duh), and after talking varnishing for a few minutes I was invited aboard. What a treat! The first pictures are that boat. Built as a Pilot Cutter in 1956, it now looks as though launch date was yesterday, as a gorgeous yacht. I took quite a few pictures. Then after lunch we went back. In 1970 there was an Australian challenger for the America's Cup, Gretel II, and there she was, looking like new. ( I will need to get that picture from a different camera).

[koliver]

Originally Posted by slowgoesit

Keith, your cruise ship travels are one of the few cruises we would ever consider. Relatively stable population, and a long cruise. Most others we would avoid like the plague. Keep the updates coming!

Scot
I didn't mention: that this is an adults only cruise. So we don't have aboard any of those things we all wanted when we travelled with kids. Waterslides, ports of call that catered to kids, etc. The only downside is the extra time that has to be allowed for the old guys, but it is worth the wait.

Once we left LA, early in January, no new passengers joined us and none will. We have 850 passengers until London, when we depart on May 9.