Life on the Sun

This is our 5th full day at sea aboard the Viking Sun and I thought I would share a little about our life so far.

First of all--where are we?  The noon announcement from the captain said our latitude is 6 degrees 20 minutes north,  and longitude is 132 degrees 19 minutes.  We are 1393 nautical miles from the nearest land.  We have traveled 1841 nautical miles from LA and have 1034 remaining to Nuka Hiva.  (A nautical mile is 1.1508 miles.)  We are traveling at approximately 16 knots (1 knot = 1.15 miles/hour) or about 18.4 miles/hour.  (The total distance from LA to Nuka Hiva is 3,292 miles, but don't check the math because it doesn't come out perfectly.)

Food--of course!  There are several options and very few times when you can't find something to eat. There is a sit down Restaurant and a couple of specialty areas with higher end food and service, but so far, we've just gone to the World Cafe which is the buffet.  We're trying very hard to be wise about our eating on board because it's so very easy to overindulge, and the buffet allows us to chose from a wide variety of options in just the portions we want.

One of our other favorite places to eat is Mamsen's.  It specializes in traditional Norwegian favorites and the open-faced sandwiches are something that David grew to love on his mission to Denmark.

Activities--so many things to choose from!  There are walking, stretching, and yoga groups in addition to a gym.  Those who enjoy games can attend beginning Mahjong and Bridge classes, or more advanced groups.  A "Team Trivia" competition is held daily with no points and no prizes, just fun.  Occasionally there are cooking demonstrations held in the Star Theater.  Those with good enough knees and sea legs can attend the dance classes: cha-cha, salsa, and waltz so far.

There is a wildlife expert on board who hosts the group keeping their eyes out for dolphins, flying fish, etc.  This group is keeping a log of their sightings from the panoramic windows in the Explorer's Lounge in the bow of the 7th and 8th decks.

Lectures--Half a dozen retired professors have been engaged for this segment of the trip (LA to Auckland) to give lectures on their areas of expertise.  We've heard lectures on geology, exploration, pirates, sea shanties, politics, anthropology, botany, espionage, and movies.  The lectures are given live in the Star Theater, then within half a day, a video recording of it is available to watch on the interactive TV in your room.

Music--the resident musicians each play a couple of times a day in different locations.  There is a beautiful 7-foot Steinway grand and a very good pianist (I listened to him play several Bach pieces last night), a guitarist, and a trio made up of a cellist, violinist, and flutist.



Because of the length of this trip, the cruise and activities directors put their heads together and came up with the idea of inviting travelers to come together to form a choir.  I spent a happy half hour with over 50 other singers rehearsing a medley of tunes from "South Pacific" (appropriate considering our current destination) to be performed in the three story Atrium at a date yet to be determined.

Art--the entire ship is filled with art work.  The stateroom halls are interspersed with floor to ceiling black and white photographs from throughout the world.  The common areas also contain pieces of art with a distinctly Viking and Scandinavian flavor.

The back walls of the large stairwells, both fore and aft, are papered with enlarged sections of the Bayeaux Tapestry which tells the story of the Battle of Hastings in 1066.  What makes the art on the ship even better is that each has a 3-digit number which, when entering into the "Viking Art" app, a 20-30 second commentary on the piece will play into your headphones.

Evening concerts--Viking brought on four acts in LA which are performing for this week of sea days crossing the Pacific to the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia.  A couple nights ago we particularly enjoyed the Irish flutist, Gary Arbuthnot.  Besides his fine flute playing, he regaled us with Irish melodies played on the Pennywhistle.  Other evenings have featured a female trio called Unique3, a magician, and Moya Angela who has played Effie in "Dreamgirls" on London's West End.

Weather & time--we've only seen the sun a few times since we left LA.  For the most part, it's been overcast and occasionally rainy, but each day that we travel south, it gets warmer and more humid.  Since we are actually headed southwest, we had to turn our clocks back one hour on Sunday night, which made sense to me, but I'm still scratching my head about the instructions for adjusting our clocks last night by one half hour!

In 120 days, we will stop in about 58 ports, with 11 overnight stays, which means there are a lot of sea days.  Knowing this, I looked for ideas of ways to busy on those days.  Since handiwork, especially quilting is a favorite pastime, I came up with the idea of making a crazy quilt from textiles picked up in our ports of call.  The more I thought about it, the more I thought it would be even more fun to see if I could find others to join with me so we could pool our fabric finds.  I posted my idea on  the World Cruise roll call on the website, Cruise Critic, and four women indicated their interest.  On Monday, we got together to get acquainted and discuss the project.  That was very exciting for me!

The next post should be from Nuka Hiva!