Heading to Honduras – C8 and C9

Bill Prindle

We had two days at Sea sailing out from Costa Rica, around Nicaragua heading toward Honduras.   Much of the time I spent processing the pictures from Costa Rica.  A new inter-port lecturer came on board in Costa Rica and we ate breakfast with him.  Stephanie had to leave to go to her Spanish class, and after she did the new lecturer, Bill Prindle, asked me whether Stephanie knew any Guerlain’s that used to live in Connecticut.

I told him that she used to live in Connecticut, in a town named Redding.  He then asked whether she happened to have older brothers named Nick and Thierry.  It turns out that he lived 6 houses up the street from Stephanie’s family, went to school with Nick, and his younger sister, Judy was best friends with Babette.   After telling Stephanie she emailed her family, and Nick responded with a story about how Babette and Judy planned their Junior Prom, and in the end Judy didn’t have a date, so at the last minutes he stepped in, borrowed his Father’s tux, and took her to the prom.  I subsequently discovered that Bill was not just an inter-port lecturer, he was also the significant other of Roslyn Berne, the Executive Dean of the ship.

Mountain Top Removal Mining

Two lifelong learners had interesting talks scheduled that evening, at the same time, so I went to the one on Mayan Civilization and Stephanie went to the one on Near-Space Balloon Flight. Then later that night they had a Talent show in the Union.  It started out poorly with an incomprehensible and somewhat off-color skit, but picked up after that.  Next a guy from Kentucky sang a song that he wrote about mountaintop removal mining.  The image to the right is a link to a YouTube video of the song.

Cover of “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz

Next, there were a couple of singers singing pop songs really well, including one guy who came out and announced that he’d be performing Cee Lo Green’s song “Forget You”.

Bollywood Dance Number

I thought that it was a bold, ballsy choice for a song, and that he’d have a hard time living up to Cee Lo’s fantastic voice, but he did a fantastic job.  After that there was an improv bollywood dance number that was a lot of fun to watch.  Peggy, a lifelong learner that has been sitting in on Stephanie’s class, sang first a classic, sappy number about love, and then said “And now for a more realistic view of love” and sang Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend.

Also through the evening each of the “seas” (groups into which the students are divided) performed their “sea chant”, with the winning group getting to be the first off the ship when we all disembark on the last day in the Bahamas.  In my mind the clear winner was the Faculty and Staff group who sang a re-worded version of the Gilligan’s Island theme song.  The lyrics of which (as best as I could determine) are below:

Just sit sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a studious trip,
That started from this tropic port aboard this massive ship.
The deans they (run) a mighty (zoo?) , the captain brave and sure
Four hundred ( of us  ?) set sail that day for a 26-day tour, a 26-day tour.
Classes started getting tough, spanish was simply tossed
If not for the courage of the fearless staff the learning would be lost, the learning would be lost.

The ship set ground in Panama, where we almost all got shot
(All of us ?) made it back but the (proofers?) they did not, the (proofers?) they did not.

Gilligan’s Island Sea Song

On the second day at sea on the way to Honduras, they took group pictures. First, with each of the “seas”, then of everyone.  They announced the times, changed them due to the weather, and then ended moving up the time from the announced changed times to get them done more quickly before the weather turned again.  So frequently people would show up for the announced time only to be told that their picture had already been taken.   For the picture of everyone, they fit everyone on one side of the 5^th and 6^th rear decks, and took the picture from the opposite side of the 7^threar deck. It’s a photo of a sea of people at sea but pretty neat to see.

Everyone At Sea – Click for full-res version of image

Dolphin off the Port Bow

Next the faculty and staff and lifelong learners were to go to the front of the 7^th deck with the picture to be taken from the observation deck, which was a better space for people to line up in. Since the ship was sailing at a pretty good clip, everyone’s hair was blowing all over the place.   Garrick didn’t have a problem, but everyone looked a little wind-blown.  At one point when everyone was gathered, someone pointed over the side at dolphins playing in the wake of the ship.  Cool, dolphins.

Faculty and Staff at Sea

Reg Garret and his wife Georgia

That evening Reg and Georgia had a reception in their cabin, for all of the lifelong learners, that was pretty swank, with kabobs, quiche, and other hors d’oeuvres and red and white wine. We crashed the reception and hung out there until it was time to go to the special double pre-port for both Honduras and Guatemala, neither of which seem like great places to hang out.  One of the high points of the pre-port was “You are not allowed to go to Petan Province in Guatemala which is where Tikal (the really big Mayan ruins) is located, because a bunch of people were beheaded there four days ago.”

OK that seems pretty clear, but Hmmm, aren’t we going on an overnight trip to Copan Ruins in Honduras?