Nothing Finer than Cruising On A Liner (or not many things anyway)
There was a leisurely vibe onboard Lance this morning with the brunch room doing a roaring trade. All the usuals were there, including Daz and Jo-Jo Zep himself. We so wanted to chat to Joe but he was on his phone the whole morning… maybe it was a ploy? I know I called it brunch, but by the time we rocked up, we were nudging lunch. The great thing about the ‘Windjammer’ is that it never closes; they just switch it up accordingly, swapping out the bacon and eggs for burgers and rolls.
Realising that we hadn’t yet hit the onboard shops, we decided our last day was as good a time as any to get acquainted with the shipside retail outlets, and indulge in a bit of therapy, especially since - rumour had it - there were some bargains up for grabs. The shopping strip was more or less a deconstructed giant airport duty free shop, so if we’d been in the market for a Gucci bag, some French perfume or a diamond-studded Rolex, we’d have been in the right place. The “bargains” meant things went from very exorbitant to just plain exorbitant, needless to say our shopping bags didn’t exactly end up full. The best we could do was a Lance tee, slashed in price to be such a steal we couldn’t help but fork out some ship dollars to scoop up one each. (All the prices are incidentally in $US - a trap for young players - so beware).
After shopping we popped upstairs to the pub for a great acoustic set from Lachlan Edwards, a young bloke from Newcastle. We’d had a nice chat to Lachlan on Lifou, hanging out with him on the beach. He’d been playing around the ship all week but this was the first chance we’d had to hear him. He was great and his original songs were awesome. In his 20s, he was doing his bit to bring down the average age of the passengers onboard, being probably a similar age to most people’s grandkids. We’ve noticed an absence of both the really young and the really old on this cruise, which may have something to do with the Rock part of the Rock the Boat. The only kids wandering about are the musicians’ offspring and there’s barely an octogenarian to be found.
On our first day cruising, I’d been amazed to have seen a friend onboard. In disbelief, I’d called out: “Karen?” and she’d replied “Sarah?”. Yep, it was us. What were the chances? We’d vowed to catch-up at some stage over the next week, sure we’d be bound to run into each other on a deck somewhere soon. We’d texted a couple of times but incredibly I hadn’t spotted her even once more in the course of the trip, even though we were seeing all the same shows. We had decided today was the day, so scheduled in a coffee date in the afternoon. We had a lovely reunion on deck, chewing the fat as the ocean sparkled over yonder railing. It was great. Meanwhile, Jude was keeping up her rigorous training routine, walking the track (6 laps around the deck =1 mile, or 1.6km for the metrically inclined) and following up with a swim.
We were feeling excited about our last big show tonight - Mahalia and Friends singing for Jimmy. We scored some great seats up the side, near the front, with room to dance and not many others in our near vicinity. It was soooo good! They sang all of Jimmy’s hits, including his soul classics and some Cold Chisel bangers thrown the mix too. Jon Stevens, Daryl Braithwaite, Dale Ryder, Joe Camilleri, Sarah McLeod and Kevin Flood alternated to join Mahalia on the mic and Nathan Cavaleri played some blistering lead guitar with an all-star band. It was truly sensational and although it would have been brilliant to have had Jimmy perform, these guys played their hearts out and did their utmost to make up for it. Not one we’ll forget in a hurry. Jude (who really didn’t want to forget it in a hurry) backed up and watched the entire show again, gaining late access to the ‘blue card,’ second show because there were a few seats still left. I was still feeling a bit under the weather so reluctantly decided to do the sensible thing and get an early night.
In between shows, we did dine at one of the fancy schmancy restaurants on the top deck, getting to see the sunset over the ocean for the first time this trip (better late than never). We had delicious Japanese and a waiter so attentive, I’m sure he would’ve tied our shoes had we asked him.
We are due back in Sydney town tomorrow morning with an early embarkation time, so no doubt we will farewell Lance with a salute and a nod of thanks for making our maiden voyage so memorable and such an utter delight. For now we’ll have to be satisfied strictly with land-based fun, though next year’s line-up on Rock The Boat is looking pretty good…
