On Sat, 14 Jun 2003 11:49:14 -0400, Michael Doelle
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>ElPezNuevo escribio:

EPN has just completed a FIRST -- two consecutive red-eye flights in
a row.  That also coincided with Sue having spent her LONGEST birthday --
a 29 hourish day, Friday the 13th no less -- beginning at Papeete, 3
hours earlier than Pacific time, and ending shortly after 11 pm
Pacific Time, 3 hours earlier than Eastern Time.


>>Wish I could join you guys, except Dubya has made such a mess over that
>part of the world and making all 'Merkins PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER 1 in many
>areas of the globe that the Red Sea seems not a wise choice at this time.<
>
>Totally overblown by da mediumsae. Egypt is quite safe.

Read in the Time magazine on the plane this morning that the entire
Jessica event was staged and fed to the press.  She was not stabbed
nor shot -- that was even confirmed by the pentagon much later!; the
rescue was staged with no Iraqi at the hospital, etc.

Some of the administration folks think that the 'Merkin public and the
world can be fooled by something as outrageously phoney as making her
a female Rambo.  :-)

But the fighting and killing between Israel and the you know whos are
very real and that's too close to the Red Sea for me to wanna dive
there, as an 'Merkin especially.


>>Upon landing at LAX this morning, after nearly two weeks out of touch
>with the world, I learned that the Norwegian cruise we had booked to
>depart Miami on June 29 had blown its stacks, killed several crewmen,
>and the cruise had been cancelled,

>
>Whatcha doing on a cruise anyway? Backgammon tournament? Don't tell
>me it's just for fun.

As John might say, that's an Elderly Gentleman's liveaboard diving. <BWG>
It has ALL of your criteria for FUN (an ocean, in ocean, pub) and
MUCH more, and diving just enough to keep the BC wet from one day
to the next.

BTW, there was a Blackjack Tournament on board for a $30 entry fee
(as opposed to the Las Vegas one with $1000 entry fee), and THIS
time, with a little luck, I came in 2nd (among 28 entries), and
won a tiny sum good for many rounds of pub if you were the winner.  :-)

That reminds me that everyone on the CAIV NEDfest was gloating about
how good the FOOD was.  Well, it WAS, for a liveaboard.  :-)  But
compared to what you get on a cruise, ANY cruise, it's plain shit,
and not many flavor (of shit) to choose.   There was more FOOD in
one MEAL on a cruise than the entire week on any liveaboard!  And
you may have the opportunity to eat as many as 9 meals a day <BG> (not
counting any midnight buffet of course) and repeat the same, everyday,
with DIFFERENT selection of fooooooooood.   Sheeesh.  I gain about
a pound a day on a cruise just eating 3 meals a day and then go on my
crash almost-NO-FOOD diet for about the same number of days to
shed those pounds ... until the next trip/cruise.  :-))  Soon, I may
be able to request Yo Yo Ma to do a duet with me, on my Yo-Yo diet.

In the Tahitian cruise, we have dinner with the same two (assigned)
couples (we also had the option to eat elsewhere on any given dinner),
and one fellow ordered TWO MAIN entries at EVERY dinner (the menu
said you may order as many as you wish), double appetizers, and triple
disserts, and he was not a pound overweight!  Disgusting!!

When it came to the dinner with Alaskan King Crab as one of the
entries, I could resist no longer, and ordered a DOUBLE of the
same. :-)

Mika> Anyone who ever catches ME on a *cruise*: please shoot me.

That sounds like the book-burners condemning books they never read.

Liveaboard diving is DIVING to excess and eating in moderation.
Cruise with diving is EATING to excess and diving in moderation.

C'est la difference, mon ami.   :-)


>>Belize, Roatan, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel -- not bad for one or two tanks
>each port for divers.
>
>They pick the dive site? Hope not.

Shirley you jest!  I was on a Royal Caribbean cruise once where the
activity-director spells "scooba" and it had ONE dive scheduled for
the entire week, which prompted my post "Cruise and Scooba don't
mix".

But the Tahitian type of cruises changed my mind.  The almost
non-existent DIVING events scheduled by the cruiseship still SUCK.
But I could schedule my OWN diving at every port with shops *I* choose.
Thus, on my Year 2000 Tahitian cruise, I dived in Papeete, Moorea,
Huahini, Raiatea, and Bora -- about 2 dives in each -- which I found
MORE varied and interesting than the week on the Aggressor's Tahiti
liveaboard.

On the latest Tahitian cruise, Sue and I did only ONE dive each,
in Moorea, Apia (Samoa), and Bora Bora, partly because the cruise
took two days each way to travel the 1000 miles from Moorea to Samoa!!

But it seems a great way to SAMPLE a dive or three at each port of
call that has good or reasonable diving.

On the Caribbean cruise a couple weeks from now, we'll most likely
schedule our own diving, and do two tanks at GCM and Cozumel, unless
there's something really interesting in Roatan and Belize -- on both
of which we've done severak liveaboards each to have anything left
over as a "wanna do" thing.

>M the Weasel

ElPezNuevo