day 20 - at sea

sea day picture with rubber duck seahorse cloud

well, we have gained an hour every day for the last 5 days… i keep waking up earlier and earlier… got my laundry done, sets prepped, writing done and all before 11:30… amazing!  i think we will keep gaining an hour each day ‘til we hit papeete, tahiti after the next two sea days… i have in-port manning in tahiti, but will try to get off for an hour or so if the band is called for a rehearsal – one of them could maybe cover for me if they have to stay behind… i’ll cross my fingers and wait and see, i guess…

tonight was mutiny on the bounty night, formal dress, and there were many people who threw some pirate flair into their outfits.  they showed the movie, mutiny on the bounty with marlon brando, and it was interesting to get the hollywood story (i’d never watched it before).  i am including a picture of the bounty replica given to our captain.  my theme was pirate and pub songs, and we learned pirate speak, and i also had the top 10 pirate pick up lines… lots of singalong opportunities and the crowd was wonderful and yelled out “arr!” everytime a pirate walked by… lots of fun!  got a couple of tricky irish pub songs i’ve been wanting to add, which gives me a bit of a jump in st. patty’s day prep… you kind of have to think ahead in terms of prepping stuff!

forgot to mention that night before last, i got to have dinner in the guest dining room with some of my guests who invited me, and that was really lovely… had the escargots and a ny steak… yum!  very nice folks, too… i got to spend some time today with the lecturer on board and interviewed him over coffee about the most fierce and longest career pirates, the women pirates!  who knew?  they were far more vicious than the men, they worked for years rather than months, and many did so in drag… some were never discovered to be women until well into their careers or posthumously… true pioneers… so fascinating!  thinking that could be a good screenplay, album project, or something… certainly sparks the imagination…

big thanks to bob for sending lyrics and mp3’s as needed for the requests i can’t field within louise’s vast resources… part of it is also that the internet out here is slow and costly, the bandwidth is small and crowded, and it’s faster to send a list to bob who can collect the lyrics quickly and cheaply and email them in a bundle…  thank you, sweetheart!  you are the best, and i am counting the days ‘til you join me out here!  hug my babies (love you bean; hug gimli!) for me, and johnny and the folks, too!

xoxo, diane (mama)

bounty replica given to our captain

port song for pitcairn island

(to the tune of the theme song from “gilligan’s island”)

just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale

a tale of a fateful trip

of some mutineers and tahiitian folk

aboard that bounty ship

they went from tahiti to a tiny isle

more than 200 years ago

and their descendants live there to this day

with the same last names you know

their revenue comes from selling goods

and postage and domain names

i think that if i lived there,

i’d surely go insane

they’ve had their share of drama, too,

with alcohol and crime

they had to build a jail there

so folks could do some time

they have two english tv channels

one is cnn

the other’s turner classic movies,

so they can see mutiny on the bounty again

they fit their population

on a longboat yesterday

and came aboard to share what life

is like for them today

they had a giant decksale

with their arts and crafts and honey

and went to the spa and the liquor store

to spend some of their money

it used to be against the law

to dance or have a drink

or show public affection

but it’s loosened up I think

they now have a café bar in town

no piano I hear tell

so I won’t be staying there any time soon

for me it would be hell

i bought some honey and a tea towel, too,

and a wooden spoon so fair

and a t-shirt made in china

i guess you can’t get away from that anywhere

the picture of the outside world

they get must be quite strange

with the television ne -e-ws   

and the cruise ships, to-o-o

they must wonder at our blessings and our strife            

unlike their simple life

so I’m guessing they will prob’ly stay 

stay there on pitcairn isle!