October 21, 1991: A Day at Sea
	October 19, 1991: Departing Fort Lauderdale on the Costa Riviera
	Return to the Caribbean Cruise Index

Today, Sunday, will be entirely at sea. The way this cruise is organized, the ship will travel to the farthest point away from the United States mainland, and then work its way back.

It is about a thousand miles from Fort Lauderdale to the ship's first port of call- the island of St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. You may not know where they are, so the map at left will orient you. We'll learn more about the US Virgin Islands a couple of pages hence when we actually dock there, but for now, just be aware that they are two groups of islands, one centered on the island of St. Thomas, just west of the British Virgin Islands, and the other centered on the island of Saint Croix, about fifty miles south.

The ship had a television monitor near the Lido Cafe that displayed a map with the location of the ship marked on it, and the route I have marked at left was approximately what is shown. When we departed from Fort Lauderdale, we passed through the straits north of Nassau, Bahamas, and out into the ocean proper. I suppose that navigation is easier out in the open water, as opposed to the waters that lie between the smaller Caribbean Islands and the island of Cuba, but perhaps just because the captain knew that the returrn trip would be between those islands he thought that passengers might appreciate something different on the other leg.

Like most cruise ships, the Costa Riviera cruises at about twenty-five miles an hour, so if it's a thousand miles down to Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas, that that is about 40 hours of cruising- hence two days at sea, since the ship will obviously try to reach port early in the morning to allow passengers a full day to explore whatever port it is ashore. This makes pefect sense, and I have learned that it is common on cruises. This sometimes means that the ship can cruise very slowly overnight if the ports aren't far from each other, and the ship can even just cruise in circles while passengers sleep.

Exploring the Costa Riviera

When we got up on Sunday morning, Grant and I went through our morning rituals involving his medications and such, and then the two of us went to meet Don and Patty in the La Dolce Vita cafe for the breakfast buffet. (One thing that cruises are noted for is the constant availability of food, and it is very easy to overdo it as the food is "free" and constantly available. Cabin service is available 24-hours a day, there are three major meals in the dining room and the Lido buffet, and there are snacks of various kinds available during the morning and the afternoon, and everything is capped off by the midnight buffet.

When we got up on deck, we found that the poor weather had either moved off or we had moved away from it. This is the first time I can recall being out of sight of land on a boat, but the Costa Riviera is big enough that I don't really notice it very much. I guess I thought that I might have a bigger problem with being at sea than I do.

We had a nice breakfast with Patty and Don, and Grant was feeling pretty good this early in the day. Of course we could have had breakfast in the main dining room, but serving yourself at the buffet is simpler and easier, and at the buffet you can dress the way you would like. We had plenty of fruit and some simple breakfast dishes. We sat and talked with Don and Patty for a while, and Lynn came by to chat with Grant, too. Then Grant and I went exploring.

We first went to the bow to see the view ahead. Actually, you can't get right on the bow, although I know Grant would have liked that. This picture was taken three decks up near the bridge, but you can go down to that lower deck that overlooks the bow (where you saw the men untying the boat yesterday afternoon). The fact that you can't see the pointed bow from this vantage point always makes me think that I am on the stern of the boat. The air was pretty calm, but the motion of the boat gave a gentle breeze. (Yes, I know this looks like the stern, but look at the direction the sunlight is coming from- to my left. So if east is to my left, then we have to be looking south, and since that's the direction to St. Thomas, this has to be the bow.)

I knew that at some point on the cruise, I would have to ask a crewmember if I could get out to the bow. I usually like to be at the front of a train, or in the front seat of a car, or near the front on an airplane (although in that latter case you can't see ahead of you). I don't know if that will be possible, but I'll give it a try.

Grant and I walked along the upper decks of the ship for a while, going up and down from deck to deck just looking at what all there was. I found the exercise room and noted the marked jogging track (about sixteen circuits to the mile). Then we came to a point on one of the rear decks were we could look ahead along the side of the ship, and that's where we took the picture at left.

I think this picture gives a good indication of how big the ship is and how it moves through the water. It also reinforces my comfort level to see all those lifeboats, with a space assigned to each of us. Our lifeboat is on the other side of the ship, the second one from the front. Should something happen (which is very unlikely, as someone told me that no commercial cruise ship has sank other than in wartime since the Titanic, eighty years ago) it is nice to know that there are enough lifeboats for everybody.

Grant is doing OK this morning (he has his good days and his bad ones) as we are making our way around the ship. I just have to be careful to move along at Grant's pace. When he is feeling good, he can move around quite normally, but when he is feeling bad either we have to take it slowly or he just remains in the lounge or in our cabin. Dinner went OK last night, and Grant enjoyed the meal, and our cabin steward had kept his medications cold for us and brought us what we needed last night and this morning.

I think that we will just walk around a bit more and then will rejoin Patty and Don. Fortunately for both Grant and myself, the ocean is quite calm (of course Grant is used to rough water from his sailing days on Lake Michigan).

We have walked up some outside stairs to the next deck now, and also walked to the other side of the ship for a view towards the stern. Our lifeboat is the second one in the row of them on this side of the ship.

There wasn't much on this deck. To the extreme left, inside, is the health club (a smallish affair but then this is not a large ship) and some dressing rooms. Behind the row of windows you can see at this level is the jogging track. Actually, the jogging track is not roofed over as those windows are just to keep the spray out of that area.

The jogging track is laid out on the teak deck and goes around that main funnel. My estimate is that it is about 1/20th of a mile around, so something between 16 and 20 laps is required for a mile. I will do my first circuits of the track this afternoon. I don't like tracks that are so short because you spend most of your time leaning into a turn, but then I don't have much alternative.

Behind the funnel is a spa and then a large number of chaise lounges for people who want to get some sun. Then there is a broad staircase down to the next deck where the swimming pool, more chaises, an outdoor bar and La Dolce Vita restaurant are. For the rest of the day, Grant and I spent some time with Patty and Don at the pool, I did my jogging and exercising, Lynn came and spent some time with Grant, and Grant spent some time in the cabin relaxing.

While Grant was taking a nap, I went by the card room to see if I could get into a bridge game. Many cruises have duplicate games aboard, but this one did not. There were about four tables playing (cruise passengers skew to the older end of the scale, and the same is true for the game of bridge), and while I was there another table got organized and I was one of the four playing at it. I did notice Lynn's mother playing with some other folks, so I spoke to her and we made a date to play as partners tomorrow.

At left you can see part of the Lido Deck on the Costa Riviera. Patty took this particular picture of the pool area on the Lido Deck. There is a bar just inside the windows in the background and then the Dolce Vita cafe beyond that.

Sometimes, when we didn't want to sit in the dining room, we ate here, and sat at one of the tables just inside that area at the far end of the pool. We also came up here a number of times for drinks. When Patty and I took some sun, we used chaise lounges on the upper level you see here.

You might wonder about those blocky, multi-colored things that seem to surround the pool, but I am sure you can figure out what they are. While cruise ships are pretty stable (thank the invention of stabilizers, long fins that extend under the water from the hull), in breezy weather or in swells in otherwise calm seas, the ship can indeed rock from side to side, going up and down perhaps as much as a foot or so. If the water in the pool is kept at a normal level, maybe three or four inches below the level of the deck, it could easily slosh out as the ship rocks. These cushioned blocks keep the water from flowing across the deck when this happens; the water is captured inside the blocks and just flows back into the pool.

Grant and I did our exploration of the ship in short segments- maybe an hour at the most- so that Grant didn't get too tired out. In between those excursions, Grant might rest in the cabin, talk with crewmembers, sit in one of the lounges and read. This became something of our routine on these sea days. Patty and I sat in the sun for a while in midafternoon, and then went into the lounge to hook up with Grant (a lot of sun is not good for him). That is where I got this nice picture of Patty and Grant.

A Formal Dinner Aboard the Costa Riviera

On board ship, you get a newspaper each morning that details the events of the day and gives some information about the ship. We learned this morning that tonight would be the gala welcome aboard dinner, and that the dress would be formal.

When Grant and I arrived in the lounge area outside the dining room, I had Don take this picture of Grant and myself. Grant's chemotherapy and his weight loss have knocked hi for a loop. It is nice to see him with a smile, but I know that many times it is forced. Before we came on the cruise, he had to have all the clothes he was going to wear altered to fit him again, and he bought a couple of hats to wear to hide the fact that the chemotherapy has caused him to lose his hair and beard.

He looks very different, I know, if you are one of the people who has known Grant for some time, but he is still the same wonderful guy inside, and we are always told that is what counts. In his case, at least, that is true.

But it still breaks my heart that things have gone so poorly for Grant during his bout with HIV. There are other men that don't suffer the same ill-effects, or for whom the course of AIDS is much slower, but it has hit Grant hard and fast. I try to do all I can for him, but I always think that it isn't enough.

I'm glad that we are taking this cruise. If we have the time, and if Grant feels like it, we will take another.

We had a chance to sit and talk for a while outside the dining room before the doors opened and we were able to go in. This being my first cruise, I was unfamiliar with the dining options. The dining room is always available at mealtimes, although on some nights jackets and ties are required. This was one of those nights.

In the picture at right, you can see, seated around our table in the Portofino Restaurant, Don, Grant's brother, Grant, and Patty, Don's fiancee. Standing behind Don is our waiter John.

We requested and had assigned to us a nice corner table, out of the way of the hustle and bustle of the center of the dining room, and I think Grant preferred it that way. We might have tried for a table by a window, but I knew that almost all of our meals here in the Restaurant would be at night, and there wouldn't be much to see anyway.

I usually sat back in the corner, although Don and I switched around to give him more than two walls to look at. Don is Grant's middle brother; he was married before to a very nice woman, Joanie, whom I have met once or twice. This is not to say anything bad about Patty; both Grant and I like her a lot. No one save the two people involved can really know what makes a marriage work well, work poorly, or not work at all. The divorce was quite amicable; there were no children involved to complicate things. Joanie, who has always been very close to Grant, still talks to him (Grant) frequently.

Grant's other brother, incidentally, is named Craig, and he is married to another great woman, Beverly, and they have, if I remember right, three kids. They live in a nice house in northwest Chicagoland; we were there last Christmas.

Patty Riha has been a friend of Don's for some time and is a very personable and caring woman; she is perhaps even closer to Grant than his two brothers are. We have seen both of them in Chicago, and Patty has always been very concerned for Grant's well-being.

The travel agent we used to book the cruise sent two bottles of champagne to us on the ship, and we had John keep them on ice for us. Actually, we ended up giving one to him and drinking a part of one a couple of nights later.

Below is the picture that I asked Don to take of Grant and I at our table aboard the Costa Riviera. Every time I look at Grant it pains me that he must be feeling so poorly, but there is little I can do, and that makes me feel even worse. I can tell the times that Grant's smile is hiding his discomfort, and I think this is one of the times.

We had a very nice meal this evening, and I think Grant enjoyed it. After dinner, the four of us went to the deck above to the Grand Prix Lounge, where we thought we would sit for a while and listen to the music- and perhaps even dance.

The lounge is fairly small, and looks like the bar in a nice hotel in a big city. There is another showroom, the La Scala, where they put on the musical revues and shows, but here in the lounge there is just bar service and quiet music, as well as some limited amount of dancing. It is a good place to relax, although in the evening it is more formal than other places on the ship.

Me, Patty and Don in the Grand Prix Lounge I asked the cocktail waitress to take a picture of the four of us. She completely lost Grant who was sitting to my right, and cut off part of me. A wasted effort, although Don thought he and Patty looked much better than an earlier picture I took (which I have decided to omit here).

Me and Patty and Grant in the Grand Prix Lounge I decided that if I was going to get a good picture, either Don or Grant or I would have to man the camera, so Don took this picture. Grant looks pretty good here, but I only wish he felt good as well. Grant and Patty like each other a lot, and she has been very helpful to him on the telephone, in Chicago, and now here.

Me, Patty, and Grant in the Grand Prix Lounge Kissing Patty was Grant's idea, and I must admit that the picture didn't turn out too badly. I thought it would look a lot more staged than it was. Patty seems not to mind though.

Grant, Patty and Don in the Grand Prix Lounge Neither Grant nor I was drinking (he is not supposed to and I just don't very much). But it was pleasant just to sit quietly and take in the music and the people moving by.

Grant felt good enough that he wanted to get out on the dance floor, and I was happy to get a picture of Grant and Patty dancing. Grant has always loved to dance. Before he got sick, we would go out on Fridays or Saturdays to one of the local bars, and Grant could indulge himself on the dance floor. He has a style all his own, but he loved to move with the beat of various disco songs. I have never been a good dancer, although I will dance with Grant on occasion. He actually prefers to dance by himself, or with someone who dances better than I do. That is how we have met some of our friends- Grant has picked them as dance partners or they have picked him. I remember his being the center of attraction at his Dad's second wedding in Chicago when there was dancing at the reception. Then, he was dancing with his cousin Diane or with me. But I haven't seen Grant dancing in over a year, as he has just not felt like it. I was happy that he was able to get out and twirl around with Patty even if only for a short while. After this dance, Grant and I went back to the cabin for a while, and Grant did his medications.

After making sure that Grant was OK, I changed and left him for a bit and went up to the casino to watch Patty and Don try their luck at the slot machines. They didn't have much.

There is only limited smoking in most areas of the ship, so Don had to go outside for that. Also, it was stuffy at times inside, and there was a nice breeze on deck. I took this picture of Don and Patty taken just outside the Grand Prix Lounge.

I left Don and Patty to themselves and wandered around the lounges and public areas for a bit, and also went back to the very stern to watch the wake of the boat. I had a chance to reflect a bit on my relationship with Grant from our first meeting six years ago. The pictures I took of him on this cruise made me very sad then, and they have the same affect now. By this time he had lost a great deal of weight, and this has made him look frail- which indeed he is. I tell him frequently that his outward appearance might have been what attracted me to him in the first place, but that if he hadn't been the person he was on the inside, we wouldn't have done much more than have a few dates. I hope he believes that because it is true. Grant has been of immense help to me in the six years we have been together. Both he and I have been through some rough times, me with real estate and Grant with finding a job he really likes and dealing with his father in Chicago. But the real estate problems have been pretty much resolved, Grant had a job he really liked at Gabbert's before he went on disability and he and his father have reconciled. But now we both have to deal with AIDS. It seems so unfair for him.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page for our Caribbean Cruise, or return to the Cruise Index Page so you can go through the rest of the photo album.

	October 21, 1991: A Day at Sea
	October 19, 1991: Departing Fort Lauderdale on the Costa Riviera
	Return to the Caribbean Cruise Index