No Kotor

As I mentioned at the end of yesterday's post, our plans changed and we spent the day at sea. We were supposed to go to Kotor, Montenegro, but someone -- I don't know whether it was our captain or the port officers in Kotor -- determined that it wouldn't be safe because of weather conditions. Dave and I were skeptical of this explanation because the weather report called for sunshine and maximum winds of 13 kph. Not exactly hurricane strength.

But I did some reading later and apparently Kotor can be a tricky port. It requires tenders (small shuttle boats) from the ship to land, and they have to zip through a relatively narrow channel to get to town. Apparently the area is prone to katabatic winds similar to the Santa Ana winds in California, and indeed there was a wind advisory in Dubrovnik, where we had been just the day before. Who knows what was going on. Gotta trust the captain.

That (above) was our view for much of the day, as we lounged around and read in our cabin. Still not too shabby! Of course there are also plenty of public places to go on the ship -- bars and restaurants and lounges. In late morning I went to the fitness center and spent about 40 minutes walking and running on a treadmill. I haven't run on a treadmill in probably 15 years, and I pushed myself pretty hard, but it felt good. I'm thinking about joining a gym again and this was a good reminder what that feels like.

It's hard to know where we are at any given moment, because there's just open water out there, sometimes with a faint line of a land form on the horizon. But then I found an online cruise ship monitoring site that gives our location. Yesterday we slowly made our way down the midpoint between the Albanian coast and Italy. At one point my phone pinged a cell tower in Greece, which I know because I got a "welcome to Greece!" message from my phone carrier. Now, as I look out at the water, I can see the tip of Italy's boot heel in the distance.

Sunset off Dubrovnik, Sunday night

I'm trying not to think too much about the carbon impact of this trip. As I understand it, cruise ships are tremendous consumers of fuel and generators of waste, so I'm aware we're not doing the planet any favors. Sometimes within the context of marital compromise you have to set aside personal qualms, you know? This is the world we live in.

And cruising is very pleasant. I understand why people like these sorts of trips. The ship is so comfortable, and we have anything we could want within easy reach. If I crave a kiwi fruit, it's there. If we need entertainment, there are games and puzzles and quizzes and any number of shows and that kind of thing. Fortunately, as we all know, I can pretty much entertain myself, though I was tempted -- lubricated by a martini -- to participate in the onboard archery competition last night. What could go wrong?

(Seriously, the arrows were tipped with rubber suction cups. Nothing could go wrong. But Dave was hungry so we proceeded to dinner instead.)

I'm even on track to burn through my backlog of New Yorkers!

Last night, being a glutton for punishment, I watched a new documentary on Netflix about the Costa Concordia disaster in 2012. Watching it while actually on a cruise ship may seem foolhardy, but it was really good and very dramatic. Dave fell asleep.

We're at sea again today before docking in Messina, in Sicily, tomorrow. I plan to spend some more time in the fitness center!