Contract Number 13, 9th year in the Caribbean -- Part 1

Things happened so fast and my contract was over before I even knew it. I was at home for a few day and didn't get a chance to catch y'all up before I took off to Poland. Imma do my best to do that now.

This contract I was a lot more social. Spend some time making new friends and building and strengthening old friendships. Managed to see a few more new places and revisit some good old favorite spots.

One new one was Altos de Chavon in La Romana, Dominican Republic. It's a cute little place fashioned after an old town.

Like I mentioned, I rekindled old friendships and made new ones.  I have always said and always will, the best thing about ships are the people. Here's a shot of my favorite ladies and I on a crew party night.

Isn't this a gorgeous photo?

I have to say that I had a very hard working team this contract. These guys work around the clock to make everyone happy and sometimes it was impossible to get them to take a break. We did have some fun though and I managed to sneak everyone out for a beach date.  Kind of hard to do so as one of us always has to stay on the ship in case of emergency.

HR at the beach in Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos

One of the things that us seafarers have that land folks don't have is the abundance of themed parties and I just LOVED getting into the themes.  This one was Bollywood and I ordered a Saree and had one of the Indian ladies help me out. My makeup took me forever but I absolutely loved the effect when it was all done.

Courtesy of our wonderful Shore Excursion department, we also do crew tours from time to time. This time they took us to Gibbs Bay in Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos. Just gorgeous!

And who can forget Halloween, my favorite holiday. The best holidays to be on the ship is Halloween and New Years, the best parties ever!  And of course we went all out.

 End of Part 1.....more to come soon.....

Wroclaw, Poland

This is my birth city at night for the Christmas market, isn't it beautiful?

Photo by Daniel Grodzinski

Diary of a Seafarer

This blog has always been my outlet. I have always written it for myself and no one else, a type of a journal if you will.

Today I will go deeper then I have before.

I guess as a Seafarer, our lives are so different. Things happen in our personal lives and our ship mates don't know about it.  Family tragedies happen and we are not there to experience the full pain of it. We miss weddings, celebrations, birthdays, births and funerals.  Over the last 10 years I have lost both my grandfathers, since I wasn't home for it and I wasn't able to go through the rituals, I was sort of emotionally secluded from it all. I don't think I ever dealt with it. I have never been to either of their burial sites since they are on Polish soil and I live in Canada.

I came home on December 6th (my birthday) and I learned that my Grandmother is very ill. I came home from the ship to unpack, do laundry, re pack and cancel everything and to get on a plane to Poland.  After 12 years, I return to my birth place. It's such a bitter sweet feeling.  I am glad to see my family again and to walk the streets of my youth but everything is in a different light. This house was built by my Grandfather on his own after World War II. Every inch of this house and this back yard brings back such good, old memories. Everything is so familiar yet seems so much smaller. How did everything happen so fast?

I am the first grandchild on both sides. When I walked into my childhood home, my Grandma burst into tears. She is the strongest woman I have ever met. She survived World War II, was orphaned before she became a teen and learned how to fend for herself before the age I think i learned how to read and write.  She immigrated to a new country in the late 70s so I could live a better life today. She has always been my hero. Today she is suffering and in pain and I have never seen her life this before.

I have never been home to deal with this ever before. And now I feel like I have to deal with it all at once.  I was hoping to write about my last few months onboard and to post happy go lucky photos at the beach, I didn't expect this.

But I will make the most of our time together and give her the best Christmas I can. I will stay positive and find the silver lining. I will find strength in my family and use it to help her. I will make the most of our time here and I promise you that my upcoming posts will be full of love and positivity.

Good day....

When life throws you curve balls, when you get bad news....just remember to take it one day at a time and that today CAN and will be a good day.

50 shades of Nat

Amazing what different makeup and hair styles can do....

How's this for a change?

Did the Advocare 24 day challenge and rocked it!!!! Lost 11 lbs and 16" in 24 days.

Seaman's prayer

In the passing of this Hurricane Joaquin, we were re-routed. We got news that one ship, El Faro was lost at sea.

El Faro was on a very similar route to us, sailing from Florida to Puerto Rico just how we were. Except we were all safe and they were not.

I mentioned it to my team and we thought about them and their families. We thought about the sacrifices that they made to give their families a better life and we thought about how precious life is.  We are sailors too, this could have been us.

We decided to do a minute of silence and to pray for them. A few of us got together and did a prayer and kept these lost sailors in our thoughts. I am a catholic by tradition but Buddhist by choice but I recognize all prayer and spirituality. Our monent of silence and prayer was beautiful, humbling and somber. This was our prayer.

Shortly after our prayer I went to my cabin to change. I heard an announcement. We had found wreckage,it was El Faro.

Rest in peace my fellow sailors, rest in peace El Faro.

Puerto Rico, Isla del encanto

One of my favourite places on the planet, San Juan Puerto Rico. Love this place!!!

Boss lady

This is what a modern day female senior office looks like ⚓️⚓️⚓️

Friends

The best thing about my job always has been and always will be the amazing people I get to meet. The people you surround yourself with can make or break your contract. I have been so fortunate to meet this beautiful souls. Some are dear old friends and some are new but all really special to me. 

Best book in the world