Saturday, July 9, 2016

July 9  Miles Traveled

I was going to summarize the trip with things like number of countries visited, but if you're interested in that you can count them up yourself by reviewing the blog.  The one thing I can report on is miles traveled.

Note: This turned out way more analytical than I had expected.  

Here's the executive summary:
Ship's "log" miles traveled: 46,501 nautical miles.  That's not right, it should be about 48,500.  The Bradleys traveled about 55,900nm because we took airplanes and buses and foot travel that the boat couldn't.

Back to the blog post:
Oceania distributed a 4-sheet paper entitled Nautical Miles Traveled that listed the miles traveled between ports.  They list 90 mileage figures for a total of 91 ports, with Miami repeated at the end.



It says Insignia traveled 46,501 nautical miles around the world.  That's a lot of wandering, since the circumference of the earth is 24,901 statute miles, or 21,638 nautical miles.  (When you drive on the highway, it's statute miles of 5280 feet each and speed is measured in miles per hour, mph.  When you sail you travel in nautical miles of 6000 feet each, and speed is nautical miles per hour, knots.  If everybody adopted the metric system we wouldn't have this problem.)

Unfortunately, their numbers are wrong.  I sure hope they didn't use those numbers to calculate when to stop for gas (bunkering is the quaint verb they use for "filling up").  By my guess they're about 1000nm too low, and the real number should be more like 47,500nm. 

There are some obvious mistakes.  The distance from Brisbane to Sydney is listed at 48nm when it's more like 550nm.  I'm guessing that the "log" was created before the actual trip, and when there were changes in the ports visited (you will recall that Newcastle was scrapped because of a harbor protest on our scheduled day so Oceania substituted Brisbane) they got the ports right but not necessarily the distances.  (In this specific case they did get the Townsville to Brisbane leg pretty close, although 50nm shorter than I measured it.)

Also, based on my measurements of actual distances traveled (see below) I can also argue that most of the Insignia log numbers are too low by 5% on about half of the legs.  Some are remarkably close to my measurement, others are off.  So we can probably add another 1000nm for "plan vs. actual" distances traveled.

 As for the Bradleys, we traveled 55,900nm or 64,300 statute miles on our trip around the world. 

I carried a hand-held GPS unit with me almost all the time, a Magellan Triton 400.  I left home with several of them.  A good thing since one of them failed spectacularly in mid-February.  The map below is the composite of 224 individual tracks I saved with the GPSes.


I carried it on our excursions, and got accurate route maps.  Here's an example, our VIP tour of military bases on Oahu. I used some other track maps earlier in this blog.


I only had to "recreate" 3 or 4 tracks due to GPS failure or operator error.  Those may not be as accurate, but a good guess as to the mileages covered.  I did have the GPS sitting out on the veranda whenever we were sailing, so I got those tracks also.  Sometimes there were interesting events.  Here's the run from Brunei to Borneo.

The "nose" in the middle of the track was apparently to get away from coastal waters so they could dump the grey and black water holding tanks.  (At every lifeboat drill I talked to one of the ship's officers and asked him these kind of questions.  He was very accommodating.)  The outward extension is about 30nm.  Since my track was 417nm and their log was 377nm I think that they listed the planned rather than actual mileage.

We also didn't travel everywhere the ship went.  We took six overnight trips (Phinda in SAfrica (1 night), Taj Mahal (3), Bagan in Myanmar (1), Angkor Wat in Cambodia (2), Beijing (3) and Hanoi (1)) , spending a total of 11 nights away from the boat.  So we racked up air miles and bus miles that people on the boat didn't.  Conversely, the boat traveled while we were gone.  We eventually caught up, going a different route, so our mileage was different.

Finally, all of our shore excursions weren't in the ships log.  My guess is over 7000nm greater than the boat actually traveled.  About 4Knm were in the overnights, the remaining 3K in run-of-the-mill bus shore excursions.  Our trip to Amboseli Park in Kenya was about 600 air miles.  That was just one of our 56 shore excursions.  However, on Rangiroa we we only walked about 3 miles while we were off the boat.  

No matter how you measure it, it was a long way but it had to be to pack everything into it.  My spreadsheet is available for anyone wishing to check my work.






Saturday, July 2, 2016

July 1  Miami

The end of the cruise, a sad day.  But the most suggested quote was Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened, attributed to Dr. Suess.  The actual origin is suspect, but the sentiment is correct.

Our last sunset on the cruise
 Breakfast at "our" table.  We probably ate half our on board meals at this table or its immediate neighbors. 
 Perhaps because several other ships also arrived this morning, it took several hours before we could leave the ship.  A last look back at Insignia.
After the long wait, passage through Customs was a breeze.  Oceania had arranged the bags in the arrival hall by name -- so our 6 suitcases were together with a big card that said Bradley.  With the help of a porter, we gathered them up and headed for the Customs inspection.  The first officer, ominously latex gloved, asked "Any fruit?" to which we replied in the negative and he passed us on.  At the inspection table I gave the inspector our Customs form and he asked "Last name?" to which we both replied "Bradley."  He said "Thanks, that's all" and we were done.

 Oceania offered complimentary limo service within 100 miles of the port for us worldies, and we took advantage.  Because of the luggage it was actually a van, but quite luxurious, and we didn't even have to share.  After a little less than an hour we were in Boca.
 The view from our condo.  Just the same as when we left.  What a great trip!



June 30 End of the World Sail Away Party

Cruise Director Ray wanted a "class photo" of the worldies and used it as an excuse for a deck party.  We grouped up for a photo and things went a little crazy from there.

The gangway coming down.  A sorrowful event.

 Deck party begins with a spelling test -- YMCA
 Ray with photographer Chris to get the group photo
 Party continues with Michelle singing
 Ray decides that, even considering the Oceania demographic, he's going to get crazy.  "Everybody into the pool"
 Surprisingly, it works!
 Suki, the most traveled person aboard, joins to pool party


 Erik and the Hair enter
 Cynthia, Robin, Chic, Lynn, Christian
 Wil
 Bruce & Pat
 The Hair, even soaking wet, rises to the occasion

June 30 Key West

Our last port call.  Worldies Joyce and Craig live in Key West, and organized an open house as they got off the ship one day ahead of the rest of us.  We had visited KW less than 2 years ago so we just wandered around a bit.

The End of the World Cruise rainbow
 We had to dock at the Navy Pier rather than Mallory Square, so there was a shuttle bus.  Very cute.
 Street art


Worldies Chic and Robin at Sloppy Joe's
 This is the T-shirt the worldies wanted but couldn't get from Oceania.  Yet here it is on a crew member.  Just remove the word "Crew" and we would have bought them in quantity,.
 We ate lunch at Sloppy Joe's.  I had a Sloppy Joe.  It was very good.  It was tough to remember to PAY for the meal at the end.
 Bruce meeting with the locals


 The sign in this laundromat doesn't really make me want to clean my clothes here.


 Obligatory tourist photo, and metaphor for our return to travel on land

June 28-29  At Sea

Oceania had a flurry of ATW events in the last few days of the cruise.  There was a late evening "Mix and Mingle" with the crew, followed the next morning by a Mimosa Reception.

Just before the Meet and Mingle, Steve and Tricia did their comedy magic show.  It was only about 10 minutes long but quite cute and entertaining.  In my opinion, even though there were probably about 10 different comedy-magician acts that came through the Insignia Lounge during our trip, the two best were the entertainment staff members: Steve and Tricia, and earlier in the cruise Assistant Cruise Director John did a highly alliterative performance.


 Although this looks like the Insignia Table Tennis Team, these were the guys from the laundry.  One of the ATW incentives was free laundry, and the service was excellent.  I'm glad I got a chance to thank them personally
 Mariah, along with Bruce and Cathi.  Tracking Mariah's mood swings was a pleasant occupation for us passengers.
 At the Mimosa party is the Hair, with Erik from the entertainment staff living underneath.  An impressive mating display viewed in the wild.
 Captain Flokos is amused by it all.
 The Captain with Gloria, who had won the Cruise Director for a Day Auction, and was the CD today.
 L-R, Ricardo the ATW Concierge who had Luggage Free on speed dial during the last segment of the cruise, Tricia the ATW Hostess, and Farid the Executive Chef.  Great people, all of them.
 Recognized as the most courageous worldie was Charles, who was traveling alone and recovering from a stroke.  He was slow but methodical and participated in the trip and excursions with the rest of us.
Worldie Pam Kennedy and Bruno, our favorite Maitre'd.