January 15, 2001
Long Beach, California (pt. 2 of 2)
My phone rang at about a quarter to eight.
"Hello, this is (blahblah). You breakfast is from 8
to 8:30." Click.
I got out of my Captain's bed and had a warm shower.
Down on the first deck, I followed the smell of food
to the dining room, where six other passengers and Mr.
Blah Blah (I'll learn his name when I can get him to
speak a little slower) awaited me. Mr. B.B. fed me
scrambled egg, toast, and a ridiculous looking sausage
that I tried to imagine was not on my plate, while the
other six passengers introduced themselves.
The six were three retired couples, all of whom had
embarked the day before. One couple had the same
problems I did trying to find out the schedule, and
they had booked through Travltips of Flushing, NY, so
I couldn't blame The Cruise People UK for my
difficulties.
"It's just freighter travel," explained passenger Jo.
Easy for her to say. She'd booked through the crème de
la crème of freighter travel, Freighter World Cruises.
The other passengers explained to me that Freighter
World was the best freighter agency but Travltips had
more versatility, as they also got good deals on
regular cruises. One of the two Freds on the trip
explained that "Golden Bear" had the best deals on
just cruises. I explained to them that neither
Freighter World nor Travltips could be bothered with
my ambitious plans, so I had gone offshore.
I could see I was going to learn a lot from my fellow
cruisers. They had already sussed out that while the
Captain was German, the officers were Russian, and the
crew was Sri Lankan. Everyone else had an in-room VCR
— in my single room, I was television-less.
The Long Beach Aquarium
That was all right with me. Departure had been
delayed until midnight, so I had plenty of time to go
into Long Beach and track down more books. I caught
the shuttle bus back through industrial hell to the
main gate, called a taxi, and rode into town for my
last real coffee and a visit to the famous Long Beach
Aquarium.
NEXT: DAYS AND DAYS OF NOTHING BUT ROLLING WAVES AND
STRANGE MEN