The most notable about one’s time during an ocean voyage is that it is so purely relative. We sailed in the lightness of an early summer, the sky a fresh roseate, the sea quiet and calm. The ship sailed into the open sea, a shade of vivid indigo as the horizon narrowed and widened, dipped and rose, the moon was illuminating the decks with its whiteness. Like a distant voice the sea hushed, almost to a sigh, in a rhythmic exhalation as though it were asleep outside the gate of sound.
That Sunday night, people came in long rows, some of them singing their heads feeling light with strong drink. Already the tequila was flowing, beer was abound.
You’re on the water and you’re seasick, with the waves rocking you in their hammock back and forth, up and down. At first, it was a sweet cradling motion — until you start feeling like you have a hang over as big as Mount Everest.
You tried pure willpower. You thing, “I wont get sea sick,” but nothing helped as your inside turned round and round, losing all you sense of balance. It floods all your senses, and nothing worked. The sea made a sport out of you, without any right in their making. Mark that as you first evening, meant to start with unadulterated fun.
Still, a good cruise provides entertainment, solace, humor and a respite from the hurry scurry of the everyday routine. One element of surprise is that you may meet a person who lives for the moment.
Who knows romance could be in the air. There will always be opportunities and important moments, or even connections. It teems with indigenous life, in a pace of living that is accumulated. You see life as a server of swift impressions rather than a coherent whole that is richer. Without its breadth and depth you see it multiplying with little impressions.
You walk and settle on a chair around the deck – you reflect for a moment. An excruciatingly handsome face flashes by and you’re “crushed” for a moment. Someone jostles you, you’re angry for a moment. Someone smiles at you and you’re glad for a moment.
Such are the daily feelings inside a ship, unlike the lingering precious, ductile feeling in your routine. A cruise provides a sure “escape” you see life’s unconscious symbols just as conscious symbols kill it. There’s freshness, spontaneity and surprise, the very soul of a cruise. The bits and color put together that do not make a pictures, or a dissonance make music — just spectacular brief meanderings. Since there is no beginning or end, it is a simple viewing of life in passing.
The interview with Captain Pierluigi Lanaro was a conversation transposed into written dialogue if not monologues provoked by questions and opinions – with the value of the richest remark. Everything he said, whether funny or diplomatic, came from a true Italian gentleman. He is the most important person in the ship and can not be expected to fraternize with passengers and crew. The Captain’s Elegant Ball is the only time you see him, surrounded by his crew, his cordon sanitaire, people look at him in that old world elegance and dignity.
He has been with Carnival Imagination for twenty years and sailed with 60 millions passengers, served inspired dishes washed down with liters of wine.
He said when you’re that confined, you see everything. Each trip brings new experience, everything in the ship is too, nothing is routine. His gift was sureness of instinct, his ability to focus on people in order to illuminate a sense of openness on larger issue. He had wit warmed by reserve of his patrician upbringing, but in a more tranquil vein.
Twenty years with the ship with such astonishing rectitude without counting the cost is simply because it has never occurred to him to do anything else. He has exceeded dreadful expectations in the life span of a ship’s stewardship, relying on his own moral compass. He has answered every question from who’s the most difficult passengers, to the most delightful one, to his most harrowing experience.
He speaks proudly about his crew, their preparedness to anything and everything. i
His diverse plate included future cruises where people do not need to do homework before coming to a cruise where everything spells gaiety and is yours for the taking.
His 20 years have given him soaring memories.
