Our month-long cruise is almost over, it's been pleasant even though the weather hasn't cooperated. The ship is experiencing a minor conjunctivitis epidemic at the moment, highly contagious "pink eye" isn't limited to children but most of the seniors on board haven't had it since their kids were small.
Ships are small, closed communities not unlike elementary schools - passing around a cold or other communicable disease is easy. Norovirus outbreaks gain the most notoriety but the infamous "ship's cold" or in this case conjunctivitis are equally plausible villains.
In the days of wooden ships, sailors were actually healthier than landsmen. Sailing ships were often many weeks or months between ports. When a ship left port everybody had a cold for the first couple of weeks and then, lacking fresh sources of infection, folks who didn't die during the first two weeks were pretty healthy until the next port was reached, often months later.
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Our ship carries a largish cast of singers and dancers who have talent and work hard, but are ham-strung by a persistently poor choice of music to perform. It isn't their fault, I'm certain an entertainment coordinator in Seattle makes the choices for all HAL productions.
It appears those choices are influenced by a desire to spend as little as possible on royalties. Many pax have remarked to us the performers keep singing music pax have never heard before, and that isn't what retirement-age audiences seek.
