***CONTINUED FROM LAST MONDAY . . .

Most of the time aboard the Grandeur of the Seas, I was either walking the track on the upper deck or immersed in a good book somewhere, hidden away in a quiet corner of the ship. After all, I had all those calories to walk off—and the sun to watch, as it painted the horizon with its bright orange glow each morning. And then again each night. With book in hand, I watched the tossing seas, or enjoyed the gentle rocking which accompanied my reading. Sapphire colored, the endless waves were as soothing as a massage. I felt healthier than I have in years.

And my top “meeting a tall, dark stranger” experience came the morning I woke before 5 a.m. and stumbled up to deck ten to get some reading in before breakfast. Warm ocean breezes kept me company as I read the Pulitzer Prize winning book, All the Light We Cannot See on my iPad, while curled up on a chaise lounge. Then suddenly, an interruption.

“Is there anywhere to get coffee?” an older man with silver hair asked, as he ambled by.

“It was so early I didn’t look, but if you find some and come back by here, let me know,” I said.

A few minutes later, still absorbed in my book, the same fellow returned. He bore a gift: coffee, creamers, sugar and even pretend sugar, and a stirrer. “I brought you some of both,” he said. It was the most romantic moment of my entire cruise, on land or water, and I was touched by his kindness. I never saw him again.

An aside: I, and perhaps every woman who waited in the long lines outside movie theatres in 1997 to see Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio in Titantic, have always wondered how it felt to be those people, the ones on that ship, those who perished, those who survived. Jack and Rose. I could only imagine, but strains from Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” wafting through the ship lent a helpful air in that department.

Speaking of which, did you know Titantic had its own newspaper, The Atlantic Daily Bulletin? Neither did I. But how fascinating!

Many people I met onboard tell me that cruising is the perfect antidote to the winter doldrums. One such woman said that before her first cruise, the approaching winter would leave her depressed. Now, twenty years later, she is cured. Apparently, sailing 28 days out of the year in a series of three back-to-back cruises can do that for you, and several people I met do just that.

Meeting new people was the highlight of my cruise. Which is how I learned quite a few of my fellow seafarers had been on that same ship last year when it became the SS Norovirus. They said that 2015 experience was far worse than our second day at sea. That’s when the waves were so tumultuous they held many of us captive inside our cabins, until our collective nausea passed. Alas, it was my first and only negative experience onboard.

Well, except for my near misadventure on the high seas, a week later. It happened the night before we reached the Port of Baltimore, where our cruise ended. I was inside the Palladium Theater with friends who had crowded into nearby balcony seats. I was standing and talking, telling one of them about my bilateral knee surgery. He wanted the phone number for my fabulous surgeon, and I wanted him to have it. I went to retrieve it from my cabin. Turning and twisting and trying to walk at the same time, I missed one very large step. Instead, I pitched forward, but somehow managed to catch myself with both hands. My full weight pushed against a plexiglass barrier of sorts, which had been installed above the copper banister for probably that very reason, causing it to burst apart at two seams. The entire episode took mere seconds. My friends watched in horror, and said I came quite close to taking a tumble over the rail.

Well, shiver me timbers!

I say all that fancy footwork and the adept twisting of body parts, albeit without a sword, goes to show what a good pirate I’d make. Captain Jack Sparrow would be proud. So no, I don’t think I’ll wait 21 years for my next cruise.

* * * *

My fifth book, Guilt by Matrimony, about the murder of Aspen socialite, Nancy Pfister, was released November 17. My memoir, Sister of Silence, is about surviving domestic violence and how journalism helped free me; Cheatin’ Ain’t Easy, now in ebook format, is about the life of Preston County native, Eloise Morgan Milne; The Savage Murder of Skylar Neese (a New York Times bestseller, with coauthor Geoff Fuller) and Pretty Little Killers (also with Fuller), released July 8, 2014, and featured in the August 18 issue of People Magazine.

You can find these books either online or in print at a bookstore near you, at BenBella Books, Nellie Bly Books, Amazon, on iTunes and Barnes and Noble.

For an in-depth look at the damaging effects of the silence that surrounds abuse, please watch my live TEDx talk, given April 13, 2013, at Connecticut College.

Have a great day and remember, it’s whatever you want to make it!

~Daleen

Editor’s Note: Daleen Berry is a New York Times best-selling author and a recipient of the Pearl Buck Award in Writing for Social Change. She has won several other awards, for investigative journalism and her weekly newspaper columns, and her memoir, Sister of Silence, placed first in the West Virginia Writers’ Competition. Ms. Berry speaks about overcoming abuse through awareness, empowerment and goal attainment at conferences around the country. To read an excerpt of her memoir, please go to the Sister of Silence site. Check out the five-star review from ForeWord Reviews. Or find out why Kirkus Reviews called Ms. Berry “an engaging writer, her style fluid and easy to read, with welcome touches of humor and sustained tension throughout.”

Editor’s Note: Daleen Berry is a New York Times best-selling author and a recipient of the Pearl Buck Award in Writing for Social Change. She has won several other awards, for investigative journalism and her weekly newspaper columns, and her memoir, Sister of Silence, placed first in the West Virginia Writers’ Competition. Ms. Berry speaks about overcoming abuse through awareness, empowerment and goal attainment at conferences around the country. To read an excerpt of her memoir, please go to the Sister of Silence site. Check out the five-star review from ForeWord Reviews. Or find out why Kirkus Reviews called Ms. Berry “an engaging writer, her style fluid and easy to read, with welcome touches of humor and sustained tension throughout.”