I was sitting at a table in one of the many restaurants on this ship, looking at Sydney Harbour as the ship slowly moved towards the open sea. I was reflecting on the rush I had to travel one thousand kilometres from Melbourne to Sydney in time for the midday departure of this cruise. First, the rush by taxi to the Greyhound Terminal for the overnight bus to Sydney, hoping nothing would go wrong in the 12 hours I had to be onboard. Nothing went wrong, now I can sit back with a lattΓ© and small cake and prepare to enjoy my first ever sea cruise.
I heard a voice beside which brought me back to the present, "Excuse me, do you mind if I sit at this table with you?" The voice belonged to a female passenger who was neatly dressed in black slacks and a light blue T-shirt that matched the coloured belt around her slim waist.
"No, of course not." I answered her. "Please sit down." I gestured to the chair opposite the small table. I was also glad to have some-one to talk to.
"Are you travelling alone?" the stranger asked me as she moved the chair to sit facing me, and before I could answer, "Because all I see are couples and groups. I am travelling alone also. So thank you." She looked at me and said, "I'm Debbie. This is my first cruise and I am so excited, but I see most passengers seem to be pairs and groups. I was hoping you were alone and perhaps we could keep each other company on board ship."
I introduced myself, "Hi, Debbie, I'm Wendy. How strange, this is my first cruise too. I have no objection to being together, unless something quite unexpected happens, if you know what I mean."
"I think I do, but until then I didn't want to alone on such a large ship." Debbie looked outside at the rocky harbour landscape moving slowly by. "I live in Sydney and I see this sight quite often." She looked at me and asked, "Where are you from?" I told her Melbourne and she commented on my long trip to be here. I laughed and told her it was a rush, but now I am going to relax for the next 10 days.
The ship had now left the calm waters of Sydney Harbour and I could feel the gentle roll as it passed through the Sydney Heads and entered the Pacific Ocean.
"Well. That's the last land we will see for three days," Debbie said. "Let's walk around the deck to look for talent." Debbie had admitted she was hoping there may be single males looking for fun. Single men prowling the decks seems to be an old rumour about Pacific cruises, so we commenced our stroll around the ship looking at other passengers, some were probably on their first cruises too.
As we walked we talked about the things we have in common, other than men. After some time of just getting to know the ship and nodding 'hello' to the occasional passenger who noticed us, I felt the wind had turned cool and changed to the south, so I suggested we head back to our cabins to get warm, or at least to put on warmer clothing.
"How about I get a bottle of 'bubbly' to take it to my cabin to celebrate our first cruise together?" I suggested. Debbie agreed, as I headed to the nearest bar to get a bottle of pink champagne, while Debbie followed. I asked her where her cabin was and found it was only two cabins further along the passageway from mine, another happy coincidence I thought, as we walked down the stairs to our deck.
We entered my cabin; I kicked off my high heels and flopped onto the double bed. Debbie headed for the bathroom. While she was there I set up the bottle on the small table between two large lounge chairs and waited for her return. I pointed to the empty chair.
"A good idea," she said as she kicked off her shoes and settled into the chair whilst I poured the drink into two long glasses. We raised our glasses and I proposed a toast,
"Here's to a great first cruise together." Debbie responded, "Hear, hear."
After a few mouthfuls of the cooling drink Debbie spoke, "What do you do, Wendy ... for a job I mean?" I had told her I was a freelance journalist looking for stories that I may be able to sell to leisure publications when I return. "I work in legal services," she told me. "I am a lawyer." We chatted about what led to our vocations and shared some laughs at some of the experiences we both had in our respective careers. When the bottle was empty I took off my skirt and blouse and lay on the large bed in my bra and panties. "I can't do this at home," I told my new friend, "My mum thinks it's 'unladylike', to use her words. According to her, girls and women should be 'suitably covered in public', presumably that included my bedroom."
"She seems a bit old-fashioned. But what do you think?" Debbie asked me. I shrugged and said,
"Whatever feels good and doing this makes me really feel good right now. I am relaxing." I was lying on my back with my hands clasped behind my head and watched as Debbie removed her blue T-shirt and slowly unbuckled the belt supporting her slacks.
"That sounds like a great idea. Do you mind if I join you on the bed?" As she spoke I saw her soft satin bra and panties, allowing her bra to drop on the floor, exposing two full and rounded breasts with large nipples, as she walked towards the bed. Debbie lay beside me in a similar fashion and spoke, "I think a bra constricts the body and takes away the feeling of freedom. Why don't you take yours off too and enjoy the freedom?" I looked at her and thought it would be all right, so I sat up to unclip it. "Let me do it for you, I can reach it." I let her undo it, I felt a little excited at having Debbie, a stranger, removing my bra, but didn't know why. Debbie asked, "Do you do this often?" and followed with, "Have you ever been in the same bed with a woman before?" I thought about it for a while before answering her,
"Well, not really, unless you count the time I was on an end-of-year school camp and I shared a double sleeping bag with my classmate, Melinda Sayers." I paused and added, "We were camping in the Victorian high plains and it gets cold up there at night, even in the summer. That is why we were in the sleeping bag together. I can tell you that a two-person tent in the mountains doesn't offer much warmth at night." I stopped to gauge Debbie's reaction to my story.
Debbie turned her head to look at me and said, "Well, that sounds like fun. Did anything happen in the bed?" I laughed and said,
"Perhaps that was my first lesbian experience, but I didn't think of it like that back then."
"Go on," Debbie urged me with a smile, "what did you two do?" I turned onto my side to face her and said,