Day 18 - Sea Day (3rd of 4)

 

Date:  Jan. 26, 2007

 

Location:  At Sea in the South Atlantic

 

Next Port:  Jamestown, St. Helena, Jan 28

 

Quick Summary:  Another beautiful sunny sea day…the highs are holding. We had a great evening, with a special Cordon Bleu class dinner and our first opportunity to see the Southern Cross.

 

Report:  At our daily devotionals this morning, Jamie told us how beautiful the stars of the Southern Cross were last evening.  It had been an exceptionally clear evening, and he felt he could reach out and touch several constellations. He promised to take us this evening.

 

In the morning we both attended the port lecture about Walvis Bay, Namibia and the special dinner we will all be going to in the dunes.

 

Then Larry stayed in the theater for Dr. Robert Clark’s enrichment lecture on “Volcanoes and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.” Karen went to her bridge lesson. She rejoined Larry at 11:00 for the next of Daniel Silke’s terrific lecture series. This one was entitled the “Rise and Fall of Apartheid (Separation) in South Africa.”

 

In the afternoon, we walked in the sun, read and worked on the photos for our journal.

 

We enjoyed a special dinner with new friends in the normally closed half of La Veranda with members of the Cordon Bleu cooking class, their partners and the chef.  We all had a good time.

 

The show was a performance by an Italian violin virtuoso Vincenzo Gentile, who played music from around the world.

 

After the evening’s show, Jamie invited us on a tour to the darkened area of the ship to look for the Southern Cross.  About 40 of us accepted his invitation but found it to be quite cloudy in certain areas. We could see the moon to the north but found about 70% cloud cover to the south. As we moved to the area nearer the bow, we had a few light drops of rain from a passing cloud. Then a wide hole in the cloud banks opened, and we had a spectacular view of the Southern Cross – the first time for both of us. Another highlight!

 

This wrapped up one more fine sea day.

 

Previously, our longest cruising experience was 14 days.  We passed that four days ago…with no problems!

 

As we sail this vast expanse of the South Atlantic coming up on our third weekend, maybe this quote from our pillow chocolate is appropriate:

 

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.

-- St. Augustine

 

 

 

A reminder, photos of our cruise are now available at following web site. The are nine albums for the days on which I took photos:

 

picasaweb.google.com/larryworldcruise

 

 

Cheers,

 

Karen and Larry