Day 3 - Sea Day

 

Date:  Jan. 11, 2007

 

Location:  At Sea – East of Cuba and the Dominican Republic

 

Next Port:  Bridgetown, Barbados, Jan. 13

 

Quick Summary:  Rough weather, rain showers – no chance of sunburn. Unique change of clocks procedure.

 

Report:  Larry got his workout in the gym early and Karen took a Pilates class. Later we enjoyed a light breakfast on the 11th deck outside La Veranda. It is sheltered from the wind and although the sun wasn’t out, the temps were in the mid-70s with the humidity about 55-60%.

 

We decided to join the Intermediate Bridge group for a lesson at 9:00 a.m. in the Observation Lounge.  While we haven’t played much in recent years but aren’t real beginners, we were still out of our league! Don’t know if we will attend further classes; might just find some folks who want to play social bridge, with the emphasis on “social.”

 

Then it was then off to two 45-min. lectures. The first was by

Niki Sepsas, our South America destination lecturer.  His lecture was an interesting general survey of South America, country by country. He will be presenting four more lectures before we arrive in Rio de Janeiro next week.  We look forward to hearing him again before he leaves us in Rio.

 

Next up was Daniel Silke, a South African and former Member of Parliament.  He was most engaging with his lecture on Globalization. He shared some interesting theories on McDonalds, Wal-Mart and Starbucks.

 

The Pool Grill fish fry was cancelled due to the high winds and rocky seas, but we still were able to enjoy delicious pan-broiled salmon and salad in La Veranda for lunch.

 

Capt. Dag announced a unique time change procedure he plans to use on our eastward trek. In order to ensure people get a full night’s sleep, he plans at 2:00 p.m. to advance the ship’s time one hour or even just 30 minutes as we sail across the Atlantic.  At 2:00 p.m., it magically became 3:00 p.m. What power you have when you are the CAPTAIN!

 

We had a restful afternoon, reading books in the Observation Lounge, napping and working on our journal. I am having some computer problems with the slow transmit speeds and with our Outlook program. I plan to work tomorrow with Marco, the whiz who staffs the computer room, to see if I can get things sorted out. I was able after dinner to get Day 2 of the journal posted, but was unsuccessful uploading the photos. I will try to add them tomorrow.

 

We had dinner in Signatures, the Cordon Bleu restaurant. Though there is no added charge, it is by reservation only, seats about 70 or so and normally only turn the tables once. It is very elegant, multi-course, candlelit dinner. We like the room, presentation and food even better than our experience on the Seven Seas Mariner in Alaska. This reservation had been made by our TA…thanks Joyce for setting it up. We’ve already made a reservation for next week for four and will ask some of our new friends to join us.

 

The entertainment last evening was a singer named Jamie Michael Stewart. Back in the 1970s, he was the original singer of the Love Boat theme song on the popular TV show. Originally from Britain, he has performed for years on the BBC, in musicals and before live audiences.

 

We enjoyed another fun day!

 

Karen and Larry

 

Confessions: What did we leave behind? Larry forgot his studs and cufflinks. He borrowed some from the ship's store.  He also left his wireless mouse in the Four Seasons Miami. Marco in the computer lab gave (loaned) him one from the "closet." So all is well with the world.

 

We have found that AOL is a very slow service, so we are having trouble uploading this journal reports. Sorry for the delay. Hopefully I will fix the photo problems in the next day or two,

                        -- Larry

                             ( Friday evening)