World cruise 7

Go down to World cruise 5 to catch up from Panama on.

January 15

Second day at sea...6 more to Nuku Hiva. Weather and ocean conditions about the same as yesterday. Mike was supposed to show me how easily he uploads photos to blogger, but the internet service was down. We are traveling at the edge or even out of range of the satellites for both internet and tv reception, but things should pick back up as we near Nuku Hiva. I hope.

I took it pretty easy today reading, crocheting and napping. Margaret was off at the knitting/crocheting group and various lectures most of the day. This evening was "The Black and Silver Ball" so everyone was all gussied up for it.

It occurred to me that I haven't mentioned much of anything about the food. For breakfasts, we usually go upstairs to the Lido buffet which has just about everything you can imagine for an international clientele. But on early tour days, we tend to have room service deliver a small breakfast. So far we haven't gone to the Dining Room for breakfast, but that will change soon...maybe tomorrow.

For lunch we have, again, mostly gone to the Lido buffet. The Lido has full course meals, pizza, pasta (meat sauce almost as good as friend Tom's), sushi, salads, made-to-order sandwiches, etc. So far we have not tried the hamburger and taco place out on deck. Several days we have eaten lunch in the Dining Room. One day we each had a delicious tuna melt, and their french fries are excellent. As I was leaving to go on tour at Manta, they were just bringing crates of fresh tuna aboard, so that's what Margaret and Mike had that night.

For dinners, we always go to the Dining Room where Yohat and his assisstant, Hery, take care of us in great style. Tonight all the chairs were covered in black or white and there were bunches of silver star-shaped balloons on every table. We had a new table mate named Andy from Calgary. Well, he lives in Calgary except when it's cold there, then he cruises in warmer climes. In the photo, left to right are Margaret, Andy, Mike and me.

What did we eat? Margaret had trout, Mike had crab cakes (and grits), Andy had escargot, and both Andy and I had Surf 'n' Turf. Mine came with basmati rice and grilled vegetables. And, yes, friends, Didi ate both carrots and zucchini. I'm going to have to get Margaret and Mike to sign a notarized statement to the new things I've eaten this trip. The carrots were okay. The zucchini was pretty good, but I had doused it well in garlic butter which will improve just about anything.

January 16

Third day at sea. It feels like we've been sailing for a week! I can't imagine how anyone from explorers in old, tiny sailing ships to today's fishermen or navy's sailors can tolerate really long voyages. Don't get me wrong, we are enjoying our sea days, it's just that it's somewhat hard to keep track of what day it is. In fact, I had managed to lose a day of this narrative, and it took some effort to figure out which one. Then on rereading, I had one too many days...I think it's fixed now.

Here is a photo of the scenery. Our wake is the most exciting thing around, and it's pretty hypnotic. The good news is that at this latitude (4◦15.74 south, also called the doldrums) the ocean is pretty calm.

I found 3 other ladies who want to play Mexican Train Dominoes. Each of us brought our own double twelve set. So this afternoon we met to play with just one set of dominoes but 4 different sets of rules! It was extremely confusing at times trying to blend and/or bend the sets of rules. I don't think we've actually managed it yet, but we will keep trying. I do think our "Buffalo Betty" rules are the most fun, but hey, at least I found some folks to play with.

We decided to go to the show after dinner. It was a stage magician named Jeff McBride. Part of his act was done with Kabuki masks and quick costume changes some of which were very interesting and others fairly obvious, at least to a former amateur costumer. Most of his act was sleight-of-hand card tricks which I don't think do well in a stage performance. He was entertaining, but like many acts on cruise ships, I wouldn't pay big bucks to see them on shore.