World cruise 9

January 20

Seventh day at sea. So far the weather and sea conditions have been excellent (thank you, Jill).

I'm still having major trouble getting photos uploaded. I'm also having trouble editing text in blogger. I'm going to go back to the only way that sort of works which involves multiple uploads of text and photos and merging the two in HTML which is not something I understand at all. This is probably as frustrating to those of you who are trying to follow my trip as it is to me. At least I can write about it even if I can't get it posted for you to read.

I met a woman this morning who was on the same cruise with me in 2010 in the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea. And I've heard there's a couple on board who were on the same South America trip in 2007. It's a small ships small world.

We went to a program on pareo (aka sarong or lava lava) tying in the morning. The group who have been holding sessions on Polynesian culture did it. They are attractive and talented people teaching the dances of several cultures and a series of ukulele lessons (which I did not attend).

Then we had lunch out by the pool to the musical accompaniment of a solo guitarist doing mostly soft rock that's now considered "oldies," but is the music of my prime years. Yes, that's a life-sized sculpture of a grizzly bear and cub in the pool.

This evening was a formal night, and we were invited to the Captain's Dinner with cocktails before hand and dinner in the Pinnacle Grill. Wow! They went all out on this one! A three and a half hour, six course event (not counting the cocktails and hors d'oevres), fixed menu with each 2 courses of the menu presented on a card before the dish was served. I tasted so many new things to add to my list that I can't even put them all down here! My favorites were the green apple and mint sorbet and the duet of beef. For my food-oriented friends, here is what we had...each course a work of art on a plate.

Course 1: Seared Diver Scallop, Lemon Grass Citrus Gelee, Nori Powder, Sesame, Caviar
Course 2: Tomato Essence, Concasse, Vegetable Brunoise, Basil
Course 3: Lobster, Citrus Foam, Curry Creme, Cucumber Tapanade
Course 4: Green Apple and Mint Sorbet, Raspberry Pearls
Course 5: Duet of Beef Double "R" Tenderloin and Short Rib, Roasted Parsnip Puree, Shallot Jam, Petite Vegetables
Course 6: Chef's Chocolate Nougat Dream

We had an officer at our table along with 3 other passengers: a couple from Tampa and a man from northern New Jersey. The couple were pleasant, but the guy from New Jersey was just plain nutty (apologies to my friends from New Jersey who are not nutty). The interesting person was the Dutch woman officer who is a mechanical engineer. She was a little shy at first, but had a good sense of humor and was willing to answer stupid-tourist-type-questions about both herself and the ship.

I finally got blog installments 5-7 posted, but it took over an hour. I also posted a website Mike shared with me where you can track just about any cruise ship anywhere in the world in real time.

January 21

Eighth day at sea. I'm ready to see any land, even a small island. I probably won't go ashore as it's a tender port with some question of where the ship will anchor. Evidently there are 2 possibilities, and if neither works, we just wave as we sail away.

Margaret has been fighting the ship's cold for several days, so today she stayed in and slept almost all day. I came in every so often and made her call room service to eat something.

I did go to the show after dinner because it was the Alley Cats again. This show was just as much fun as the first one. Too bad they're getting off tomorrow at Nuku Hiva.

Tonight our bedtime present was a hefty folding umbrella. Maybe someone's expecting rain tomorrow?