Atlantic crossing continues

With Tristan da Cunha scrubbed the staff scurried to put together a few extra activities for our “surprise sea day” as CD Carson referred to it. One of these was a memory workshop put on by the magician/comedian who’s been performing on board. We went to his show on Friday night and attended the memory seminar on Saturday afternoon. This was not prepared, so we appreciated the effort to get up and present something for 45 minutes to a crowd. It was a good session.

Later in the day we got started on a big (2000 pieces!) puzzle in the card room. We’re not sure it’s going to fit on the table in there, so we may need to move it to the library at some point. We’ll see how it looks when we get the border closer to completion.

Sunday was our best sea day to date, with lots of stuff to do. We started off with breakfast and then a (nautical) mile walk around the walking track, which is something we’re trying to do after every meal. Then we had math and English classes for both boys. At 11:00 we went to another edition of the GM Ludmila vs CD Carson cook-off. This time Carson won by acclimation as Ludmila was a bit flummoxed by the requirement to use pomegranate, blueberries, and feta cheese together in a recipe. The ribbing between the two devolved into a food fight that the boys enjoyed immensely.

After lunch we did another set of laps and were treated to a brief glimpse of what we think were a pair of pilot whales surfacing quite close to the ship, which was a treat. We then attended a talk by Dr Sherry on the history of Namibia. As usual she did a great job of presenting a sorrowful history in an even-handed way. I’d venture to say that few of us present had much of an idea of Namibia’s road to nationhood.

After a bit of a relaxation break, we headed up to the library to do an escape room that the entertainment staff had set up. We were joined by Ken and Jennifer from Naples, Florida, to make a team of six. We managed to solve the puzzles and escape the room with just 30 seconds remaining of our 20 minute session. It was a lot of fun, and Thomas declared it the best thing he’d done on the ship so far.

After another brief break, DJ and I went to a talk by Dr Shoena on extraterrestrial life. DJ had asked me an excellent question after watching one of her talks on the television: if matter cannot be created or destroyed, how did the Big Bang happen? I told him I don’t know how to answer that, and suggested he has the Dr after her next talk. So he did, and she was very happy to have a question that “flummoxed” her, as she put it. We just don’t know, she told Devin, and if you figure it out you’ll get yourself a Nobel prize. I wouldn’t put it past him.

We had a latish dinner, then Liz and I did another set of laps while the boys played ping pong. At 9:00 there was a stargazing event on the top deck. This was supposed to feature some of the ship’s officers discussing celestial navigation and presumably pointing out stars and constellations. We couldn’t hear anything, though, so we just looked around at things like the Southern Cross, an upside-down Orion, and the moons of Jupiter, visible through our binoculars.

Weather for the day was absolutely perfect: clear skies, temperatures in the low 70’s, calm seas, and little wind. Could not ask for better.もっと詳しく