January 31,2017

It’s the third of 5 sea days and the seas have been rough. Today is a bit calmer but it is really amazing to watch the waiters balancing trays with many plates as they move from side to side. Everyone is doing the “motion of the ocean” dance!

Last night we had a really funny ventriloquist, Mark Merchant.  He will do another show in a few days and everyone is looking forward to it – he had everyone laughing out loud! At the end of his act, he had the dummy singing a some while he drank wine.  Don’t know for a second how he can do that!

Here’s a shot of the sunset as we left Honolulu on Saturday. The sunrises and sunsets are always beautiful, too beautiful to really capture in a photo, but we try anyway.

Again, the sea days are full of things to do, I had one first place and one third place in the blackjack tournaments, still working on the needlepoint and doing the lectures and cooking demos and trying to decide on another square for the quilt. It might be a Komodo dragon when we reach that port. In the meantime, Norm is working on his third square!. He has a reputation for being a good stitcher now!. The latest one is Cartagena, Columbia.  Will post a pic when he is done.

I have developed a nasty cough and did see the doctor yesterday.  On meds and sound much worse than I actually feel.  Many people are coughing and because we really have to use the handrails with the motion of the ship, it is impossible to wash hands frequently enough.

We had dinner with Anna and David Smith last evening. Anna is the quilt coordinator and David is the photography lecturer. They are from British Columbia and we met them on the last cruise. Anna had gone to the lei making class (while I was at the blackjack tournament) and she presented me with this lei as we went into the dining room!

And here’s Norm in another color shirt.. Sandy said he is wearing too much beige and khaki! He takes this feedback seriously!

In one of the cooking demos, Jorg, the executive chef, introduced the sous chefs.  In all these are 60 chefs in the kitchens here. They all  have very specific duties.  Today’s cooking demo featured Jorg  and Helena who is the pastry chef. They made a black forest cake, crepe Suzette and lemon meringue tarts. As I have mentioned many times, the food is absolutely wonderful.

 
They are going to show the super bowl on the ship and will have a betting pool and some traditional tailgating foods. The game will start here at 1:22 PM.

So now we are down to two more sea days until we arrive in Nuka Hiva  in the Marquesas.  I am sure we will have the equatorc rossing ceremony on Thursday, which of course we have done many times before.  Always fun though.