December 19, 2023

I didn’t realize how long the island of Cuba is. We sailed past it all day long. 

It was a nice day, not too hot, and we all had different things to do. After breakfast, I had a 2 hour cooking class called “The Old Man and the Sea” which of course focused on seafood preparation. Our instructor was Noelle. I took a class with her on the Marina cruise a few years ago. She not only taught the recipes which we then cooked, she talked about wine pairings (we had 2 kinds of wine) and she challenged us to try different methods of cooking fish. The culinary center is really beautiful and all of the staff makes it easy to prepare the recipes. The center accommodates 24 people and the classes fill up. This one is the most popular one, Noelle said.

The dishes we prepared were Miso glazed sea bass, Nordic salmon rillettes, Pesce Provencal and Sole meunière. Norm joined me at the end of the class to taste the food. 

We learned about many techniques and which are best to use with each type of fish. Noelle demonstrated ceviche shrimp, poached salmon and beet cured salmon but we didn’t make those.

After the lesson and a light salad for lunch, I went to the blackjack tournament where 17 people showed up – we needed 3 qualifying rounds to get to the final and I was out before the final with only one winning hand out of 7. Better luck tomorrow!

Nice picture of Norm and Adam after breakfast at the Terrace Cafe. For my fellow Oceania travelers who read the blog, the outdoor part of the Terrace Cafe on other ships has tables with umbrellas. Here, they have a covering over the whole area which is really a good idea. We love eating out here.

All of us formed a family trivia team and had fun at the afternoon trivia. We finished third (among other teams). Who knew that a group of lizards is called a lounge? Or that the last letter in the name Google on their site is red? We do now! It was fun to see Leslie Jon again. He is the cruise director and was on two of our world cruises.

The Captain’s cocktail party was tonight and we saw all of the senior officers. Damien is the GM and we also know him from previous trips.

We had dinner in the Terrace Cafe and were almost alone outside. Adam is trying many drinks and especially likes the ones from the Founder’s Bar. They are quite unusual and incorporate different ingredients including fresh herbs.

After dinner, Norm chose to skip the show but the rest of us went and enjoyed the singer Alex Yost.

Tomorrow we have another day at sea before arriving at St. Barts on Thursday.