Saturday, February 1 - At Sea

 It's nice to have a couple of sea days after the busy schedule we've had so far.  We "slept in" until 7:30 this morning.  This morning's lecture was by Miguel Rodriguez-Girones, an ornithologist, on sea birds that we should see in the upcoming days as we head south.  There are 4 naturalists on board now to give lectures and information about this part of the world, especially Antarctica.  Miguel's talk was very informative - especially explaining the differences between land and seabirds.  I didn't know that some seabirds can live 30, 40 or possibly even 70 years.  They aren't completely sure because the scientists who are studying them often die before the birds! He had some wonderful pictures.

Ironically, after this wonderful talk that got us excited to go look for seabirds, we ran into a fog bank which limited visibility to only 100 feet or so.  The fog horn began in earnest and it kept up for a couple of hours.  Apparently, there were sightings of whales and penguins this morning, but not by us.  I overheard one woman complaining to an officer this morning that her cabin smelled like dead fish.  At the beginning of the afternoon talk, Eduardo mentioned that we had sailed through a smelly patch caused by dead and decaying marine plant and animal life which is good for watching for marine activity.  I hope that lady heard that and realized it wasn't just her cabin.

Eduardo gave an interesting lecture this afternoon on longitude and how having accurate marine clocks made it much safer and easier to know where you were in the ocean.  This was back in the 19th century.

Roger was back at Trivia today and we got a respectable 11/15 for one point.  This evening was the "Where in the World" party where people from particular states or countries gather at one of the lounges on board and meet others from their area.  We were thinking of not going, but I'm glad we did.  We met two very nice widows, Ellie from Maryland and Joanne from Klamath Falls, OR.  Also, there was a young couple (they each turn 40 this year) from Seattle.  He's an ER doctor with Kaiser in Bellingham and she's an attorney.  They're only doing this segment but had to juggle things to be able to take off 3 weeks together.  I'm betting they are pretty close to being the youngest passengers.  There is a woman and her 2 or 3-year-old son also on board, which is very unusual.  But he is the cutest thing and very well-behaved so I don't think anyone can complain.

After dinner, we ate at Compass Rose.  I got pictures of two of our regular servers.

When we have breakfast at Compass Rose, we always eat in Jasmin's section.  She and her assistant waiter, Pratama, take very good care of us.

At dinner, we usually eat in Sugi's section.  He was on the 2020 World Cruise with us.

The weather has turned much cooler and windier so the ship is moving a bit more, but just enough to be interesting.  I think I'll get into bed and read for a while.  I'd like to go to the show as I heard the entertainer practicing and she sounded really good.  But that's an hour from now and I'm not sure I'll make it.