November 20 - Second Sea Day

Another glorious day at sea on our way to San Juan.  We’re sailing along the north coast of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic),  It doesn’t feel quite as humid as yesterday, but the sun is very intense. Our course heading is 101.5° and we’re traveling at 16 knots. 

Of course we had trivia today and, wonder of wonders, we won again!  We’re officially on a roll. Here are a couple of questions to test your minds. 1) What nation has a shipwreck on its flag?  2) Through how many capital cities does the Danube flow? We got one right and one wrong.  See how you do and no cheating.

You can tell I don’t have any really exciting things to write about today.  I suppose I could make up a story but instead I’ll repeat something I wrote last year when in roughly the same place.  We’re approaching a place in the Atlantic called the Puerto Rico Trench. These waters are some of the deepest in the Atlantic and at its deepest point the trench is over 27,000 feet deep!  The trench is formed where two tectonic plates pass by one another.  The Caribbean plate is moving east and the North American one is moving west.  As these two plates move along they cause many quakes, most of them minor. If you ever look at the US Geological Service website you will usually see lots of little quakes around Puerto Rico and Hispaniola and the sea around them.  I just looked now and counted seven in the last 24 hours.  The land mass around this trench is so dense that NASA has found that it actually has a gravitational pull on the water causing a measurable dip in the sea level.  I’m sure it must be miniscule and of course we can’t see it or feel it, but I think that’s really something that it can be measured.  

 I considered going to the pool again but there is absolutely no shade.  I finally found a table and chairs near one of the bars that was undercover so I sat there with a nice couple from South Carolina.  Of course, since I was next to the bar it was time for a frozen margarita. As the sun shifted I think I may have gotten a little tan on one side so I’ll look kind of half and half.

I met a couple from my trivia team for drinks and dinner. They are from Lincoln in the UK.  I had so much fun talking with them.  The man Mark reminded me of the quintessential English gentleman with a little mustache and a droll sense of humor.  Once again we were among the last to leave the restaurant.

I’m sorry that I haven’t any photos to attach but if you’ve seen one ocean picture you’ve kind of seen them all.  Just to upload one here’s a photo of the flower arrangement from the cruise director that appeared in my room the first evening.  The red rose in the middle was one that I was given when I went in to dine and I just stuck it in so it would have some moisture.

Tomorrow is San Juan and I haven’t anything planned; I’ll play it by ear.