November 11 - A Remembrance Day at Sea

It’s time to catch up again.  My friends boarded around 1:00 PM  on Saturday the 9th and we had a pizza party reunion on the pool deck.  It was good catching up with everyone I hadn’t seen in several months. They had to unpack and I spent the afternoon doing pretty much nothing.  I confess I did actually doze off at one point.  I must be getting old.

We were supposed to sail away from Miami at 5:30 PM and we even had a party on deck to mark the occasion. There was just one problem – we didn’t sail away.  When it was time for dinner we were still at the dock. During dinner we moved, but it turned out we only moved to a different berth because a Canadian Navy vessel needed our spot.  We quickly tied up again.  So, what was the problem? My dinner host was the perfect source of information.  He was Radu, a very tall Rumanian First Engineer in charge of keeping all the mechanics of the ship operating. No, we didn’t have a mechanical issue.

I don’t remember mentioning that a new concessionaire would be operating the shops on the ship, but that was the cause of the delay.  The truck carrying all the new merchandise was late.  We didn’t sail until around 3:30 AM.  It cost someone, presumably the vendor, a lot of money, because it had to pay for the extra berthing time and the longshoremen and line workers who hung around waiting to load the merchandise and let loose the lines when we finally were ready to go.  Apparently this was the last opportunity to restock the stores until LA on the 27th of November.

Yesterday was a sea day with lectures and classes.  I went to an art class in the morning.  I painted a masterpiece which later in the day I showed Katie when we had Facetime.  I asked her to guess what it was and her first guess was a moose.  She got it on her second try. It was a bumblebee.  Moose, bumblebee. I don’t think I have a late in life career as an artist in my future.   After art I attended a lecture by a Marine Archaeologist about the Titanic.  More about him later. We played trivia at noon with a whole new group and we basically bombed, but that’s okay.  It is only a game.

Last night I dined with the fabulous guest entertainer, Michael Lynche.  He performed before we got to Miami and he is wonderful and a truly nice person.  It was a fun table and we laughed a lot.  After dinner we had an Australian Japanese rock violinist who did an interesting and energetic show.  He was good but I really enjoyed the violinist we had on the last leg of the cruise a little more.

As usual I went down to the club and stayed until close to midnight and did a little dancing. I was missing my Russian-Cuban friends who got off in Miami.  I’ll have to find some new dance partners.

Today we had two minutes of silence at 11 AM to remember Armistice Day, Veterans’ Day in the US and Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth countries. It is always marked on the ship and sometimes there is a little more ceremony with a reading of “In Flanders Field.”  There was a lecture which I missed and then it was time for team trivia again.  We improved our score, but still were pretty abysmal.

At lunch outside we could see land far off in the distance.  We think it’s the southeastern tip of Cuba because during his noon report the captain told us we’d transited the Windward Passage between Cuba and the island of Hispaniola and entered the Caribbean Sea.  I took a picture at maximum zoom thinking I might get the bit of land.  Instead, I’m pretty sure what I got was a photo of a freighter. The seas are moderate but we’re still doing a little rocking.  We are on a ship after all.

Tonight is a formal night and I had an invitation to dine at a hosted table but two of my friends and I decided to decline and eat outside by the pool at the venue called Earth and Ocean in the evenings.  The other two don’t like to dress up.  I don’t mind that but I really don’t care for the “signature” menu they have on formal nights.  It always includes too many rich sauces which I don’t like very much.  It should be a nice evening to dine outside.

Yesterday and today I sat at breakfast with the conversationalist I mentioned earlier, Dr. Tim Runyan, and his wife Laurie.  Besides being very nice people, they are very interesting.  They’re from Greensboro, NC  and he is a retired professor from East Carolina University.  He has spent a lot of time in Newport News at the Mariners’ Museum because he was part of the team that worked on raising and preserving the Monitor off the North Carolina Coast.  He knows Robert Ballard who located the wreck of the Titanic and has fascinating stories to tell.  I am so fortunate to be able to hear and meet people like him.

I don't have any exciting photos so I'll include one of my favorite barista at Seabourn Square.  He's Emin from Istanbul and he makes me the best Caramel and Mocha Lattes.  He's been very busy on these sea days so I caught him in action.