November 19 - Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala and remembering

I’ve been really lazy about writing and, truth be told, about everything for the last few days.  After the Panama Canal on the 15th we had a sea day on our way to Punta Arenas, Costa Rica.  I did the usual sea day stuff – you fall into a routine on sea days – which included listening to some talks on Costa Rica, shipwrecks, and Mayans, playing trivia,  and talking with friends about all kinds of things with much of the focus being on where we should go for our next meal.  In the evenings we generally get together in the Club for a drink before dinner and after dinner many of my friends go to their cabins.  A couple of us go to whatever show is on at 9:30.  The entertainment has been pretty good most nights with some better than others.  After the show I’m usually the only night owl who goes down to the Club to listen to the live music there and if the songs hit me right, I get up and dance a little.  There are generally a few other people there, mostly couples, and it’s not unusual for just the wives to get up and dance.  I guess it doesn’t sound like a very exciting day, but I enjoy it and it’s more exciting than my typical days at home.  In Williamsburg I don’t have any opportunities to sit and listen to live music, limited chances to see any kind of show, and not even all that many times to sit and just talk to friends about whatever.  Here on the ship I’m getting one of the most important, and oftentimes most neglected, things we seniors need and that is socialization.  Getting old can sometimes be a very lonely thing.

Moving on, two days ago we arrived in Punta Arenas, Costa Rica.  I think this was my fourth visit there and I’ve done tours to the rain forest and butterfly sanctuary, a coffee plantation and the capital of San Jose.  So, I stayed on the ship as did most of my friends.  We intended to walk into the little town, but it was very long dock with no shade on a very sunny, humid day and we all decided to stay onboard.  The town has not much to offer but some little craft shops and a beach.  As it turned out in mid-afternoon it poured and if we’d walked into town we would have been drenched.

Yesterday was another sea day and a repeat of what I just wrote about.  I did have a very nice dinner last night with our captain and his wife and two other couples.  This captain is very engaging and his wife is a lovely lady.  Unlike some captains I’ve sailed with, this one has his wife on board with him all the time.  He gives the best noon reports of any captain I've had.  Most just report the position of the ship, the wind and sea conditions and the depth beneath the keel.  This captain tells us information of historical or scientific interest in the seas we’re passing through.  At dinner we had interesting conversations about world affairs and how they are affecting cruising and I learned a lot.  That’s always something I enjoy.

Today we’re as I indicated in Guatemala.  This is a container port and there is zero here except a little town to support the people who work at the port.  There are a few tours to a coffee plantation or to the old Spanish colonial city of Antigua.  I’ve been there before and despite it being very picturesque I didn’t feel like taking the hour and a half bus ride each way to see it again. So I, with all my friends, stayed on board.  It gave me an opportunity to read and answer some emails, take care of a little business, and write a little.  We also sat and discussed potential future voyages.  We don’t purposely book cruises together, but one of us will mention a cruise we are thinking about and the rest of us might say it sounds interesting and we often wind up sailing some or all of a cruise together.  We’re kind of a wandering band of cruise gypsies.

This has been a very rambling and unexciting entry in this, my online version of a journal.  I could post a photo of the container ship at the next dock unloading its cargo, but that’s really boring.  Instead I found some photos from the blog Katie and I wrote a long time ago (fifteen and a half years!) when we stopped here and went to Antigua.  I don’t know which of us took them but they brought back memories of the times we cruised together.

This was carpet made of colored sawdust and seeds with fruits and vegetables lined around the edges in a church in Antigua

Palace of the Captain General when Antigua was the capital of the Spanish colony of Guatemala from 1543 t0 1773

Some little musicians who entertained us on our tour back then.  By now they're all grown up and I can't help but wonder where they are.

November 15 - The Path between the Seas

That’s the name of the best book written about the conception and construction of the Panama Canal.  It was written and published  by David McCullough in 1977.  For anyone planning to take a trip through the Canal I think it’s a must-read work. 

Today was our day to make our transit through the Panama Canal, one of the seven wonders of the modern world. I’m not going to write  a lot about the history of its construction.  I’ll just say a few things that weren’t as well-known to me that I learned after reading the book.  Back in the 16th century a Spanish king ordered a survey of the Isthmus to determine if there might be a way to shorten the voyage of his ships from the real Indies and western South America back to Spain.  In the 17th century an English philosopher pondered the same idea of a way across the narrow piece of land.

After the California gold rush and the construction of the Suez Canal in the mid-19th century the concept and efforts to actually do something about it began to take a more active form. For nearly 20 years from 1881 to 1899 the French attempted construction under the inspiration of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the man who had successfully guided the construction of the Suez Canal which was hugely profitable.  Unfortunately, Panama presented many more challenges like tropical rain forests, unhealthy climate, disease and mountains which necessitated the use of a lock system.  His efforts at one point nearly bankrupted France.

When Teddy Roosevelt became president the US efforts to build a canal became serious.  One camp wanted to build a canal through Nicaragua which would have been longer and could use a couple of lakes and rivers along its course.  But there were also volcanos to contend with. It was finally decided to build across the Isthmus of Panama, which was then part of the country of Colombia.  We helped the people in Panama to successfully rebel and separate from Colombia and we signed a treaty with the new country granting us rights in perpetuity to build on and administer the land to be used for the canal.  The work began on May 4, 1904 and took a little over 10 years to complete. Between the French failed effort and the US construction project it’s estimated that more than 27,000 people died, many from disease.  Walter Reed from Gloucester, Virginia (my part of Virginia) was instrumental in figuring out how yellow fever was transmitted and his research played a big part in figuring out ways to control the disease.  The canal was officially opened on August 15, 1914.  It was a pretty momentous occasion, but interestingly it didn’t receive a tremendous amount of attention at the time.  Why?  Just two weeks earlier WWI began and German troops were driving across Belgium toward Paris and newspapers relegated the Panama Canal opening to inside and back pages.

That’s a brief history of the original canal.  Here are a few facts about it.  The Panama Canal is about 50 miles long.  On the Atlantic(Caribbean) side there are a series of three locks which raise a ship 87 feet to enter Gatun Lake. From the lake ships transit for a little over five miles through the Chagres River until they reach the Culebra Cut, which was the most challenging part of the construction.  The cut is a passage through a mountain ridge crossing the Continental Divide.  It’s nearly 8 miles long and required the excavation of nearly 100 million cubic yards of rock and soil. Approaching the Pacific Ocean ships transit through first the single chamber Pedro Miguel lock lowering the ship 31 feet.  Then traffic goes through the Miraflores locks lowering it a further 54 feet. Along the way ships travel under two bridges, the Centennial Bridge and the Bridge of the Americas.

In 2006 an expansion project began to build a new set of locks which could accommodate the larger generations of cargo vessels which now ply the oceans. That project was completed in 2016.  The new locks are 180 feet wide, 1400 feet long and 60 feet deep enabling them to accept 79% of all cargo-carrying vessels today.  Earlier I wrote that when the US began the canal construction in 1904 we signed a treaty giving administrative powers in perpetuity for the Panama Canal Zone.  In 1977 President Jimmy Carter signed a new treaty ceding control to Panama in 1999.  Of concern to many people since that happened is that China has funded many of the expansion projects which have been undertaken and has won several management contracts.  That might potentially give it significant ability to control access should there be conflicting interests.

Leaving a lock on the Atlantic side

I have been through the canal several times and I didn’t feel compelled to get up at Zero Dark Thirty to see us approach and enter the Gatun Locks.  By the time I was up we were exiting the last lock before  Gatun Lake.  I did watch us go through the Cut and get lowered through the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks.  Several of us informed friends and family at home to look for us on the webcam at the last lock.  I don’t think the resolution was good enough to make any of us out, but we were waving and toasting as we went by.  We were lucky because it wasn’t very sunny and hot and rain held off.  In the distance at the Pacific end we could see the very modern Panama City with its many towering high-rise buildings.  It’s a little surreal to see them when all around are lush, tropical forests.

Gatun Lake

Part of the Culebra Cut

More of the cut with the Centennial Bridge in the distance

Pizza time with the girls

Entering the last lock at Miraflores

Panama City

I don't know what this building is but I thought it looked neat

We had two pilots onboard and if you really squint you can see one of them go from our ship to the pilot boat. I don't think you could pay me enough to jump from one to another.

Now we’re in the Pacific Ocean sailing north along the coast of Central America.  We have a sea day on the 16th and then we’ll be in Costa Rica.  Here are a couple of interesting pieces of trivia.  The sea level on the Pacific side of the canal is about 20 cm higher than on the Atlantic side. I don’t pretend to understand why but I’m told it has something to do with the density of water and prevailing weather and ocean conditions.  Another fact is that the name Pacific was given by Magellan in 1520 as he made his voyage around the world.  He didn’t survive the whole thing but we still call it his expedition.

It’s the 16th now and I had a very nice dinner last night in Solis with my friend Claudia and a guest speaker and his wife.  We had a great time and closed the restaurant down.  Today is a lazy, sea day.  A win at trivia is still eluding us on this leg of the voyage.  I don’t mind because on the previous segment my then team won all the available prizes, but I know my teammates would like a win or two.  We still have time.

This afternoon we have birds playing around in the draft of the ship.  This was the best shot I could get of one skimming along above the waves.

November 13 - - Cartagena de las Indias, Colombia

After three days at sea (which seemed to fly by!) we docked in Cartagena early in the morning on Wednesday.  I’ve been here before a long time ago so I didn’t plan on taking a ship’s excursion.  Two friends and I had planned to get a cab to go into town to  see the old city and to shop, just a clue – Colombia is famous for its emeralds.

This is a lovely city.  It was founded by the Spanish in 1533 and named after the Spanish city of Cartagena. A little interesting linguistic note is that the original Cartagena in southern Spain was named after Carthage in North Africa because it was founded around 227 BC by a Carthaginian general. The city lies on the Caribbean coast of the South American continent and close to the Isthmus of Panama.  Because of its location it was an important and strategic port for the importation of slaves and the exportation of silver, gold, and other products coming from the New World. The city was sacked and burned several times  by pirates, privateers and enemies of Spain, including Sir Francis Drake.  As a result of the attacks the King of Spain commissioned fortifications to be built and they were finally completed in the 1650’s.  At one time the city was protected by 29 stone forts and walls that were 16 miles long and in places 40 feet high and 50 feet wide. The principal fortress is the Castillo of San Felipe de Barajas which after its completion was the largest one constructed by Spain in the Americas.

The fortress system and city have a little interesting historical connection to Virginia.  In 1741 the English under the leadership of Edward Vernon laid siege to Cartagena.  The English had a large armada of ships and more than 25,000 troops, including 2000 American colonial infantry.  Among those was Lawrence Washington, George Washington’s half-brother.  When Lawrence inherited some family property in Virginia along the Potomac he named the house there after his commander, hence the name Mount Vernon.  George kept the name when he inherited the property.  The siege and attack were unsuccessful despite vastly outnumbering the Spanish.  The defender was Don Blas de Lezo whose statue is at the foot of the castle.  He is still considered a hero here.

Cartagena is a city of contrasts.  With a population of about 1.2 million it’s the fifth largest city in Colombia.  On one side of the bay are modern high-rise buildings and on the other is the charming and very Spanish old city with typical colonial architecture.  The streets are narrow and many of the houses have their stucco painted in bright colors.  There are wrought iron balconies with flower boxes with cascades of bright blossoms and the entrances are massive carved wooden doors.  The old city is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  It is easy to imagine that you’re in a city in Andalucia in Spain.

To get out of the port terminal area we had to pass through a small zoo.  We only walked through the area with lots of birds.  There were many parrots, flamingos and peacocks all roaming and flying around, and making lots of noise, with no enclosures to keep them there.  There is no reason for them to leave because there were food bowls full of ears of corn, papaya and watermelon everywhere.  They were well-fed birds.

A pair of happy flamingos

Isn't this guy gorgeous?

I couldn't persuade this guy to spread his feathers

I did zoom in on his tail feathers.  Look at those colors.

We hired a taxi driver named Teo to give us a little tour of the old city and to take us to a place where we could look at emeralds.  I sat in the front seat with Teo so I could practice my Spanish.  He spoke English better than I did his language, but I had fun remembering words I had forgotten.  I think if I stayed here for a while I would regain proficiency.  

Our first stop was a stop at the Castillo San Felipe.  We walked around the little park area at the foot of the fort.  To get to the top we would have had to walk up a series of ramps and steps which none of us wanted to do. I’m sure we would have had a great view, but between the hike and the heat and humidity, it wasn’t on our to-do list.  Next we drove into the old city.  Teo stopped at a little arcade in the shadow of the old wall.  There were several souvenir shops in the arcade, but the gem (literally) was a shop that sold emeralds.  We spent a lot of time there and we all found a memento of our visit to Cartagena.

Castillo San Felipe

Three amigas with Don Blas

After we’d taken care of business Teo took us on a slow tour through the old city.  As I mentioned the streets are very narrow and there’s an interesting design feature. Many of the streets are built with curves which allowed the resident defenders to hear their enemy coming through the city before they were visible, thus giving them time to prepare defenses street by street.  The exteriors of the old colonial buildings must be maintained but inside the owners can do whatever they like.  Teo told us something interesting about a way that the government incentivizes owners to keep some of the lovely old colonial homes.  As the older generations die some of the younger ones want to sell the properties and move to the high-rise condos which offer lots of amenities.  The government won’t tax the inherited property if they keep it and continue to use it for residential purposes in its colonial style, but  if the heirs decide they want to sell and get the money, they have to pay big inheritance taxes.  That’s a good way to maintain the character of the old city.

Old Cartagena

A peek into one of the courtyards these colonial buildings have

One of the many little plazas

Finally, it was time for Teo to take us back to the ship.  (We were also wilting from the heat and humidity – or at least I was.)  He was a great driver/guide and I got his name and contact information in case I come back here some time.

Last night we sailed later than we were originally scheduled to leave – no idea why.  We don’t have all that far to go because our next stop is the Panama Canal and we have a time slot for Friday morning.  There was a sailaway party on deck and I went and danced a little. For dinner my friends and I went to fried chicken night in the Colonnade, the casual venue.  We sat outside because it was a nice night and cooler than earlier in the day. Two of us made it to the show which was a second performance of the Australian-Japanese rock violinist.  I liked him better this time.  Then I have to admit I went down to the Club for a little while, but I was yawning so much I had to call it an early night.  I’m blaming it on the heat not age.

The skyline as we slowly sailed away

An almost full moon over Cartagena

Tomorrow is  a sea day so I’ll have plenty of time to rest if they don’t schedule too many fun things.  Of course, there’s the most important event of all – noon Trivia.

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.

November 9 - Miami Redux

Yesterday, November 8th we stopped for three hours at Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas and the main reason I think was so they could have Caviar in the Surf, a Seabourn signature event. For sun and sand people it was a great stop.  Since I’m neither and I can get caviar, which I do love, anywhere on the ship I stayed onboard again.  I guess I’m getting to be one of those old ladies you hear or read about who just stays on a ship endlessly. The island is absolutely flat as you can see, but the water looked exquisite and friends told me the beach was beautiful. 

Half Moon Cay

The last eight days haven’t been exciting ones in terms of seeing new places, but I’ve had a lot of fun and that’s more important to me at this stage of my life.  I only set foot on land briefly in San Juan and spent the rest of the time enjoying being on the ship and meeting new people.  In the last 22 days I’ve met wonderful folks from states I’ve never been to like Idaho and Colorado.  I’ve had interesting discussions with people from all sides of the political spectrum and we haven’t gotten angry and  we parted as friends.  I’ve made a new lifelong friend in Linda from Texas.  I’ve had an opportunity to get to know Olga, born and raised in the USSR, and Carlos, born and raised in Castro’s Cuba, who married and immigrated here on a long path that took them years spent waiting in Costa Rica and Canada.  Their perspective on this country is one which many of us who were born and raised here don’t always remember and appreciate.

The upshot is that since my favorite pastime is getting to know new people and learn what they are thinking about, this has been a great three weeks.  Along the way, I’ve spent several nights dancing until midnight.  I’ve been treated like a queen by the staff and I’ve been entertained at a show every night. The most difficult decisions I’ve had to make are where and what to eat every day and I don’t have to fix any of the food.  Life is good!

Now I’m sitting in the shade by the pool watching loading of supplies on the other side of the deck.  I saw a big wheeled pallet loaded with cases of what looked like booze go by.  The group that just got off in Miami today were doing quite a bit of partying for eight days so I’m guessing supplies were low.  In a little while several of my friends will be boarding and I’m looking forward to seeing them. At least two are staying on until Sydney too so it should be fun.

The corridor where my cabin is lined with ice buckets and champagne waiting for the next group to board

Marija from Montenegro with her pretty smile.  She has been the hostess in the Colonnade and I just found out she is leaving today.  She and Patience, the hostess in the Restaurant whose photo I posted the other day, are both leaving and I'll miss them!

I’m attaching this school photo of my grandson  Katie sent me because I think he’s so cute.  I think when he gets to be a teenager he’s going to be a real lady-killer! (Can you tell I’m a proud Oma?)

Just look at those eyes and that smile!

November 7 -The day after I got rained out

First, today would have been my husband’s 77th birthday.  I’m missing him a lot today.  We usually went on a cruise around birthday times, so I’m wondering where we would have been had things been different.

When last I wrote I had taken off my dancing shoes for the night and was preparing for my outing in San Juan yesterday.  Plans don’t always turn out the way we thought they would.  It was cloudy when I awoke and docked at the next pier was the Enchanted Princess.  As I looked out the window in the Square, I could see the reflection of our smokestacks in the windows of about deck 6 on the Princess ship and there were 9 decks above those windows. I was glad I was on the Quest.  Just as I was noticing that, a great big Carnival ship docked between us.  It was like being next to a big apartment block.  Each of those ships carries roughly ten times the passengers on this ship.

After lollygagging around I got my things together and headed to the gangway to make my foray into Old San Juan. Literally just as I set foot on it, the rain started.  There are always passing showers in the Caribbean so I went down to the dock and stood under the little tent there waiting for the rain to let up.  It just rained harder and harder, so I gave up and went back up the gangway getting pretty wet on the way. So that was my shore trip in San Juan.  The sun came out intermittently but then the skies would open again and I just didn’t want to chance  going out to take some photos.  

I do have a tale to tell about one time when Al and I came here more than 30 years ago.  I think it was before we were going on our first Panama Canal cruise which began in San Juan.  We came down a few days early and we stayed in the El Convento Hotel which was right in the old city and which had been a convent in Spanish colonial days.  Unbeknownst to us, Puerto Rico was celebrating the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ first Voyage of Discovery.  He didn’t land on this island, but the celebration was here anyway.  Three exact replicas of his ships, the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria were tied up in the harbor and there were parades and fireworks and parties on the streets late into the night.  It was a magical time to be here!  Unfortunately, it was long before digital cameras and iPhones so the only photos I have are buried in a box somewhere, but I have wonderful memories to keep me company.

There was supposed to be a classical sailaway from San Juan, but because of the rain that was canceled.  Perhaps we’ll have it when we sail from Half Moon Cay tomorrow.  As we sailed out the captain informed us that we would be having rough seas and we should make sure things were secure in our cabins.  There was no view of leaving the harbor, which is usually a beautiful  sight with El Morro Castle on the point, because it was raining cats and dogs and then fog set in.  I’ll just have to come back another time.

El Morro Castle at the entrance to San Juan's harbor.  The sky didn't look like this today. I took this a couple of years ago.

This is as close as I got today using my phone at maximum zoom from the ship. Aren't iPhones great?

We had a great show last night. Handré, Director of Entertainment for Seabourn Cruises, has been on these last eight days and he performed for us.  He is an extremely talented pianist and composer and his show included his own compositions with a backdrop of the most wonderful videos of places around the world.  It was magical!  I have a very soft spot in my heart for Handré. He was the cruise director on our very first Seabourn cruise on this very ship. On top of that he is one of the absolute nicest people I’ve ever met.  I may have already written that recently; I can’t remember if I did, but it’s worth repeating.

Today we’re sailing along under sunny skies but still with rocking and rolling – not as bad as during the night.  Noon found us all in the Club for trivia.  We didn’t win today but that’s okay.  I forgot to mention that yesterday after the sailaway event was canceled we had an extra trivia game at 4 PM.  Half the team didn’t hear the announcement, but the rest of us won by a wide margin.  I have a lot of swag to give away.

That’s about it for now.  These haven’t been very exciting days, but they have been lovely for me.  One last thing.  Yesterday, November 6, was a great day to wake up to for other reasons which if you know me you can figure out and if you don't it's probably best left unsaid.

Early November 6 - Let’s Dance!

It’s very late but I had to write something else.  We played trivia late this afternoon and once again we won commandingly (the other teams may try to throw us overboard if we keep this up).  Our teammate Jean from Scotland was on fire; I’m the scribe for the team and all I needed to do was write down her answers.  She was fantastic!

Dinner was a ladies’ table with Aimée, the cruise director, and it was a lot of fun.  We celebrated Linda’s birthday with a cake.  After dinner there was a dance party on deck and of course I went.  What a good time we had!  I sat with Olga and Carlos and Olga and I did a lot of dancing.  It was hot and muggy, but then it is the Caribbean.  Just as the party was winding down, it started sprinkling.  The weather gods have been pretty good for us so far so I can’t complain.  I heard though that tomorrow our luck may end because the weather forecast for our stop in San Juan is rain, rain, rain.  Too bad; I was going to go ashore and get a cab to take me to the old forts on the north coast of old San Juan.  The shoreline there is beautiful and I wanted to take some photos. Maybe next time.

I'm not in the photo.  Maybe next time.

There is something great about being on a ship on a day like today.  It’s a pretty momentous day in the US and if we don’t want to think about it, we don’t have to.  We are in a world of our own out here, and it’s absolutely wonderful!  Something else – maybe I’ll stop getting text messages about election stuff and spam calls.  Yes, I get spam calls out here in the ocean.  At least they haven’t come in the middle of the night!  More tomorrow.