1-07 At Sea

1-07 Day 2 At sea

We are really on our way, and it is so exciting – especially after a good night's sleep. We are headed for Costa Rica by way of the northern shore of Cuba, which we could see for a good part of the day. Doug slept in a bit later than I did, but I wanted to attend the 10 am initial bridge lecture to see if/how much I would be playing bridge on this trip. It didn't take long for me to realize that most of the people in the room were DEDICATED bridge players who would rather play than attend a lecture, etc. This is for the duplicate group. There were not that many interested in party bridge, so I'll just pick up a game when I can. I would rather attend the lectures! But they do have a bridge lesson every day at sea, so maybe I can pick up some good pointers at least.

We were surprised at the passenger safety briefing. In the past they have always been on the first day – before the sail away. On this cruise, it was the 2nd day – no life jackets to carry, no roll call, etc. In fact, we were told to go to station 10 – where there were only rafts, not life boats. When we asked, we were told that the assistant should have sent us down to the actual life boats (there are two station 10s – one for the passengers, one for the crew – eerily a bit like the Titanic!)

Attended our first exploration speaker series – John Palmisano – a well educated marine biologist. He had slides and was very articulate – enjoyed him very much and look forward to his next presentation. We learned that you can distinguish a marine mammal and fish by the direction of their tail. A fish's tail goes from left to right, right to left while a marine mammal's goes up and down. One of those interesting tidbits we'll know for our next trivia quiz! Brittany, you would have really enjoyed this lecture!

It is chilly on the ship, so we had lunch by the pool at the taco bar. The pool had the cover on it as it was still a bit chilly outside as well. For someone who eats very little beef, I enjoyed a big juicy cheeseburger and fries from the grill (after last night's wonderful filet mignon and baked potato.) We tried to attend another lecture by Ms Montgomery about Latin America, but her presentation put us both to sleep in our chairs, so we headed back to the cabin for an afternoons nap. (Life is so exhausting shipboard!) It was just what we needed. Had dinner at 5:30 and then went to the movie on board ship – State of Play – which we had not seen before. It was very good with lots of twists. That sounded better than the nightly entertainment. After that we checked out the ship's shops before heading back to the cabin.

Final thought: it was a lot of work to get ready for this trip with all the house stuff and the holidays, but I can say at the end of day 2 that it was well worth it. I only wish everyone reading this could be with us to share in the fun, adventure, and life on board ship.