At Sea

The shops had a sale today. We have been rather unimpressed by the merchandise available there this year, especially the lack of attractive Queen Victoria and World Cruise items. However, we did end up making some purchases of course. They were selling QM2 baseball caps for $5; they had been delivered to the wrong ship. Brian already has a QM2 cap, but operating under the premise that you can never have too many things from QM2, he now has another one to add to our collection of QM2 paraphernalia. Over the years I have bought 3 beautiful QM2 scarves, and I do wish they would sell scarves again – I love all of my Cunard scarves, but it would be fantastic to have another one to wear.

Today was the first really rainy day we have had in a while, I was getting worried that our rain making skills were getting rusty. Although this meant no basking in the sun by the pool, it was probably good to be indoors for a change.

We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn last night, and are now on the same latitude as Pretoria in South Africa. No longer in the tropics. On our port side is the Tonga Trench, which is very active, and the plates there are moving at about 24 cms/year. It is the 2^nd deepest trench in the world. It is fascinating to think about what is happening below us, as we calmly sail above the ocean floor, albeit in the middle of a torrential rainstorm. The Commodore did not apologize for our rainy weather, instead he said it was payback for all of the great weather we have been having over the past weeks.

I chatted to the Synergy folks – they were playing in the Winter Garden today instead of the Lido pool as it was still raining. They are on the ship until Southampton. That is good news.

This evening we received a card with the details of our South Pacific Crossing giving the statistics of our journey since Valparaiso, including our daily noon position. I wish they would have done this for every segment. In fact I wish they would do this for every voyage. I have a chart of the North Atlantic, and on every crossing I try to take a photo of our position at noon so I can track our course, and compare crossings. Of course, I have many missing readings due to my usual lack of organization, and it would have been really great to get these details at the end of every crossing/segment for people like me who simply need to know this information. Anyway it was great to have the facts. I mean who knew that our fastest average speed was on February 20^th when we averaged 21.5 knots, and our slowest was 14.2 knots on the 27^th, but we were sailing near to Bora Bora so I am glad we slowed down so we didn’t hit any of the small islands.

It was another formal night tonight – and the Ascot Ball. I decided to forgo the fight with my fascinator and spent the evening without any fancy head covering. So did the majority of passengers, and there were very few hats on display. Brian, as always, looked totally splendid in his tuxedo and perfectly tied bow tie. No ready tied bow tie for my man! I wore my other blue dress which drags on the floor a bit, and has a strong relationship to the time I plummeted down the grand staircase in the Britannia Dining Room on QM2.

We had already seen the show, so decided to go to the Commodore Club instead after dinner so I could have a Chocolate Affair Martini. They are not as good as Milky Way Martinis, but do satisfy my need for chocolate in the evenings. When we disembark (sob), I think the thing I will miss the most is sitting in the Commodore Club after dinner, sipping a Martini and listening to Carlo Nuschi on the piano. It is my perfect place to be – I so wish I could take it all home with me.