At Sea

December 19^th, 2024

The crossing of the line ceremony had been switched to 2 days ago due to the risk of rain today. Well the weatherman didn’t lie, it was pouring this morning.

However, it did clear up briefly so that the eagerly anticipated staff vs guests water polo match could occur, and then we could all go indoors again.

When I went to the Observation Bar to get some work done, one of the guests was playing Schumann’s Traumerei on the piano. He stopped when he saw me, but I begged him to carry on. My grandmother loved Schumann, and got so much pleasure out of playing Traumerei. She would have enjoyed listening to him. I really appreciated this little musical interlude.

Andrew Johnson gave a talk on safaris, a subject very dear to my heart. It was a good talk, and he had some excellent photos. On previous Cunard cruises Brian and I have given a talk on safaris. Not so much on the history of safaris although we do mention that, but more on the practical aspects of what a safari entails and the many options out there. Of course, while Brian talks about camera equipment and F stops, I talk about what to wear so you can look safari chic. I think both topics are important in any safari talk.

Christian gave a talk on the Angola ports. We have a private tour organized in Luanda, but we are still working out what to do in Lobito, so it was very helpful. However, at the end Christian talked about the political discontent in Maputo after the recent elections and the possibility of disruptions due to demonstrations. I do hope things calm down by the time we get there.

He also let us know that they were looking at conditions in Mayotte after the devastating cyclone that occurred there recently. I am in 2 minds about our visit there. On the one hand the last thing they probably need is a boat load of tourists interfering with their cleanup efforts. On the other hand we may be able to provide them with supplies and water. There are no tours planned for Mayotte at the moment, and we were thinking about heading to the beach, as are several of our friends. We will have to wait to see what is happening. I am OK with an extra sea day, or maybe another day in Madagascar, our next port after Mayotte.

Talking about possibly missing ports I had seen a post on Facebook that Madagascar wasn’t allowing visitors there who had been in Tanzania within the previous 10 days. The post gave no more information, and I did a search and couldn’t find anything more on this. As we are scheduled to arrive in Madagascar 9 days after we leave Dar es Salaam I hope that there won’t be a problem.

We went back to Solis with friends for dinner. I ordered the grilled Nigerian prawns. I was a bit taken aback that there were only 2 prawns, but as it turned out, they were very filling, and I don’t think I could have coped with more than 2 anyway. This is our third time in Solis, and although I did enjoy it, I still preferred the restaurant when it was Thomas Keller. However, I am very happy to go back to Solis again!

When we got back to our suite, there on our bed was our crossing the line certificates. It is always a nice touch,