At Sea
January 11th, 2025
We continued to be speeding again today. I must say I do like it when the ship goes at a decent pace rather than chugging along, which is what it has felt like for the past few weeks.
The reason for our accelerated speed was revealed by Captain Hamish in his noon announcement. They were trying to get to the Seychelles as soon as possible so that someone in the medical center could be transferred to the hospital there for ongoing medical care. We will reach the port by 6:00 this evening and the patient will be taken ashore, but as there is no berth available for our ship we will then go back out to sea and dock at 8:00 AM tomorrow as previously planned.
It is always so awful when you hear that someone is having to leave the ship due to medical issues. Friends of ours had had to leave the ship in Lobito, Angola, and now this. Very sad.
Following the noon announcement our final trivia session of the segment got going. The way trivia works is that there are 4 supposedly easy questions for which you can score 10 points each, then 4 intermediate questions for which you can score 20 points each, and then 4 hard questions, which have a score of 30 points each, so you could get a maximum score of 210 points. Then there is the bonus question, where the score seems to vary considerably, but is usually around 100 points.
Today we had a perfect score of 210 and were feeling very confident that although we were not going to win a prize for this segment of the cruise, we would redeem ourselves from our rather lowly standings.
For the bonus question we were given photos of 8 small children and asked to name who they are. This was tough, but after much discussion we came up with 8 potential names and felt quite pleased with ourselves. Boy, were we wrong! Only one name was correct, the other 7 were way off. Very disappointing. So, we ended with an OK overall score, but far from the top scorers. Never mind, the next session starts after the Seychelles, so there is always hope.
Actually although it would be nice to win, we really aren’t a very competitive bunch, and we just enjoy being together and eating the popcorn that is supplied at each trivia session. Some teams take it way too seriously. I am so glad that we aren’t on one of those teams. It would really take the fun out of it. Besides I have learned a whole lot of useless trivia playing along, well I thought I had, I fear I have already forgotten what I learned.
As this was the final sea day of the segment there was a show of the art and jewelry created during this segment, so we went up to Seabourn Square to check it out.
Three of the boats from yesterday’s competition were on show so it was great to get a closer look at them.
The artwork was amazing, but my favorite was the lilac breasted roller painted by a friend of ours. It is really beautiful.
There was some great jewelry on display as well.
Among the jewelry was a bracelet that clearly had the same problem as the one that I had made. It was too long for a bracelet and too short for a necklace, so it had to be tied in a knot, just like mine. Phew, I am not the only one on board who can’t judge the length of a string of beads.
As it was the last sea day of the segment there was the staff salute around the pool, which conveniently came with music, caviar and champagne.
We could see that we were quite close to the shore. Not long now until our patient on board can be transferred to the hospital in Victoria.
Sandy Grigelis entertained us again tonight. His guitars had been found and are safely on their way back to London. Also missing was his sheet music, but he still managed to give another great performance. A true professional.
I thought maybe the Lilac Breasted Roller was done by you – very nice.
I do wish I was that talented – a friend painted that. She is a wonderful artist and I think absolutely captured the essence of those beautiful birds. She is a wonderful photographer too, a very talented lady!