At Sea

February 3^rd, 2025

This is the first of 6 sea days. That’s like doing a transatlantic crossing!

Still, Nick and the team are going to keep up busy. As I went past the atrium this morning a noisy game of Baggo was underway.

There were 4 talks during the day – we were trying to catch up with work and emails so we didn’t get to attend any of them, but were able to watch them all on the TV in our suite so we didn’t miss out. I really like to be present in the Salon when the talks are being given, but it is so nice that you don’t have to organize your day around them as you can watch them at any time on the TV in your suite.

We are back to the Skeleton Coast, so it is cold, windy, foggy weather again. Not great for sitting by the pool. The area is known for whales and there were a few hardy folks out on the deck in front of the Observation Bar hoping to catch a glimpse of one, but none seemed to come in to their field of vision. I stayed indoors, worried that I might get blown overboard.

We seem to be going exceptionally slowly, and this was confirmed by our new captain, Captain Kyriakos Karras in his noon announcement. The reason it feels so slow is that it is slow, we are sailing along at 8 knots. If you compare this to Queen Mary 2’s top speed of 30 knots we are certainly going at a snail’s pace. We are clearly taking our time to get to Benin.

The fleet cruise director for Seabourn, John Barron, is on board and has been joining Nick and Rhys forTeam Trivia. He embarked in Cape Town and hopefully will be on the ship until Barcelona. He is a very funny man and it’s great to have him as part of the entertainment team.

Actually, there was quite a controversy at trivia today. The bonus question was “what is the busiest airport in the world?” Well we had quite a bit of discussion on our team – was it Atlanta, Dubai, Istanbul? We eventually decided it was Atlanta. Quite a few other teams also thought it was Atlanta, but the majority thought it was Dubai. Nick said the correct answer was Dubai, and so I was sorry that we missed out on bonus points, but what Nick says is what the final answer is.

Not so today. The teams that had said Atlanta soon mobbed Nick, waving their phones at him, pointing out that Atlanta IS the busiest airport in the world. I felt quite sorry for Nick. Who knew that trivia could be so controversial? I was ready for lunch, so I didn’t get to see the outcome of the onslaught.

On every segment so far we have had a block party, where you get to drink champagne and eat canapes while you meet your suite neighbours, all while standing in the corridor outside your suite. There are 2 couples who are new to our neighbourhood, so we chatted to them. There were also some new officers in the corridor, so we got to greet and meet them as well.

I decided to decline the drinks that were on offer, and luckily someone went and got me some proper champagne.

During the socialization Nick and the captain walk through all of the corridors – Nick carries a boom box which I suppose is meant to give the occasion a more festive party atmosphere. Today the music blasting from the boom box was Zorba the Greek – no doubt in honor of our captain Karras who hails from that country.

Anyway it is always good fun, although I must confess I have already forgotten our new neighbors names.

Dinner in the restaurant is not quite the same with Eunice gone, but the remaining waitstaff are very good. We got a table by the window so I could continue whale watching. We had a great meal, but not a single whale graced us with an appearance.

The entertainer tonight was a young Austrian magician called Fab Fox. He was good, and amusing, but did many of the same things that the previous magicians had done. Except he did get a $50 note to appear in the middle of a lemon, which was a new one on me. I was mystified, but a friend said he had worked out how it was done, so it probably wasn’t magic after all.

It must be hard to keep us all entertained with new and exciting acts for a whole 90 days. I think they are doing a great job really, hopefully the entertainment staff will keep it up.