At Sea

February 13^th, 2025

Today was a lazy day, the sort of perfect sea day. We didn’t really do anything of great significance, but we had a good time. The talks were great, and the food was good.

The weather is still hot, and it isn’t too windy. It is just wonderful to still be on board, I am absolutely not ready to think about how fast this cruise is going.

The excitement of the day actually occurred during Team Trivia. The officers team had joined us, and it looked like we were going to have a good time as we grabbed our pencils and demolished the popcorn.

Now, we have been on ships where trivia is an obsession with the participants. This isn’t a fun way to exercise your brain, it is a competitive sport where one must win at all costs. On the Sojourn although there is certainly a competitive spirit in the air, for the most part we are all pretty relaxed, even when we don’t agree with the answers.

One of the things I love about our team is that every member has something to contribute, and although there is often discussion about who has the correct answer, we reach a compromise and stick with it. So if we did in fact chose an answer that turned out to be incorrect, when someone had suggested the correct answer we just move on to the next question. After all this really is about fun.

Well, one of the questions Nick asked today was who the emperor was who in 100 BC devised a code to communicate with his generals. Well, that was a tough one. Julius Caesar  was known for using a simple code to communicate with his generals called the “Caesar Cipher,” where each letter in a message is shifted a fixed number of positions down the alphabet, usually by three letters, meaning “A” would become “D”, “B” would become “E”, and so on; allowing him to send secret messages that only his trusted commanders could decipher.

BUT Julius Caesar was actually born in 100 BC and wasn’t an emperor. So it couldn’t be him. We thought long and hard about what empires could have been around in 100 BC, digging deep into our collective memories of high school history. Finally we had an answer, but we weren’t too sure about that.

It seemed that several of the other teams were also unsure about the answer. Then Nick announced that the answer was Julius Caesar.

Well, we nearly had a riot. People were yelling at Nick and getting very upset. Nick kept on trying to calm them down and say that this is just meant to be fun. To no avail. People were getting really worked up, to the extent that the captain, who was a member of the officers’ team, had to escort a member of another team out of the room. Wow! I wasn’t expecting that. Even 2 of our team members were most upset. Who would have thought this would be so controversial.

Eventually everyone calmed down, and Nick said he would withdraw the question, and to make sure we would all get the replacement question correct, he asked what year was the Battle of Hastings. Peace reigned again. Thank goodness.

Maybe underneath the superficial pleasantries of the teams, there lurks a sinister competitive spirit. Time will tell. We still have 2 weeks to go.

We are dinner at Solis, the specialty restaurant, again. It is certainly not as good as the previous specialty restaurant, Thomas Keller, but I had a wonderful meal, and I do love the décor of the room and being able to look out the amazing waitstaff. I really enjoyed the evening.

The fleet cruise director, John, entertained us again this evening. I love his singing and he has a wonderful sense of humor, although it is a bit risqué at times and not entirely appropriate for this setting. He will be leaving the ship at the next port, which is disappointing as he had said he would be on board until Barcelona. It has been great having him assisting Rhys and Nick.

He also did a fair job of making out like he was singing on the Love Boat

Talking of people leaving, Rachael, the future cruise consultant suddenly left the ship, as did one of my favorite singers in the Seabourn Six, Dalton. They will both be missed.

When we returned to our suite, thankfully there were no new towel creatures, but there was a gift. I think it is a bookmark. Not so handy as the book I am currently reading is on Brian’s Kindle, but it will replace my rather tatty ancient boarding pass that I usually use, when I go back to reading proper books.