Day 13: At Sea … En Route to Cabo … or Not

Wednesday, 18 January 2017
At Sea — North Pacific Ocean

Stats @ Ship’s Time 10:00p (MST) … UTC 5:00a (19 January)
Temp: 70F (21.1C)
Position: 21.10.76N / 108.27.47W

I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.
~ Susan Sontag ~

I love days at sea.  I know I’ve said it before, but IMHO one can’t say it often enough ;-)

We gained another hour last night … we’re on Mountain Standard time now.  That might explain why I was up at 5:30a this morning.  I thought about going back to sleep, but then the possibility of good internet to upload photos won out.  No can do — but I was rewarded with a glorious sunrise … gorgeous colors.

After a series of blue-sky days, today turned cloudy about mid-day.  And the sea is a bit rougher, too … nothing major, but there is a steady vibration and shimmy.  As the day progressed, the temperature dropped from what Captain Brajcic reported as being 82F (28C) at noon.  A stiff breeze added a windchill that emptied the pool deck of all the sun worshippers shortly thereafter.  It’s been comfortable on the veranda, though … 75F (24C) at 5:00p on my thermometer.  I love it … and the breeze doesn’t bother me.

During my morning walk, I stop to capture the sun rising steadily from the horizon.

Our sea day routine is well established now and we followed it again today … with a couple of changes.

For one thing, the second muster drill of this voyage was held today.  In addition to the embarkation day drill, O holds this mandatory meeting every 14 days.  I have a feeling we will be able to repeat the drill verbatim by the time we disembark on July 6 ;-)  We were required to wear our life vests, but Captain Brajcic excused us from having to go out to the tender boats on deck 5 since we were shown the stations during the embarkation drill.

Another change from our routine ... we went up to the library on deck 10 in order to escape the sun on our aft veranda and give Zhenya and Gabriel a chance to service the cabin.  We like this venue as it is always quiet up there.  I managed to upload a couple of blog posts ... though the internet was no better than what we get in the cabin.

All dressed up for the muster drill and nowhere to go … we hope that is always the case.

The big change in our routine was an exclusive dinner for the RTWers tonight.  I understand there will be similar events held once a month.  We received initial notice of this one a few days ago, with the request to RSVP to the front desk.  Then the official invitation arrived to advise us of the location — Toscana; and our table assignment — #14.

Our table was hosted by the Casino Manager.  We had not met our tablemates before, so this was a good opportunity to get to know four more of the 190 passengers doing the RTW … that number came from our host.  As is usual when you have a group of people who have a shared interest — in this case, travel — there was no lack of topics to keep the conversation going.  The meal was a special menu prepared by our newly-arrived Executive Chef Jörg Becker.  We liked it all quite well, but I later heard that many of our fellow-RTWers didn’t much care for the dishes that were served.

Beef Empanadas with Salsa Piquant and Nicaraguan Cabbage Slaw
Arroz con Maiz (Mexican Rice with Corn)
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Veal Medallion with Tomatillo-Green Apple Salsa
or
Jumbo Prawns Escabeche in a Tortilla Basket
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Spiky Ice Macadamia Bomb on a Coffee Brownie

The presentation of the mains and the dessert … worth a photo for sure.

Change in Plans …

I’ll close with a change in our itinerary.  For the second time since embarking in Miami on January 6 we will be skipping a port — Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.  I had already seen the weather map showing several storms moving towards the California coast from the Pacific, so I can’t say that the change came as a surprise.  I’ll write more about this in tomorrow’s post since I will now have time to do some blogging during what will be another sea day for us.

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