The following image was taken from the sliding door of our stateroom. The image was taken in the morning. Later in the day, the sky clouded over, the wind increased, and it started raining. We experienced the roughest seas on the trip so far, making walking down the hallways even more challenging. FWIW: we have been told repeatedly how great the weather and waves have been so far. Not looking forward to bigger waves (nor is my stomach).
Cheryl: Another fun and interesting day at sea. The weather was warm but cloudy and rainy most of the day, and the waves were high. After 10 days on the ship, it is still difficult for most people to walk a straight line down the hallways while the ship is out in the wide-open sea. On the bright side, the rocking of the boat makes for a more stringent workout to keep our balance. The jogging track was closed most of the day for safety reasons because Captain Marcus thought the winds were too high. He mentioned in his noon announcements that there were two ships in the distance from us, about 9 miles away. He said that was unusual, and he didn’t expect to see any other ships until we were close to French Polynesia (Bob: he mentioned the Pacific is a big ocean).
Bob: We attended a presentation given by Richard Lovelock, providing tips for creating great mobile phone photographs. He is an excellent presenter.
Highlights: pressing the power button twice quickly activates the camera without unlocking, the volume buttons take an image when the camera is active, touching on the screen at a specific spot sets the area of focus, when the former is done, a brightness slider appears, you can take photos while recording video, and portrait mode was explained. All of these techniques are likely known to many, but given the response in the room, that was not true within his audience.
Cheryl: The lectures were especially engaging today. We started off with a photography class by the resident wildlife expert/photographer, Richard. He is funny and engaging, and we found this smartphone camera 101 class really helpful. We’ll participate in the next two as well. (Our kids are snickering as they read this because they probably knew all this stuff!)
Bob: I attended a session with guest chef Pepi Anevski, who demonstrated how to take a whole Big-Eye tuna and create cuts for sushi. Anevski is world-renowned and considered one of the best sushi chefs in the world (click).
To be honest, I’m not entirely sure why I attended this demonstration, as I am not a big fan of nigiri or sashimi. It was interesting, though, and the audience really enjoyed watching him work. He started with the whole fish shown in the following image to 10 great-looking nigiri offerings in about 35 minutes. Pretty amazing work.
Bob: My last presentation of the day focused on pearls. Timely as the South Pacific is a huge supplier of the pearls found worldwide, and many people on board were considering purchasing them while on the islands. An educational talk given by a talented speaker who clearly loves, I mean clearly loves, pearls. I am not considering a pearl purchase (I can and will not speak for Cheryl).
Cheryl: I attended one of the writing workshop classes, taught by a college English professor/writer. It was informative and started me thinking about what I write in this blog to present more compelling and descriptive updates. I joined the Viking Guest Choir, and we had our first official practice, working on the piece “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen. We’ve all heard this beautiful piece many times, performed by various artists.
I then finished my first book of the cruise (We Loved to Run by Stephanie Reents) – it was a perfect way for me to wind down because it presented a sweet, coming-of-age story of a collegiate cross-country team and the ways these committed, intelligent young women navigated their journey into adulthood and fulfilled their passion/hatred for running. We met the author in Sisters a few months back through our friends, Uncle Jeff/Aunt Paula Reents. Completely delightful.
Bob: The following images are from the Explorers Lounge on Deck 7 forward. A great place to read, eat, get a drink, blog, or watch the water go by.
Cheryl: Tonight we joined two other couples and dined at the Chef’s Table Restaurant, which has a different menu than the other restaurants on the ship. It has a five-course, fixed-menu and companion wines for each course. The preparation was elaborate for each course – I should have taken pictures. It was our first time at this restaurant, and we’ll go back in the future, and I’ll take pictures. Bob: One of the courses was a very lightly seared tuna dish, which was pretty tasty. The main course was beef tenderlion which Cheryl oddly liked a bit more than I did (I eat a bit more beef than she does).
Cheryl: We ended the night by attending a musical performance by Terrell Edwards – Unforgettable – Part I. He is an amazing professional singer and performer, crediting his first big break to Jay Leno. This guy is highly talented and a nice person. We sat next to him at dinner, his first night on the ship, and enjoyed our conversation with him. Bob: He put on a great show, and we eagerly await his next performance.
Bob: One more attempt to show the whale photos. I think I figured it out this time.
