At Sea

Here we are midway through our four days at sea.  We’ve settled into a routine; Tom gets up and goes to the café for coffee while Debbie catches some extra sleep time.  Some days we go to a dining room for breakfast, some days we wait for lunch.  No one needs three meals per day on a cruise ship!  We find a place, either outside or inside, and read for a while. There’s usually at least one lecture that looks interesting to us.  Port information, life at sea, astronomy and digital photography are just some of the topics.   Sometimes there’s sun tanning time, sometimes a cool spot in the shade is appreciated.  Temperatures are in the low 80s, and we’ve had a mixture of sun and clouds with an occasional sprinkle or two;  all in all, pleasant and mellow.  We get together with our onboard friends, John & Judy and Lu & Joe, for cocktails in the evening before dinner.  We eat at 8 PM and sometimes attend a show or a movie before wandering off to bed.

Sunday night around 7:30 PM, somewhere off the coast of Suriname, we gathered together to partake in an annual ritual; watching the Super Bowl.  It was broadcast live via satellite, and was shown on the big outdoor screen and in a large show lounge.  It was not the commercial broadcast that you all watched; we had an ESPN international feed, so we missed all of the special commercials.  Instead, we saw commercials for ESPN’s upcoming coverage of events like the Masters Golf Tournament, an International Cricket competition, rugby and soccer tournaments, and the like.  We did see the pregame singing and the half-time show.  If the 49ers had played for the whole game instead of just the second half, we believe that the outcome would have been different, but congratulations to the Baltimore Ravens.

Monday was a formal night, so we got dressed up.  We don’t bring formal clothes, just a suit for Tom and a dressy-dress for Debbie.  There are three formal nights on this cruise out of nineteen total nights, so that’s really not a burden.

We crossed the equator early this morning before we stop at three Brazilian ports; Fortaleza, Salvador and Rio de Janiero.  We’ll be in Rio overnight next Sunday so that we can participate in Carnival.  We’re really looking forward to our time there.