Saturday April 20th – Sea Day

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Today we continue on our steady NNE heading at around 19 knots. We are approaching the Equator but are not scheduled to cross until tomorrow about Noon. The Captain said he would announce it beforehand so nobody would fall down from the bump in the water. In the meantime, it continued to be smooth sailing and very warm since leaving Bora Bora. It’s pretty nice! Today the temp only got up to 88.

We got a nice note from Stephanie yesterday. CONGRATULATIONS to Alex for finishing 4^th in a Technology Student Association in the AutoCAD competition and for his team finishing 2^nd in Technological Design competition. Next they go to the National Competition! Also CONGRATULATIONS to Abigail for her school choir being invited to sing the National Anthem at the Springfield Redbirds ball game.

We also got a nice message from David’s sister Janel about their previous visit to Moorea and how much they are enjoying Guatemala. She reported that Good Friday celebration involves carpets of flowers, huge floats about the crucifixion and thousands of costumed celebrants. Easter is really a big event down there.

Today has been another day of restful cruising back toward home. We slept until about 8:00 and then had a simple breakfast in the Horizon Court. Janet then went to 3 hours of knitting – you would think that she had worn out her poor fingers. David went to a presentation in the Princess Theater about Navigation at Sea.

It had been announced that an officer from the ship would come and explain some basic things to us, but it turned out to be the Captain. He is quite a character and really enjoys interacting with the passengers. First a few of the numbers that he provided. The Star Princess is almost 900 feet long and 110 feet wide. The portion above water stands 160 feet high (all the way to the top of the mast) and is only 26 feet below the waterline. That was particularly important because there was only 9 extra feet of clearance below the keel going into Bora Bora. However all the heaviest items are stored on the bottom decks so there is no problem with tipping the ship over. Everything is driven by electricity produced by up to 6 generators. They are not all in use all the time, but at full capacity they consume 224 tons of fuel a day. They have storage tanks for up to 1200 tons of fresh water which would last almost 3 days at normal consumption. However they produce their own fresh water and can make up to 90 tons of water per hour. The ship’s GPS navigation is accurate to within 6 feet at any given time, but they have backup systems (charts, compasses, sextants, etc) which they are required to be trained to use in case of some enormous satellite failure. Our average speed is around 19-20 knots but max speed is 22-23. With his nearly constant humor it was a very entertaining and enlightening presentation.

Then David stayed for a session from the ship’s naturalist, who talked about disasters in the Pacific. She saved this session for the return voyage after there was no place for anyone to leave the ship before we reached the last port. The material covered Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Volcanoes and other natural disasters. Unfortunately David started falling asleep in his seat so he returned to the cabin to meet up with Janet.

We went to the Portofino Dining Room for lunch. On port days they do not serve a formal meal for lunch but when we are at sea they have a full fledge multi-course sit-down lunch. As usual this was a kind of lengthy experience but we had nowhere else to be so we enjoyed talking to the others at the table. Janet had a BLT sandwich with real potato chips (a scarce commodity on the ship) and David had Beef Cottage Pie. Some of the other had several courses of food with a much more involved lunch.

Afterwards Janet went back to the cabin to do more needlework and watch Mama Mia Here We Come Again.. David went to the Vista Lounge to learn how to do some magic tricks – the magician from an earlier night was showing how to perform a couple of tricks. After he explained them it is apparent how they were performed, but each was a surprise when he first demonstrated them. But any of them will take some practice before David can dazzle anyone with his new magic tricks.

While Janet finished her Movie, David went up to the Horizon Court for a soda and to see if they had Chili again. He had seen it yesterday and it looked good, but it had meat in it. Yes they set it out at 3:30 again today. He got a small sample just to try it and is happy to say that it was not really anything special – it would have been a shame to discover another mid-afternoon taste treat.

At 4:30 we went up to the lounge for Fresh Guacamole and cocktails. Actually Janet likes Guacamole and David just ate a few pieces of cheese. She had a Dirty Banana and David had a Strawberry Daiquiri. Then we went to dinner. For her Entrée Janet had Sea Scallops and David had Cowboy Steak. Both were very good.

We have both developed a little head cold and a cough. We will probably just settle down in the cabin tonight and try to get a good night’s sleep. Then we will be well prepared for a restful day tomorrow – relaxation can be very exhausting. Good night!

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