at sea

---

February 27th, 2006
Day 53 of our cruise of 105, over the half way mark, pity
139 nautical miles from Madagascar

Well! What an exiting time we have had at sea.

First, on Sunday night we received our medals for “…choosing Holland America….”; Terry and I and almost half the ship’s passengers were awarded the 100 day medal. We were entertained in the Queen’s Lounge with Champagne, orange juice, pink martini type drinks and hors d’oeuvre. Then we proceeded to the LaFontaine dining room for a formal diner. (see our medals by the towel elephant, we get different sculptures every night, tonight a cute towel puppy)
Tonight, we have been invited by the captain and his lovely wife to their table in their appartment for dinner. I just hope I can fit in my chosen outfit. Tell you all about it later….
…later
Well, I fit( just) into my outfit and Terry s’behaved at dinner; it was lovely:
2 chefs, a maitre d’hotel and 4 servers for 10 people. 5 courses, a drink then white and red wine. Very elegant. And when we returned home by 9 ( Started at 6), there had been 2 Versace Rosenthal blown glass wine stoppers, in the same pattern as the captain’s dishes, delivered to our cabin as a token of our night with the captain. Very nice.

As for the seas, the descriptor on the ongoing TV Report from the bridge is calm and rippled- smother than the lake on a week day; we are lucky said the captain, it can get rough around here.
The concern at this time is our proximity to the African East coast, so Terry who has been out this morning tells me there are security guards out on deck with binoculars looking out for pirates.

14º South of the Equator, very hot in the 40ºC, risk of dehydration
Sea temperature 28 º
Humidity very high
46º East of Greenwich Mean Time- 3 hours earlier than the 6 hour difference from the usual Canada to Europe

We are now entering the spices and fragrant flower area of the world. The reason the European came here around the 1300 by camel and then in the 1500 by ship. Madagascar is renowned for its vanilla, pepper and cinnamon and ylang-ylang flowers.

Hello my children, hello granny.

Ttys, love to all

---

Comments

[Jackie]

hoho a pirates life for me!
Wow pirates..really..lets hope they dont see any..and if so try to get a picture! Trip sounds amazing as usual...keep it up! Hey mom you do know i LOVE vanilla right:P..keep on crusing guys! Miss and love you lots!

[Sue Andy]

At Sea
Just stubbled across your blog and I have to say the croc warning for wheelchair users is hilarious!