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Day 41 – 14 Feb At Sea

We were supposed to be in Port Arthur today, but it was canceled due to the expected heavy swells at our anchorage.  Skipping Port Arthur would also allow us to get a head start on our way to Kangaroo Island and give us time to transit via the more protected Bass Strait between the mainland and Tasmania.

Heavy Weather

Heavy seas and high winds are here.  Throughout the day the relative wind shown on the ship’s TV exceeded 70 knots and a few people reported seeing gusts of over 90 knots.  There was significant motion and from time to time there was a touch of roll as the waves exceeded the capability of the stabilizers that can handle most rolling motion.  Green apples and crackers appeared on the counter of the Front Desk.

Angry Seas
Green Apples and Soda Crackers at the Front Desk

Valentine’s Day Ball Cancelled

Today was Valentine’s Day and was scheduled to be a Gala night with a Valentine’s Day Ball in the Queen’s Lounge complete with another Chocolate Surprise.  Early in the day, Hamish came over the public-address system and announced that due to the heavy weather causing significant deck motion, the Valentine’s Day Ball was postponed and the Gala night dress code was cancelled.  All the evening shows were returned to their original times as they had been moved to 5:00 PM and 7:15 to accommodate the Ball in the Queens Lounge.

Coffee Chat

Assistant cruise directors Amanda and Mario were the guests at Coffee Chat.  Amanda is from Washington State and went to Morehead State in Kentucky on a cheer-leading scholarship.  She started in Club HAL before getting her current position as an assistant cruise director.  We learned that she has a black belt in Taekwondo, a “Korean martial art characterized by its emphasis on head-height kicks, jumping and spinning kicks, and fast kicking techniques”.  Wow!

Hamish, Amanda and Mario
Amanda
Mario

A guest asked Amanda, half joking, if she would demonstrate a cheerleading routine and much to the amazement of all, she put down her coffee and the microphone and performed a “forward handspring step out” in the very limited space in front of her chair.  Amazing!

Mario is from Columbia and started working in shops before moving over to the entertainment side.

Crafts

Crafts has been very popular, and many times Judy has returned empty handed since all the allocated kits were already distributed by the 2:30 scheduled starting time.  Once they started passing out kits early people started coming to class even earlier and many people were going to the Lido for lunch and sitting in the craft area and then staying there for 2 hours until the class starts.  Henk distributed a memo asking people to respect the fact the many venues serve multiple purposes and arriving way ahead of time impacts the people in the previous activity.  He stopped by before class started today and reminded everyone to avoid coming to events too early.  They have now stopped passing out craft kits early and the situation is now much more reasonable with people no longer arriving so early.   Read Henk’s memo HERE

A list of all the craft projects for the entire cruise is HERE

We Love Chocolate

Abby, the America’s Test Kitchen host, scheduled a special cooking class “We Love Chocolate” In the Wajang Theatre aka America’s Test Kitchen on Deck 4.  I arrived 30 minutes early and was surprised to find that I was the first person in the room.  The room eventually filled up, but there were a few seats empty even when the class started.  Before class started, Abby’s cart came rolling across the front of the room, heading straight for me, when the ship took a big roll.  Fortunately, someone alerted me, and the cart was moving slow enough and was light enough that I was able to easily stop it with one hand.

Abby demonstrating how to make brownies

Abby opened the class with an overview about chocolate and various useful techniques helpful when using chocolate in recipes.  She followed with a demonstration of two recipes:  Pots de Creme and the chewiest brownies on the planet.  You can find the recipes HERE.

I played 2 Texas Hold’em tournaments and didn’t win either time.

Evening events

With the announcement that the Gala dress code was relaxed, many people reverted to their normal smart casual attire, but there were a significant number of people who wore their special Valentine’s Day attire.  The Main Dining Room was all decked out with the Valentine’s Day decorations and there was a special menu for the event.  Dinner featured a “Surf and Turf” with Filet and a Grilled Shrimp.  I always enjoy their pot pies, so I selected the Lobster Pot Pie which was very good.  You can see the complete menu on the blog.

We found these flowers in our cabin before dinner. If I was quicker I could have claimed to be the originator of the gifts myself
Valentines Day Dining Room Decorations
Table Setting
Valetines special desert
Theme Socks

Louie Shelton, a session musician who played his electric guitar with a wide variety of famous artists, was the headliner in the Queen’s Lounge.  He put on a marvelous show as he played many familiar song’s including the theme songs from “The Monkees”, the Beverly Hillbillys” and a wonderful rendition of the Santana Hit – “Black Magic Woman”.

Hamish introducing Louie Shelton

This entry was posted in 2018 Grand World Voyage, Sea Day

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