Day 54, Advance Clocks 23 Hours

Day 54 – Advance all Clocks 23 hours!

Early this morning we advanced all clocks 23 hours as we crossed the International Date Line.  Actually, we advanced all clocks 24 hours and then set them back 1 hour as we continue our westward journey toward Tonga. 

TONGA HEALTH QUESTIONAIRE

Fears of Corona Virus continue to influence our travels and we learned that Tonga refused entry to several cruise ships earlier in the week.  Tonga finally relented and agreed to our entry provided we complete a health questionnaire certifying that we haven’t been to an affected area in the last 2 weeks. 

COFFEE CHAT

Steven Ragartz was the guest at Coffee Chat this morning.  He decided to take some time off after completing all his course work for his PhD in computer science and worked as a street performer before landing his gig with Cirque du Soleil where he performed in the shows Mystère and Quidam.  

DINNER GUEST TYLER

Our guest for dinner this evening was Tyler, the bass player for the HAL Orchestra.  He majored in music at Penn State and is having a great time working on cruise ships. 

THE ALLEY CATS

The featured performers this evening were “The Alley Cats”, a Doo Wop acapella Group from Los Angeles.  They did a wonderful job singing hits such as: 

• Stand By Me
• Barbara Ann
• Little Darling
• Blue Moon
• The Lion Sleeps Tonight
• Let There Be Peace On Earth

About halfway thru the show they asked if anyone in the audience would like to come up on stage and help.  Normally such a request has people diving under their seats, but this evening an older gentleman slowly started walking toward the stage indicating he was ready to sing with them. 

Once on the stage, he proceeded to sing an amazing baritone, and had some pretty good moves.  I was convinced he was a plant and was related to a member of the group.  I spoke with him a few days later and it turned out he was 86 years young and a retired professional singer.  While he never sang Doo Wop, he was still very polished with a great stage presence.  

The Alley Cat’s have incredible voices and are very entertaining. Don’t miss their show!

THE SOUTHERN CROSS

After the show we stopped by the Seaview pool to see if the Southern Cross was visible.  The night was clear, but the ambient light by the pool was so bright that any visible stars were hard to see.  We decided to go forward to the Deck 6 observation deck, right below the bridge.  It was dark there as the bridge team needs to maintain good night vision.  Often times, the wind over this area is too intense for comfortable viewing, but tonight, the ships slower speed and favorable wind direction made it quite pleasant. 

It was dark here as we hoped, but there was enough light shining up from the Deck 5 ladder to make it safe to shuffle forward clinging to the handrail on the outer edge of the deck.  After taking a few minutes for our eyes to adapt, millions of stars came into view.  Using the SkyView app on Judy’s phone, the Southern Cross was easy to spot.