Day 18 - 10/24/23 - At Sea to Coquimbo, Chile - Day 2

 The sea swells continue to get larger and the temperatures are continuing to drop.  Of course, the penguins in the LIDO pool are very happy with these conditions.  And the gannet birds are enjoying a free ride on the bow of the ship while leaving their guano deposits.  The Captain in his lunch announcement reported a whale sighting, but I saw no wildlife other than the constant flights of gannets seeking food stirred up by the ship's passage through the cold dark blue waters.



After our normal morning interdenominational devotional time, we ate breakfast and Tom Goltz gave his presentation on Pacific Islander Canoe Wayfinding: Then & Now which was good.


The gem of the day was when Florian, our hotel general manager, interviewed Jeremy, our Cruise & Travel Director.  It was enlightening and and bittersweet as Jeremy announced that this was his last contract as a Cruise & Travel Director.  He's about to get married and his and his new wife are going to assume a new role as a Future Cruise Consultant on Holland America ships.  That way he and his wife can travel and work together and avoid the long absences that are a typical part of working on ships.  Afterwards, Caroline gave her port presentation on San Antonio.


Given that tonight was a "Dressy" night, we elected to eat in the main dining room.  It was once again decorated with penguins as well as playing cards as the night's theme was Casino Royale in homage to a James Bond movie theme.  Angela had brought along some gag glasses that we had "won" in a family hearts tournament for losing.  These glasses were a big hit wherever we wore them.  Dinner was nice with a couple from Florida, a single lady from southern California and a gentleman from Oregon.  







Our main stage entertainment was a movie "The 33" about the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped underground for quite a long time, but were eventually rescued. Afterwards, we ran into Florian and Captain Smith and we had great conversations with the Captain particularly about his sailing the Panama Canal in the dark during the outbreak of Covid.  This is nicely documented in the book "Cabin Fever" which chronicles the early stages of COVID on the Zaandam in 2020.  It's a very chilling read.  Florian also loved the glasses so I convinced him to model them, which he readily agreed to do.  


We finished our evening watching the last game of the NLCS where the darling team, Arizona Diamondbacks beat the defending champion Philadelphia Phillies to gain a berth in the World Series against the Texas Rangers.  Yes, I like baseball.  


Tomorrow is our last sea day before we reach Cquimbo.  After 3 weeks on the ship, I have to say I'm quite pleased with the internet.  I'm getting reasonably fast speeds both downloading material and uploading my blog and viewing other websites.  It's definitely faster in public areas than in the room,but in our new room it's certainly acceptable.

  


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