In the Gulf of Aden

Suez Canal

This discussed the history and the development of the Suez Canal including new information about some new channels recently built. It reduced the transit time from the old 11 hrs to a potential 3 hrs now. It is a little over 100 miles through it.

Africa Safari

The speaker told of their experience touring Africa many years ago. They transited through many of the same areas we did but they also went to some new to us.

It was a nail biter!

Our team tied with another for the win and the stakes were higher, that is, the ship has new prizes for us so we were even more energized to win.

The first question Was about the play rent and the name of a song in it. Both teams gave the same (wrong) answer. The second question was for the dancers thesis paper did she write about the Phantom of the Opera or Les Miz. Both of us said Les Miz and we were both wrong. Next how old is her mother: both teams guessed 53 (we were not given choices so what are the chances?) Well this kind of a tie had never happened again and since she had only enough prizes for one team, we had to keep on. Next question was how old was my great-grandmother when she died. I said 93 but my team chose 83. The other team said 86. The winner was the one the closest so they won. Boo Hoo

In the afternoon trivia, we were not threat to anyone except ourselves.

Photo contest

Ed and I both decided to enter a pic. The theme is Landscapes, Seascapes and nature. Ed’s is the photo of the two antelope in the desert. Mine is of fishermen in front of the mosque in Mumbai: their reflections are on the water and the mosque looks luminous. So many folks on here are serious photogs so our chances are nil but it is funny anyway.

Wine Tasting

I am not a wine afficianado but we are invited to this periodically and I almost always “donate” my samples to Ed. Today Francis was there too and she and Ed shared their critique of the wines. They buy bottles of wine to share over dinner.

Comedian

He was fun. 62 years old and reminisced about childhood things which most of us can find amusing. We do have some young people on board but he brought them into it also.

Star Gazing

We had a conflict tonight with the scheduled Star party with the second officer so we decided to go up on the top of the ship by ourselves. It is absolutely amazing the number of stars you can see, the clarity, and such. The longer you stay the more your eyes adapt and you see even more. There will be other star parties along the trip so we’ll go again.

Majority Rules

I had told Ed about this fun game and so he agreed to go with me. Any number of people can be on a team from 1 to infinity. So we played together, just the two of us. I think the largest team was 5 or 6 people. Well son of a gun, WE WON! We each got a magnet of the Pacific Princess ship which we are putting on our wall to hold things up like a bulletin board. You see the walls are metal. J