#10 Last day of the Atlantic crossing

March 22 – At Sea, Day 4.  Last day at sea before landing in our first African port Mindelo, Cape Verde.  Again another typical day except for a few items.  I went to a Coffee Chat hosted by our cruise director Tom Faulkner.  His guests were the quick-change dance team of Roman and Svetlana.  They are Byelorussian and met there about 15 years ago.  They danced with others for years but became a dance pair about 10 years ago and had enough success to get state sponsorship to dance competitions in Europe.  They were national dance champions for five years and had success in larger venues coming in third in the European championships. 

 

Five years ago they got married and two and a half years ago they had their daughter.  The quick-change aspect of their performance is usually performed by itself with the performer just doing quick change in a magic like act.  They wanted to perform on ships but were hampered by the fact that different dances require different costumes to be fully authentic.  Most couples wear a generic costume and don't change for the different dances or have one major change.  Svetlana and Roman had heard of these quick-change artists and sought one out to see if it would be possible to combine this technique with dance.  They were warned that it would not be easy because the normal act doesn't put much stress on the costume whereas dance does.  The persevered and after a long time got it down pat.  Svetlana did say that at times she wanted to give up because it was so hard to work out.  But they succeeded and started performing on ships in 2005 the last time we saw them.  To make it easier to get to the ships and also explain where they live, Roman quipped that they had 'Moved to Miami.'  That got a big laugh.

 

Today they had Indonesian tea in three in the afternoon.  We decided to attend and were happy to find that they were indeed serving four types of Indonesian tea, classic, green, spice and jasmine.  I had the spice and it was great.  Of course they served the usual scones and small sandwiches that the British have but they also had Indonesian treats like fried banana, little burrito like wraps with coconut inside (excellent) and little puffs with dried coconut on the outside.  All very good and sure to cut down on my courses at dinner, at least I hope so.

 

Just as a side note, I usually loose weight on a cruise because I get more exercise and don't snack after dinner.  Diana, on the other hand, has the opposite problem and often gains some weight.  This time she won't because she's exercising great discipline over deserts.

 

Well dinner has come and gone and I was able to control myself, so I only had two courses and skipped the cheese plate I usually have for desert. 

 

Our entertainer was Scotty McLean, a comedian and his kilt.  He's very funny and does nominal magic tricks as well.  He's pretty good at those too but the emphasis is on comedy.  Very enjoyable!

 

The boring sea days are ending today and the touring starts tomorrow.  We've never been to Cape Verde before so I'm probably going to bore you with some geological and historical information I want to remember.  Keep in mind that all this started with a journal I kept completely for my own amusement.  Over the years people asked to see them so now it's a blog.  I'm still writing in the stream of consciousness style and not really editing or proofreading.  I found it easier to write in the storytelling style so that translated easily to sending it to others.  We have a long day of touring tomorrow so it's early to bed this evening.  No double header tonight.