Pictures:
1. Ollieballen (oil ball) Actually they're quite light and delecate.
2. Giant Bowling on the Lido Deck.
March 19 – At Sea. This is our first of 4 days at sea crossing to Cape Verde on the African continent. Usually when crossing the Atlantic from west to east you travel at about the same speed at the weather systems so the weather you have is the weather you start with. This is mainly true of the North Atlantic. We started out about 12 degrees north of the Equator and will go slowly north while going mainly east. As we get further and further from the Equator we begin to enter the track from Africa where storms develop and head west. This is not a particularly stormy time of year, that track is most active during the hurricane season and that's not on right now. I don't expect that we'll hit much in the way of weather going east.
They have a special series of 'sports' events for the crossing they're calling the Time Warp. I don't usually participate in these events but today I don't have too much on my agenda so I'm going to the 1pm 'Human Ring Toss'; a new one on me. Three of the cruise staff got into the pool holding a swimming noodle upwards. You had three hula-hoops to try to toss around one of the staff. When I approached the pool for my turn the three of them huddled together to give me only one target at the far side of the pool. I've sailed with Danielle twice before and I'm sure she orchestrated this move to see what I'd do. I don't take any of this very seriously and she knows that. I said that if there was only one target I was going to throw all three hoops at the same time. That was a little complicated, as they were not all the same diameter. Nevertheless I gave them a fling and all three landed on target. I wish I could take credit for that but it was largely a matter of luck. The wind was blowing, the ship moving about and I hadn't had my hands on a hula-hoop for over 50 years. My dad always said, "I'd rather be lucky than smart." I know what he meant.
I dropped in on the nondenominational Protestant devotional they hold daily while at sea just to see what's up. Often the ministers they have on board are not to my taste, too little substance, too much fluff. Chaplain Dick Buzby is not only a good speaker but seems to have his theology sorted out pretty well. He's going to do a study of the book of Philippians and I'm going to attend. Promises to be time well spent.
Other than that it was a normal day at sea for me.
It's a formal evening, only the second of nine this trip. That's way fewer than usual and that's fine with me. The food has been very good as it always is on HAL ships. On formal nights they seem to give it an extra touch with fancier dishes, including deserts. I am trying to be good and only eat the darkest, richest chocolate deserts and so far there haven't been any quite in that category. I don't care to see the movie they are offering today so it won't be a double header this evening. We might go to the Ocean Bar and listen to the dance band. We haven't done that yet.
HAL ships usually a have a ship's cast who perform production numbers with lavish costumes, song and dance. It usually consists of two main singers (who might do a dance step or two), two singer/dancers and six dancers who do not sing. Stiletto Productions of Los Angeles produced and staffed the shows. The Prinsendam has a much smaller stage area and it lacks the hydraulics, pyrotechnics and lighting of the rest of the fleet. They've decided to try a different type of cast for her. Six singers, four men and two women, and two dancers will do cabaret and lounge style shows. Tonight the singers performed 'Songbook' backed by the Prinsendam Orchestra. They sang songs from the 50s and 60s mainly from the pop charts. They have great voices and blend well also. The song they closed with was one of the two songs my senior high school class sang as a chorus at our graduation, We Will Have These Moments to Remember. I hadn't heard that song for years and once again had a flashback, this time to graduation day. Very nostalgic!! I think I'm going to like the new format.
Tomorrow, another day at sea.
March 20 – At Sea, Day 2. Happy first day of spring!! Today's Sunday so I usually attend the Interdenominational church service unless the pastor is too liberal for me. As I've mentioned the chaplain on this cruise is very good so going is a pleasure. Other than that it's a normal sea day for me. I did participate in the putting contest today for a few more Grand Dollars.
I attended Frank Buckingham's talk on West Africa. We're going to The Gambia and Senegal. I've been both places before and I have to say that I really liked The Gambia and really didn't like Senegal. We visited Ile de Goree, an infamous slave station off the Senegalese coast. That was very interesting and the people in the small village were very nice, but Dakar was entirely different story. To say that the vendors were aggressive would be to understate the situation. When you tell them you are not interested in anything they have they'll grab you by the arm and try to force you to stop. I personally don't respond well to being grabbed by strangers and this can evoke a somewhat disproportionate response on my part. As I don't really desire to spend any time in a Senegalese jail, I'd rather not put myself in the position to do so. Consequently we are heading out of town to Lake Retba, aka the Pink lake of Senegal. Should be an interesting trip.
Frank warned the passengers about the vendors in Dakar and I hope they were listening. If I'm remembering correctly some adventurous tourist wondered out into the port area alone and promptly got mugged. Since the average age of the passengers on this cruise makes me look very young (I'm 65) you think they'd know better. The man who was mugged was in his late 70s. At least take a taxi downtown and avoid walking through the area around the port. Just like in the USA, the nice areas of a city are not around the port.
The La Fontaine Dining Room had a Dutch buffet for lunch today. This always includes some Indonesian foods so I decided to eat there. They had some very good selections. I had bami goring (Indonesian noodles), chicken sate with peanut sauce, Dutch meatball and sautéed red cabbage. We Germans do red cabbage as well but this was the best I've ever had, German or Dutch. For desert they had two Dutch items, ollieballen (Deep fried doughnut with raisins and powdered sugar. They're very light and have a delicate taste.) and apple fritters. Both were excellent. The ollieballen are a lot like the faschnachts (sp?) my grandmother made so there was also a nostalgia factor.
Since tomorrow is another day at sea we decided to do another double-header and see the movie and then the late show. The movie was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. I have to admit I like the early Potter movies and then somehow they seemed to fall off a bit. This one was back on track. It did not seem like it was two and a half hours long. The story was interesting and kept moving at a good pace. It's been fun to see the three main actors grow up with the characters.
Our entertainment this evening is Roman and Svetlana, a dance champion couple who are reviving the Russian art of 'quick change' dancing. By various costuming techniques and physical moves they change costumes as they dance in split seconds. We've seen them once before and they were very good. Tonight is no exception. Since we've seen them they've gotten married and have a two and a half year old daughter. Their act is as good as ever.
Another restful day at sea tomorrow.
March 21 – At Sea, Day 3. Ah, how I do enjoy these days on the ocean. Again a very normal sea day. This morning's Time Warp activity was Giant Bowling. You rolled one of those blue exercise balls at three giant chess pieces and scored based on how many you knocked down. Mindless, but fun.
Lunch in the dining room was an Indian buffet. Once again the food was very good especially the chicken tikka and the goan fish curry. I usually get them to just put a small amount of most of the offerings on my plate. I like to sample a bit of most everything. The most unusual item for me was chana masala, chick peas (garbanzo beans) in a masala sauce. Pretty tasty for a starch dish.
They've started doing something on the ships that I really like. Many times when you are going to lose an hour that day they will change the clocks at Noon. Since Noon becomes 1 o'clock I can exercise for an hour from one minute before Noon to one minute after 1pm and the time seems to fly by. Very efficient use of time.
At dinner this evening I had my first desert of the trip, 'Walk the Plank Chocolate Cake". Did I mention it was pirate night tonight? Everything had a pirate theme. The dining room staff was all in pirate garb and Diana and I wore silly pirate hats she brought on board.
At sea tomorrow means another double-header. The movie was The Oxford Murders with Elijah Wood and John Hurt. It's a math-based mystery and was entertaining. Nothing really special but an entertaining movie. Oxford England is such a picturesque place I expected a little better locations but I don't think they had the budget.
Black Tie was performing in the Showroom. They're two Australian couples. The wives play the instruments, piano and cello, and the men sing. On some of the numbers the Prinsendam Orchestra plays as well. The men's voices are operatic baritone and tenor. Not a proper tenor but a range higher than a true baritone. Their voices are powerful and expressive. We've seen them several times before and as usual they were extremely well received and a great show.
Last day at sea tomorrow.
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