At 10am, Mr. Palmisano talked about the fabled Seven Seas and the unique biological communities of each one. Pretty good how he has been able to improvise, since he was not the scheduled speaker for this long.
We have been trying to find Barbara's talk on Praia and Mindelo, but it has not been in the advertised spot on TV. We lucked out and caught her at her desk this morning and asked why she had been cycled with the two speaker's lectures? We were not the first to ask, nor were we aware that this talk had been pulled off of the TV due to the DVD cutting in and out. In fact, she had just come from the programmer, who promised to delete all talks but hers for the next 24 hours. We are flying blind on this next port tomorrow, because most everyone we have talked to has never been there. That includes most of the staff as well as Barbara herself. She has been working on getting a good map of Praia along with all the information we may need to know before getting there. Even though this is the capital city of Cape Verde, it is not the most visited by tourists. So it will be a discovery for many of us. We are not even sure that US dollars will be accepted anywhere. We don't do ATM's, and the ship did not sell escudo, the local currency. So our visit may be short.
The annual guest talent show sign-ups took place in the Piano Bar. They are looking for people who can sing, dance, tell clean? jokes or short stories. Funny they have to stress "clean", because there have been a few guests that have a bad habit of dropping the F bomb during some really bad jokes. Even worse, they were the ladies in the group, not the men. Should be very interesting to see who volunteers.....
Dancing with the Star at Sea continued with folks doing the cha cha. The judges will be looking for finalists today.
At 2pm, Mr. Benedict shared HAL's 2014 destinations, a much different subject for him, since he is the constellation expert. However, he will conduct star gazing once again on deck 10 tonight, looking for the Southern Cross and other wonders of the southern sky.
As for us, we had a date tonight......the Captain's Dinner in the Pinnacle Grill Restaurant, preceded by cocktails in the Culinary Arts Center/Wajang Theater. It began at 6pm, but we arrived a little later, so we could go into the room last. There was a method to our madness......by going last, we could manuever towards the kitchen on the stage, and have full access to the bar and the hors d'oeuvres. Captain Jonathon greeted us as we walked in saying, "Well you finally made it". Guess he knew we had to cancel twice already, and opted to go to the final dinner. Better late than never we say.
Well you had to make your move fast to get a drink and some of the tasty treats of shrimp, veggies skewers, and most delicious bite-size rounds of prime steak. The bartenders did not have the bourbon or scotch we drink, so we had to wait for our beverages. We had about 10 minutes to drink, before we were summoned into the restaurant for dinner. During the half hour cocktail time, we met two ladies that were very friendly. One of the gals had seen us walking everyday on the promenade deck, while the other one, Linda, said where have you guys been hiding for 100 days? We have never crossed paths with her all this time. Anyway, we had a nice chat, and wished her good tablemates as she entered the room. As luck would have it, they seated her with us, and she was giddy about it. One more young gal was seated with us, Lisa, who we see in the elevator on her way to dinner many evenings. Our host was Peter Wallis, the ship's purser. We ask to be seated with him every year, as he is a very fun person with a dry British sense of humor. The evening was enjoyable, as well as informative. We learned many more things about the so-called Russian Orthodox priest that left in Sydney, and also some unknown facts about the Desmond Tutu visit in South Africa. Not everyone was as enamored with the event as we had believed. Some folks had taken offense at some political comments he made regarding sensitive subjects such as the oil pipeline proposed in North America. Some people, mostly Americans, actually walked out during his talk, including Linda. Later on, when she was gifted the 20 pound, it felt that heavy, Tutu book, she brought it back to the front desk and gave it back. Keeping all this in mind, we sure hope HAL decides to go back to the normal party they have for the passengers onboard. Even better, treat us to an evening out in a big port like they did in 2008 in Istanbul. That party rocked.
Our other tablemate for the evening, Lisa, said she was an evangelist minister, traveling with two members of her group. Her congregation had treated her to this once-in-a-lifetime world cruise. She had a 22 year career in the armed services, and shocked us by commenting that she killed people for a living, having been involved in the most recent Mideast wars. Almost fatally injured in a terrorist bombing, she recovered, and had a complete change in lifestyle, becoming a minister. You think you have heard all of the stories out there, but this one was a new one for us and our tablemates as well. Lisa has made friends with some of the crew, who have asked her to give services for them during their off hours. If we heard correctly, she will be performing a baptism for crew only after hours in one of the ship's pools.
Another story she told was about the sister of Tutu, who joined him for four days to Cape Town. She is 80 years old, and was seasick in her room. Lisa was in the room next to her, and saw she needed help. Seeking out Tutu, she let him know his sister was ill, and he said he would deal with it in two hours. Lisa took it upon herself to see after this lady for the next three days. Not sure how much thanks she got for her kind efforts. How about that for some different types of news?
Here is the menu for the special dinner. A Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand was served with a foie gras roulade with a fig compote. The fois gras literally melted in our mouths. Following that a potato and leek soup was served with a plate of delicious buttery rolls. The next course was a trio of poached lobster chunks with a dab of sevruga caviar on top. To cleanse our palate, an avocado and lime sorbet was served in small goblets. It was sweet and tart at the same time, and did not taste at all like avocado. With the entree, they served Grant Burge Benchmark Shiraz from Australia. The entree was grass and corn fed beef with a tiger prawn. Three spears of asparagus, three dots of dauphin potatoes, and a gravy slightly covered the plate. Translated, that means the servings were meager. Dessert was a trilogy of three petite creamy treats. One was a tart key lime filling in a graham cracker crust. A Chinese soup spoon was filled with creme brulee, and the last one was a white chocolate cup of creamy coffee pudding. Coffee or tea finished our meal.
Around 8:45pm, Captain Jonathon wished us all well, at which point, we were gifted with either a necklace or cufflinks. Both were made of Delft china...a pendant for the ladies, and cufflinks for the men with HAL's classic blue ship logo on them.
Back at our room, we found two commemorative plates, also Delft china, with the ports of the 2014 world cruise printed on the rim. This is the earliest we have ever received them. But we think that many passengers will begin packing once we start across the Atlantic Ocean for five days. But we still have three days in Cape Verde before we start that crossing.
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| A nice sunset |
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| Not spectacular |
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| But OK |
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| Done |
