Subject: Report #112 Sailing Towards Funchal, Madeira April 21, 2016 Thursday Cloudy & 68 degrees 5 Pictures
It was another grey and cloudy day as we sailed in a southwesterly direction towards the little island of Madeira. It was cool and windy during our morning walk, where we shared the promenade deck with perhaps three or four people. We could see showers all around us, and we're sure we went through some squalls. Although the seas were not rough, the ship seems to be rolling constantly, making walking a bit difficult.
Barbara H gave her last port talk on Funchal this morning. She did have a flyer on her desk for some useful information on the city, including taxi prices from the pier to downtown, which ran 10 euro one way, suggesting there was no free ride to town. Later on, when we got the newsletter for tomorrow, we were pleased to find that a complimentary shuttle will be in operation from 8am to 4pm. Wonder how old the flyers are? And does anyone read them before they are put out?
Another activity at 11am was a cooking demo on how to prepare coconut curried shrimp with Mexican green rice. Guest celebrity Joe Truex turned up the heat.
The St. Petersburg Collection of Faberge jewelry and masterpieces is onboard. The chairman himself is here to show how these masterpieces are created. Bet those cost a pretty penny.
A new guest speaker, Mike Raick, spoke about America's journey to the moon. Politics, tragedy, heroism, and courage were all subjects discussed this afternoon.
There was a stir-fry in the Lido pool area, probably the last of this cruise. As we prefer the dining room, we enjoyed a lunch for four with friends Maureen and Barb. Roast beef sandwiches with French fries. And a light dessert.
Between walks and a movie, it was time for our special dinner this evening. We had finally been invited to the Pinnacle Grill for the Captain's Dinner at 6pm (jacket and tie were appropriate). Originally it had been scheduled for March, but we were on our overland, so we asked to be put on a list for a later date. Barb is always included with us, so she put it off as well.
This year, the pre-dinner cocktail party in the Wajang Theater was eliminated. Normally, we would line up there to be greeted by Captain Mercer, be offered a cocktail, and proceed to the counter to taste some delicious treats of grilled filet mignon and scallops. After ½ hour, we would be led into the restaurant, and served dinner. Now we simply lined up, and got a photo taken with Captain Jonathon before being seated. Wonder if we will receive that complimentary?
We had our normal seats in the corner with Peter, the purser, as our host. There were five of us……Barb, Ed, Jan, and us, the same group as last year. Peter called us something like his group of renegades. Oh yes, we do have fun, don't we? Anyway, before the dinner service began, we were all offered a flute of champagne. Only one took it. Peter offered all of us a cocktail, but only two took him up on the offer. Wine was poured, a white pinot grighio from California, and a red shiraz from Australia . Small, but tasty rolls were at each place setting, which was elegant, we must say.
The meal began with a seared diver scallop with a dollop of caviar with green pea and micro cress. What all that was is a mystery, but tasted fine. One of us is allergic to shellfish, so a piece of honeydew melon was substituted with something on it other than caviar. A square of shredded duck was served next on a piece of bread (brioche), with a few pomegranate seeds, two slices of orange, and a mache. You ask what's a mache? We have no idea.
The next course was a generous bowl of hot soup. It was roasted celeriac cream soup with fried garlic chips, a crème fraiche, and a chive essence. Sounds complicated, but it was not. Just soup. The entrée was a petit tenderloin, and we mean petite. Four bites at the most. Not a "he-man" steak, but very tender and tasty. A short rib croquet was served with it. This was shredded short rib meat, rolled in seasoned bread crumbs, and then fried. It looked just like a bitterballen, the Dutch treat we used to get on the ship all of the time. By the way, they don't serve the bitterballen anymore. On the plate with the meat were two little pieces of zucchini, a parsnip puree that we thought was a slurry of mashed potatoes, and a natural jus or gravy. We had plenty of room for dessert.
When it arrived, we wondered what it was. The ice cream we recognized, but the chocolate-covered Valhrona Bar looked like a slice of cake, but was not. It was a rectangle of rice crisp or rice krispie-type cookie with some ground pistachios on the plate for decoration. It was so crispy we could not sink or forks into it. Peter, who has to go to these dinners at least once a week, admitted this was a new dessert for him in this venue. Since he had a hard time cutting into it, he said it better not show up again, as he could see it go flying across the table by accident. Coffee finished the meal, along with the presentation of gifts. We all got a blue box, that was most difficult to open. It contained salt and pepper shakers with the HAL logo created by Royal Goedewaggen. A note in the box gave the story about a pair of salt and pepper shakers that were found from a voyage in 1910 on the ss Statendam ll. The director of the Mariner Society, Gerald Bernhoft, passed these original shakers around to us on last year's world cruise, during a President's Club dinner in the Pinnacle Grill. They were heavily tarnished, but obviously a priceless treasure. Gerald had duplicate sets made for all of the President's Club members in real silverplate. The ones we got tonight are ceramic, but also very nice.
For a change, it was nice to turn in early. Except the sun wasn't even down yet when we got back to the room around 8:30pm. Guess we could have made the early show in the Queens Lounge, which was Mike Price, a world champion and rock star juggler. But we did not.
Looking forward to our stop in Funchal, because there will be a lot of sea days to follow.
Bill & Mary Ann
President's Club flower arrangement
Great colors
Should last for two weeks
Brighten up the room
Found a new home
