Today is the start of three days at sea on our way to Ghana, another new port for us. At least we have a break now and can do the research on the upcoming stops. The outdoor temperature was 85 degrees with 83% humidity at 11am. The skies were heavily clouded and it sure felt like rain was ahead. And it did rain by 1pm, when the ship could not avoid passing through the isolated clouds.
Processing photos took some time, as always, as did catching up on yesterday's activities. We are close to being on time now and it feels great. Taking a long walk this morning, found few people doing the same thing. Many walkers were out and about while we were eating breakfast, which is smarter since it was slightly cooler. We are beginning to see more flying fish, but absolutely no birds. Even though we are sailing about 20 miles off the shore, the birds are not here. We have not seen any local vessels at all, like we did on the way to Angola.
Ian had his lecture on both Takoradi, Ghana and Abidjan, Ivory Coast. We shall watch it after dinner or tomorrow morning when it is rerun on TV. Then the speaker, Dr. Dean Allen, spoke about Invictus the famous game that united a nation.
A big event this morning was the Project Linus Blanket Showcase held in the Lido poolside from 9 to 11:30am. Select blankets were being sold to raise money for more yarn, either for this cruise or next year's cruise. The number of blankets were way more than we could have imagined. The colors lit up the entire pool area. Some of these quilts were professionally created, in our humble opinion, by very talented people. We are certain that the 10am sessions will continue, since the participators love it so much.
A film called 5000 Blankets was shown in the World Stage at 1pm, and sounded like it was relative to the knit and crochet project here. Arts and crafts continued as did most other social activities. We are sort of surprised since so many people are sick and quarantined. We would think twice about joining these activities until the virus has been eliminated. Judging by the amount of cleaning and saturating spraying taking place, we hope that to be very soon.
There was another call for medical personnel to go immediately to the Lido restaurant after 1pm. This trip has had the most medical calls than we can remember in a long time. Having this virus hit, we think it is most dangerous for the elderly folks. Severe dehydration can cause all sorts of complications. One of us had a follow up with the doctor for an improving ear infection, which was cancelled and re-booked in two more days. Just as well, since we don't want to be within a mile of the medical facility.
We did room service lunch sharing a cheeseburger from the dining room menu, as well as a Caesar salad. We had requested delivery by 2pm, but it arrived at 1:30pm. Perhaps they are getting back to normal. Everything was good, and they probably did us a favor forgetting the two cookies we ordered. We'll survive.
Time for the evening walk, we witnessed deep cleaning of the lounges and chair pads on the promenade deck. Not one surface has gone unsanitized inside and outside. The same thing would happen after dinner this evening in the dining room. Every table stripped and sprayed after all the guests had left. All of the chairs will be sprayed as well.
Dinner found all of us there but Greg and Heo. Still under the weather, we suspect they had not been released yet. They are extremely cautious and will not leave the room until they feel it is safe. The entrees were less than appealing. Two types of lamb were served, both not up to par with either Susie or Barb. The chicken cordon bleu was the best, as was the strange sounding Angolan fish plate. Desserts were jello and a sticky date pudding. We were done by 9pm, and noticed the tables were being stripped quickly. Time to go.
The show tonight was comedian Martin Beaumont, who we saw while on the Nieuw Statendam last year. He kept the folks laughing. We are not sure how well attended this performance will be, since dinner participation was cut in half in the upper dining room. Many no-shows.
Bill & Mary Ann
No Pictures
