Today will be the final one of this 5 day cruise from Vancouver for about 400 guests. And being that it is a Sunday at sea, there is another 10am brunch in the dining room. Of course, we prefer the Pinnacle Grill and did go there by 8am. There were many customers to our surprise.
The skies have remained cloudy, but the chill in the air was gone. Last night we did experience some strong winds, but it has calmed down nicely today. All we need is for the sun to appear, and all will be right with our world at sea.
Days like this one at sea are perfect, so one of us can work on photos without burning the candle at both ends. That tends to catch up with us with port-intensive itineraries. No doubt we will have some relaxing time as we will be spending 5 days sailing towards Hilo, Hawaii.
At noon, Captain Whitaker bid his final goodbye to all as he is heading home after 2 months at sea. Captain Paul Eschenfelder will take over in San Diego for the legendary Tales of the South Pacific. We do not believe we have had the pleasure of sailing with him on past cruises.
For only the second time this trip, we ordered a simple room service lunch at 2pm. They said to expect a 30 – 45 minute wait time, but it finally arrived after 50 minutes. During that time, there was an announcement that dolphins were spotted on the port side. Since one of us was sitting on the veranda, the splashing could be heard well before the announcement. There must have been hundreds of dolphins in this pod, as they swam under the surface, jumping when least expected. What a display they put on as they played in the wake left by the ship's sailing. The ship's speed had been reduced to a mere 10 knots and it seemed as if we were crawling along. Now we know why there is such a strict speed limit in these waters. This part of the California coast also has many whales that migrate south. We had hoped to see some spouting humpbacks, but there were none to be seen. Since we are sailing in international waters, it may be too far from the coastline to see the whales.
For some unknown reason, ever since we re-located from the Dolphin deck, we have had problems with the internet. The signal has not been as strong as it was. In fact, this afternoon, we could not send the blog. No one at the front desk could explain our problem, since there were no reports of any outages. So we went down to deck five to the library/computer area and we had a strong connection with emails going out immediately. Once again, we stopped at the front desk, and reported the problem. They said they would investigate this for us. Sometimes the location of the hotspot in the hallways can affect the signal strength. Perhaps we should have contacted Jennifer, our girl Friday, but we learned from her earlier that she will be going home tomorrow and we will get a new Mariner expert in San Diego. Hope he is as good as she has been with us.
We enjoyed another Pinnacle Grill dinner this evening with our favorite wedge salads, clothes line bacon, and warm rolls. Mains were lamb chops and halibut. All cooked perfectly with added sides of skinny fries and a baked potato. There was a tad bit of room for their best orange sorbet for dessert.
The entertainer this evening was the comedy of Simon B. Cotter once again. He is said to be the winner of Canada's Comedian of the year. If we have not mentioned it, the Ocean Bar has a cocktail pianist at happy hour, and the Ocean Band later. The Mix offered a piano bar entertainer, and the Explorer's Lounge had a classical violinist this afternoon and evening.
San Diego….here we come.
Bill & Mary Ann
