A day at sea was most welcomed this morning. Although having breakfast start every day at 7:30am is a bit early. We used to have an 8am opening on sea days, which was nice. Now it is the same time everyday…. port or sea day, it does not matter. Of course, for the early birds, the Lido opens at 6:30am. Unless we need to be the first ones off of the ship, you will never find us dining in the Lido at that time of the day.
At his noontime talk, Captain Frank reported that we were halfway to the island of Curacao. Our speed was around 11 to 12 knots with clear skies and following winds. That tends to make sailing very muggy without a fresh breeze to help cool us off. There were 7 foot swells and the temperature was 84 degrees. The Captain warned us all to expect some changes by Tuesday as a system was developing with 15 foot swells and winds of 45 mph. It might get rough again as we head towards the Panama Canal. Speaking of the canal, we just read an article in the newspaper about record low water levels due to a lack of rain. This has been the case for a few months now, and we will be interested in seeing the difference from our previous crossings. The report claimed that many commercial vessels were lined up waiting to go through the series of locks. So far, we have not heard that our transit has been affected. We do know that the new sets of locks do not discharge the water they use to raise and lower the vessels. The water is recycled. It would be great if the Zuiderdam got to use the new locks, although something tells us that the cost would be prohibitive. We will find out when we sail the Panama Canal on the 24th of January…..a few days from now.
After our deck walk, we headed up to deck nine and passed through the Lido. We had seen many very large palm fronds being brought onboard yesterday while we were in Grenada. It appeared they were used here for decoration for "Island Dream", a tropical paradise dinner theme this evening. In addition, they brought on piles of white sand and then decorated it with conch shells here and there. Someone is clever in these theme dinners, which is Caribbean-inspired tonight in the dining room as well.
Kimberly delivered her talk on Curacao, but we intended to catch it this afternoon on TV. Searching for it around 2pm, we could not find it. It finally appeared on the excursion channel by 6pm. Better late than never we say. She has done a thorough job in the research of every port. The main highlights are pointed out as well as opening times and cost to get in. This is nice for the independent guests like us. Also important, she points out the places that are closed.
Today was a perfect one to catch up on reading for one of us. There are so many new books in the little book room, we will not run out of choices. Most folks have downloaded books online, but since we don't do that, it is nice to have options.
Around 6pm, while waiting for the sunset, we spotted some islands that Captain Frank said to keep an eye out for. They are called Archipelago Los Roques, a group of 300 sandy islands off the coast of Venezuela. What we saw on the horizon was Gran Roque where people go to snorkel and dive. This entire collection of islands was made a national park in 1972. By the time the sun went below the horizon, the view of the island was gone in the sea haze.
What's for dinner??? Well empanadas with chicken and beef with a mango, tomato, and onion salsa. We could have ordered more of these and made a meal out of them. But we had salads and one order of bay shrimp. This year, the shrimp appetizers have been very good. Our entrees were the rack of veal plate, served hot, with asparagus, mashed potatoes, and a delectable gravy. The meat was cooked medium and sliced thin. It was quite tender and very tasty. Topping off our dinner, we had one small slice of carrot cake and a piece of rum-soaked cake. Hmmm, good.
Curacao should be fun as we have a partial tour with our travel group. Will explain that in tomorrow's report.
Bill & Mary Ann
