Today is Sunday, and as you all know, it is Brunch Day in the dining room. It doesn't begin until 10am, so many folks do a traditional breakfast with either room service, the Lido, or like us….in the Pinnacle Grill. With the time change last night, many folks were ready for that early morning coffee. We were.
The day began with a nice sunrise and mostly sunny skies with a few scattered clouds. It was totally opposite of what we experienced yesterday in Savusavu. We are now heading in a southeasterly direction and seem to have left the most humid and hot weather behind us for a while. Today we doubt the temperature exceeded 77 degrees and we had a nice breeze that was almost cool.
Captain Smit came on at noontime with his talk. He reported that we were passing some of Fiji's outer-lying islands as we sail towards Nuku'alofa, Tonga. Tomorrow the plan is to pick up the pilot at 6:30am and be docked by 8am. We have 219 nautical miles to go with 12 knot winds. He expects 20 knot winds tomorrow with mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the high 70's. That works for us. More so if the rain stays away.
We got a lot of computer work done in the morning after a short walk outside. Then at 1:30pm we had a "safety essentials drill" that was mandatory since we have been sailing for 30 days since leaving San Diego. This was not the full muster drill we did back then, but only the room key check at the lifeboat station. It took all of 30 seconds. Then we had to watch or play the safety video on the room TV.
Then we were off to the Lido for our usual salads and sandwiches. Unfortunately, the leftover pizza was so dry, the ends were curled up. The lines were long at the ice cream corner, but the soft serve is still broken. In fact, the lines were long at every available station. The Brunch all-in-one breakfast/lunch menu does not really work for everyone. There was a "Cake Me Away" display in the Lido at 11:30am to 2pm, but was not advertised well. We missed it. Not that we would eat the sweets, we might just look and take a photo before it is destroyed.
Around 6:15pm, went out for a promenade deck walk to find that the starboard side was being deep- scrubbed and cleaned with disinfectant. This is the first time we have seen the crew doing this work this time of day. On other ships, it is always around 6pm. The sun was setting on the starboard side, so we did get some photos of it before the clouds swallowed it up.
Tonight's dress code was "dressy" and the theme of the night was Great Gatsby. This activity began at 6:30pm and ran until 11pm and was held in the Lido Pool area under the dome. The description said: Live it up large like it's the 1920's. An all-swinging dance party spectacular with a little bit of drama, as you might expect. At the last dance party, Glenn, the hotel director, told us that he had several complaint notes in his mailbox saying that there were too many officers at that dance, and there was no room for the guests. Now that was a first that we ever heard that. Usually the complaints are about the junior officers who congregate in a corner with each other and do not ask guests to dance.
We actually had the keyboard piano player at our dinner seating time at 7:30pm. It was nice for a change. Between the two of us, we had appetizers of a jumbo shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad, a bowl of minestrone, which did not resemble that at all, and one tiny pickled beet salad with goat cheese. Good for a change. One of us ordered the veal Scaloppine Saltimbocca, and the other prime rib with gravy on the side. Both were quite tasty. Desserts were one lemon torte and a glass of raspberry sorbet. Refreshing.
Tomorrow we will be in the Kingdom of Tonga.
Bill & Mary Ann
