Report # 92 Thursday April 3, 2025 'National Burrito Day' Sea Day #6 Of 6 Enroute To Praia, Santiago, Cabo Verde Mostly Cloudy 72 Degrees 11mph Winds 6' Swell-----Casual Dress

Day six at sea found the weather noticeably cooler this morning.  That was a surprise to us since according to the ship's map, we are about across from Banjul, The Gambia, where it is always extremely hot and humid.   Being this far out at sea has to make the difference from the higher temps onshore.    Whatever the reason, we are not complaining.  

 

Coming back from breakfast, we saw that our hallway was blocked off starting with the cabin next door.  A couple of workmen had ripped up the carpet and underlayment to expose the metal decking.  Thinking there was a leak, we asked what was up.    They told us there was a dip and or a hump in the floor, and they were going to use quick-dry cement to level the problem.   Once dry, they would replace the carpeting.  The job was completed by the afternoon, and we would never know it had been fixed.  Actually, we never even noticed a problem there.

 

It was quite pleasant walking the promenade deck this morning and we are still seeing flying fish.  One of us actually spotted a medium-size sea turtle close to the ship as we flew by it.   Thinking I was seeing things, the turtle lifted its head out of the water.  No doubt I did see it.  There was not a bird to be seen.

 

Captain Frank came on right after he sounded the noon horn, stating that he knows that most everyone will be glad to be on "terra firma" tomorrow.  We have 338 nautical miles to go to the pilot station by 7am in the morning.  The sea depths are 15,000 feet and we are traveling with higher winds.  The sea state was rather bumpy with 6 ½ foot swells.  The current temperature was 74 degrees, and the sea temps were 80 degrees.  The outlook for Cape Verde will be partly sunny with 20 knot winds.  The Captain's topic today was mostly about the archipelago of Cape Verde.  The Portuguese settled here, as well as in Funchal and the Azores.  The slave trade and pirates were a major part of their early history.  The islands declared their independence in 1975.     Then Kimberly announced that there was a new tour offered in Alexandria, Egypt with a visit to a new museum.  

 

Today was National Burrito Day  and it was honored with a Burrito Festival in the Lido at lunchtime.  The burritos would be custom-made packed with bold and tasty ingredients.  Since we had Pinnacle Grill reservations tonight, we did not go to the Lido for lunch today. 

 

A good movie happened to be on the Prime channel on TV called Water For Elephants.   Having read the book several years ago, the movie was just as good.  The weather had gotten so cool by the later afternoon, it was too chilly to sit outside and read a book.  Never thought we would say that after all of these warm tropical places we have been.   We are certain that by the time we get to the Med, we will have to bring out our Arctic jackets to wear.  They have been spending the trip in a suitcase under the bed. 

 

The winds had picked up so much (20 knots) that the promenade deck was wet from the spray.  In the late afternoon, we did a mile, but came inside to warm up.  Usually there are early seating diners that will come out from the dining room to take an after-dinner stroll.  This evening, they came out one door and back inside the next set of doors. 

 

Dinnertime in the Pinnacle Grill was nice.  It was not crowded and the service went smoothly.  We had our usual starters of the wedge salad and clothes line bacon.  Excellent as always.  Our mains were one short rib meal with fun noodles and one sea bass plate with crispy French fries.   We're not sure what was fun about the noodles, but they were tasty with a soy sauce drizzled over them with green beans in the mix.  There was a new dessert on the side panel which Tina said we had to try.  Normally, we don't do desserts often, but we were willing to give the strawberry cream dessert in a jar sprinkled with broken biscotti cookies a try.   She was right….the dessert was refreshing and not overly sweet. 

 

There was a song and dance show in the World Stage by the Repertory Company, although with the ship moving like it was, we doubt there was a lot of dancing.  

 

Tomorrow we will be in Cape Verde.

 

Bill & Mary Ann

 

No Pictures

Report # 91 Wednesday April 2, 2025 Sea Day #5 Of 6 Enroute To Praia, Santiago, Cabo Verde Mostly Cloudy With Some Rain Showers 82 Degrees 11mph Winds 6' Swell-----Casual Dress

We discovered that the elevator carpets had been restored to the correct day of the week, which is Wednesday.  Each and every elevator we used during the day said something different.  Honestly that's not nice to do to the older folks.

 

Anyway, here we are on day five, sailing off of the coast of Monrovia.   When we woke up, it was raining with lightning strikes on the horizon.  We knew it was in the forecast, but we have seen little of this during the daytime.  What we did see this morning was a big surprise.  While we were eating breakfast, we spotted at least 50 tuna jumping in a line straight away from the ship about 100 yards away.  They must have been feeding in a school, and the ship spooked them.  Naturally, we watched for more sightings, but that was it.  They were gone in a flash.

 

As we are sailing basically northwest, the Zuiderdam is following the west coast of Africa, we will pass by Ghana, The Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.  Tomorrow we will pass by The Gambia and Senegal….places we have stopped on the last two world voyages.  We are glad not to stop at some of these countries this year.  Here are three reasons why we are glad.  First of all, they are 3^rd world countries, they can be dangerous, and it's way too hot there.  Need we say more?   Well yes a little bit more regarding dangerous places in the world.  Take Ghana for instance.  While there, we took the shuttle to town, where some of the local vendor ladies threw fish at us.  This is not your typical tourist town, so they don't take kindly to visitors, specifically American visitors.  Banjul, The Gambia was interesting, but also off the beaten track.  One sweep through their massive maze of the produce market and everything else under the sun will never leave your memory.  A place to have lunch?  Not on your life.  Senegal had to be the most intimidating.  Taking the shuttle in Dakar, we were surrounded with local thugs within minutes of getting off in a central park area of downtown.   Even the crew got attacked by these thugs.  It took us fifteen minutes before we got back on the next bus and went back to the ship.  By the way, the shuttle service was stopped later that day.  Another time, while at a stop in Dakar, no one was allowed off of the ship and containers of food and supplies were not released to us.  Eventually, the captain said pull the ropes….we are leaving this port.  And we did. Remember when we were on the safari?  Our ranger driver said many foreign visitors get kidnapped for ransom in these undeveloped countries in West Africa.  Most of these incidents never make the news.   Yep, glad we are bypassing the lot of them.

 

Captain Frank said we had 840 nautical miles to get to Cape Verde.  At the moment, we were sailing 179 nautical miles off of the West Coast of Africa at a speed of 20.2 knots.  The sea depths are 50,000 feet, while the temperature were 83 degrees.  The sea temps were 89 degrees – about the hottest it will get.  The sea state was 5.5 feet and the stabilizers are out.  The skies were cloudy with a breeze of 14 knots, which will increase as the day progresses.  The Captain expects the temperature to drop in a few days to 79 degrees.   We will welcome that and far less humidity will be nice as well. 

 

Finally, we have caught up with the reports and photos.  And today was a lazy one for us, with the exception of a couple of good walks on the promenade deck.  The late afternoon walk found only about five people outside.  It's still warm and humid, and we think many people have chosen to participate inside the ship with the usual activities. 

 

We did have an invitation to an early cocktail party at 4pm with or travel group in the Gallery Bar.  That is way too early for us, so we passed on the invite.  We think that so many of our group has early dining at 5pm,  this party was targeted to that group.  The last gathering they had was at 6:30pm, where the early diners come for after dinner drinks.

 

This evening, we had a dinner date with friends Ginni and Rich, who we have known since 2007.  They recently joined the ship in Cape Town and will stay to the end in Ft. Lauderdale.  We moved to a larger table for four and their waiter, Yoga, took care of us.  Our waiter Kadek pitched in when he could, since there were few diners here tonight.  That made it nice for us to discuss so many things with them, including sharing recent  personal stories and the hot topic of politics, that we stayed until almost 9:30pm.  Our meals included a Caesar salad, a bowl of excellent udon soup, one beef Thai appetizer, and a shrimp taco, Mexican-style.  Our entrees were halibut, a bit on the dry side, and one chicken scallopini – moist and tender.  One scoop of mango sorbet was just right for one of us. 

 

There was another what we consider a bizarre activity called "Once Upon a Time Party"  held in the Billboard Onboard from 8:15 to 9:30pm.   Get this….the guests were invited to attend this story time dressed in pajamas or fairy tale attire.  What's that we asked?   With a background of music, there would be a story told "Adventures Of Zuidy".  Sure sounds like being transported back to kindergarten to us.   Geez, too bad we missed it because we were having a fine time on the dining room instead.  We also missed the entertainment of the ballroom dance team Alex and Magdalena – world class dance champions.  No doubt they were good.

 

Better yet – the clocks went back one more hour tonight.  One more sea day, and we will be in Cape Verde.

 

Bill & Mary Ann

 

No Pictures

Report # 90 Tuesday April 1, 2025 April Fool's Day Sea Day #4 Of 6 Enroute To Praia, Santiago, Cabo Verde Mostly Sunny With Some Clouds 82 Degrees 11mph Winds 6' Swell-----Casual Dress

Well, we wish everyone a very Happy April Fools' Day, although we are a day early.    And as always, we did expect the Daily newsletter to be printed differently with articles upside down, or a fun scavenger hunt, a bar hop, and even a costume party and contest.  Their ad flyer that came with the Daily newsletter featured HAL's first cruise into space….really?  How about free huge chocolate diamonds for the first 50 folks from Effy's?  Not going to happen.  And a special event….a Lido aft parasailing adventure saying get your fix of adrenaline as you fly high on this adventure.  Wonder how many people showed up to do it?     But, we do feel that they have taken things a bit too far, which we will address later on.

 

Anyway, we are finally making progress catching up with delayed reports and photos from the last week or more.  Keeping busy has made these sea days go by in a flash.  Half of the six day stretch is behind us already.  We have to take turns with the one computer we have, so while one of us is typing, the other can take a long walk on the promenade deck.  Today he came back with stories of seeing fewer flying fish along with much warmer and humid weather. 

 

By the way, we need to make a correction regarding the crossing of the Equator.  Misunderstanding the Captain, the predicted crossing will be today around 4pm, not this morning at 4am.  Checking out the TV map on deck two this morning, there was a line that we mistook for the Equator.  So we assumed we had crossed it, but we had not.  When we heard the noontime horn blow, we always make it a point to take notes on the details provided by the Captain.  However, someone else was speaking in his place.   Oh yeah, it's the April Fools' thing again.  The Captain finally took the mike, saying he just came from the parasailing adventure at the Seaview Pool.  Just kidding.  So we have sailed 1840 nautical miles since leaving Walvis Bay.  The Zuiderdam is maintaining the speed of 21 knots and are in seas that are 12,956 feet deep.  The skies are mostly sunny with a gentle breeze with six foot swells.  The air temperature is 83 degrees, while the sea temps are warmer with 87 degrees.   The sunset would be 6:53pm and the sunrise will be 6:56am.  It is always the same at the Equator –  equal amount of daylight and the same with darkness. 

 

The Captain spoke of days of pranks on the high seas with real stories surrounding April 1^st.  It was a little bit of trivia of strange happenings that left us to think maybe the King Neptune Ceremony should not have been cancelled.  We may be doomed……..

 

The best highlight of the day was a surprise of a whale sighting right from our veranda.  We happened to go outside around 2:30pm to see a whale blowing in the distance.  Sure enough it was slowly going the opposite way as we flew on by it.   Not a huge whale, we think it may have been a minke whale.  They are one of the species that are in these waters.  Hoping to see a pod, we watched for an hour but never saw any more.  The best thing was the good camera was right here within reach to catch the whale briefly before submerging.  We could time the blows by 5 to 10 seconds as it skimmed the surface.   If there was an announcement about seeing whales earlier in the day, we never heard it.  

 

So here's the thing about pushing the envelope with April Fools' Day.  When we went to the dining room for a casual dinner, we found that the maitre'ds and the wait staff were dressed in costume -mode.  Not the special event clothes they used to wear, but uniforms from the engine room, the deck crew, and the painters and scrubber team.  When we see these real hard working crew members, they are dirty from scraping paint, prepping to paint, painting, and greasing the tenderboat launching mechanisms for instance.  These uniforms are never clean as they should be, but do they belong in the dining room even if they are clean?  We think not.  Maybe in the Lido, but not here.   Our waiters were dressed much nicer with a front desk tie and beige vest and a buffalo plaid shirt they wear in Alaska once a week.  We let them know they won the prize for best-dressed.  They got what we were saying.  Enough said……

 

There was a one-time specialty dinner in the Pinnacle Grill called Jellicle, where nothing is what it seems and nothing is in order.  Very different.  We are curious if the April Fools' costume party occurred in here too?  We shall investigate tomorrow.   

 

Our dinner was good with Caesar salads, a shrimp cocktail with a very hot cocktail sauce ….a little too much horseradish.  One of us had chicken noodle soup with extra tiny noodles upon request.   Mains were a small portion of prime rib, and a smallish lasagna.  Dessert for one of us was pineapple sorbet – one scoop.  Even though the menu was printed with funny stuff, the food was the usual fare.

 

The entertainer this evening was Abbie Jordan, the vocalist that is part of the FantaSea group from the Ocean Bar.   Now that's a switch for a change. 

 

Bill & Mary Ann 

 

47 Pictures

Report #89 Monday March 31, 2025 Sea Day #3 Of 6 Enroute To Praia, Santiago, Cabo Verde Mostly Sunny With Some Clouds 82 Degrees 11mph Winds 6' Swell-----Casual Dress

Day three at sea found us watching hordes of small to medium flying fish during breakfast this morning.  It's funny how some days we see nothing, then suddenly they appear.   We are not alone watching, as Don who sits more in the center of the Pinnacle Grill, was also amused by these little acrobats of the sea.  The rising sun will hit these flyers just right  as they pop up in large numbers.   No birds today….lucky for the fish.

 

At his daily  talk, Captain Frank announced that we were halfway to Cape Verde having sailed 1339 nautical miles from Walvis Bay.    We were currently 590 nautical miles south of the Equator , and even though our printed itinerary said the crossing was today, it is really tomorrow morning around 4am.  The Zuiderdam is maintaining a speed of 21 knots using all engines.  The skies are mostly blue with sun and some clouds.   No showers anywhere.  The 30,000 foot deep seas are slight with 6-foot swells and the wind speed is 16 knots.  The temperature has increased since leaving Namibia and is 82 degrees F with the humidity rising as well.

 

The sunset this evening is 6:30pm while the sunrise will be pretty close at 6:40am.  We have not had a good sunrise or sunset since we can't remember when.  The best it gets is a splash of color behind dark clouds, then it is either up or gone. 

 

Captain Frank continued with an explanation of the Southern Cross, which is very visible on clear nights in this part of the world.  While on the safari, we saw this constellation Crux that has come to represent the lands that lie below the Equator.   With the complete absence of artificial land lights, the stars were literally within our reach since they were so brilliant.  Anyway, Captain Frank said many ancient cultures applied their own meaning to this constellation, but in time, it became a key role in navigation by the seafaring community.   We are certain he could go on for another hour explaining this, but it was Kimberly's turn to remind all of us of tonight's activities.

 

There are three new speakers onboard now.  Lecturer Brian Beck spoke about pirates of the Spanish main, and Dr. Dean Allen dealt with the African slave trade.  Last but not least,

 

Dr. William Beeman explained how humans from Africa populated our planet.   Bet that was interesting…..

 

Project Linus is still in progress as are dance classes with staff members.  Three levels of bridge take place on every sea day – a popular venue for many.   Trivia is held twice a day, and the smaller arts and crafts classes continued with fewer guests now. 

 

Cake-Me-Away was held in the Lido at lunchtime, which we missed because we went without lunch today.  With all of the room snacks we have gathered along the way, we realized we better start snacking on them.

 

While catching up on photo processing, we watched the Praia, Cape Verde port talk on TV.  After numerous tries to bring it up on the screen, it finally worked after the 10^th attempt. Then we pushed our luck, and brought up the Bernhardt Nordcamp Choir performance that occurred in Walvis Bay, where one of our hosts presented gifts from our travel agency.  Total donations from the Zuiderdam guests added up to $15,000 that Captain Frank presented to the leaders of the group.   Very well done.

 

We have to mention the Shops Onboard.  We seldom take the time to wander through them unless we are interested in a sale like the t-shirt special, or we are in need of cough drops or small toiletries for instance.  Before this trip comes to an end, we will have some non-refundable cash to spend.  With that in mind, we decided to look closer at the higher end watches and jewelry.  This should be easy, right?   As we entered the first shop, we spotted six salespeople in a huddle, and asked if this was a union meeting.  Of course they laughed, and said they were waiting for us. Good answer, anything to get your attention and keep you in the store.  On most sea days, they take turns promoting sales with the various items such as Tissot watches or the spring collection from Effy, a high-end jewelry store.   Sometimes, they give a 10 to 50% discount for a day.  Truth be told, these folks will negotiate prices on the more extravagant items.  So we just wanted to look at what they had it the cases, but you are seldom left alone to do it.  So within seconds, there will be a salesperson on your heels asking what do you want or like.  We don't know…..we need to look.  In the meantime, each salesperson might want to engage you in conversation starting with "I love your hair, jewelry, clothes, or whatever".  What they are missing is the fact while they are chatting away, we may have spotted a piece that we cannot live without.  They don't get it.  So what that usually leads to is us hurrying around the displays and exiting stage left.  Another bugaboo is having the salesperson follow you around as if they are expecting you to shop-lift.  Good grief.  That drives us out as well.  Are we the only ones that feel this way?  We expect we are not alone.

 

Dinner tonight was casual and we both had Caesar salads, one Lion's Head meatballs, and a bowl of turkey soup Mexican style (good).   Mains were one grilled pork chop with Mexican rice, and a KFC fried chicken dinner with creamy mashed potatoes.  Dessert was a chocolate log surprise and one scoop of mint chip ice cream.   

 

The entertainer of the evening was a singer by the name of Claude-Eric with tunes from past years. 

 

Bill & Mary Ann

 

No Pictures

Report #88 Sunday March 30, 2025 Sea Day #2 Of 6 Enroute To Praia, Cabo Verde Mostly Cloudy With Some Sun 78 Degrees 12mph Winds 6' Swell-----Formal Dress

Day three at sea found very few folks once again in the Pinnacle for breakfast. Or they plan on attending the Sunday Brunch in the dining room.   This last week or so has really wiped out the passengers between safaris overland and several days in the fabulous ports of South Africa.   As for us, we sure like these days at sea where we don't have to be anywhere at a certain time or line up for customs and immigration checks, etc.  One nice thing about few customers for breakfast, we had a chance to talk to our buddy Don without strangers over- hearing every word we say. 

 

The weather is getting warmer and more humid the closer we get to the Equator again.    Actually this will be the fourth crossing for this world cruise.  Captain Frank came on with his noon talk and said we were sailing along the coastline of Angola now.  We have to travel 2631 nautical miles to reach Cape Verde.  Traveling in a northwesterly direction at a speed of 20.5 knots, we are sailing over sea depths of 80,000 feet.  The weather is good with partly sunny and partly cloudy skies, and no rain.  The temperature is 78 degrees with 12 knot winds and a 6 foot swell.  Can't ask for anything better.  And there will be no changes predicted for tomorrow except the temps may be a bit warmer. 

 

Captain Frank likes to add a story or an idiom that relates to where we are sailing at the moment.   There is a special current that travels up and down this coastline called the Maquelado Current.  Or at least that is as close to what we heard.  Anyway, due to these currents coming from the south and the north, it creates a particularly prolific area for fishing.  And for the African countries that border this current, their main industry is fishing. 

 

Most of our day involved computer work.  We are getting closer to being up-to-date with the daily blog.   While working we got caught up with a TV movie about an Australian family and their lives in the outback.    Any movie that involves the outdoors and animals always gets our attention.   About the time it ended, one of us had an appointment for a men's haircut in the spa.  One of the operators had left the ship back in January, but returned in Durban or Cape Town.  Her name is Bianca and she is a very good barber as well as a great hairdresser.  The appointment was for 5:15pm and ended up lasting for over an hour.   Looks sharp.

 

Tonight was a formal one in the dining room and any other table service restaurant which is the Pinnacle Grill.  According to Presty, our Maitre'd, putting a reminder about the dress code in the Daily newsletter as well as posting a reminder outside the dining rooms has solved the problem of people coming  dressed inappropriately.  Even Kimberly mentioned the dress code in her 5pm talk.   Presty admitted while he stopped by our table for a chat,  that the pressure is off of him now, because he was the one that had to confront the folks that should be in the Lido.   We can share a little secret we heard and that is most of the people that do not comply with the formal dress code are usually the segment folks.  They do not wish to pack formal clothes for only two or three nights.  That's fine, but have common sense and go to the Lido.  Lots of full world cruisers that we know prefer the Lido over the dining room every night.  The food served is usually close to the dining room anyway.  And the service from the waiters is good there as well.

 

So for our formal dinner, we ordered shrimp cocktails with aioli sauce for a change.  Other starters were one Caesar salad and one bowl of tomato bisque soup.  The surf and turf entrée was lobster and a tenderloin steak.  One of us had the lamb chops with quinoa and salsa.  A good combination.  Dessert was one flourless chocolate cake using the Lindt chocolate.   And finally, one scoop of strawberry sorbet finished the meal. 

 

Instead of entertainment in the World Stage, there was a "Grand Ball" starting in the Crow's Nest at 7:30pm, followed by the Rolling Stone Lounge at 9pm.   This is a different concept since usually there was one ball in one venue, usually the World Stage.   It always began during the second seating dinner time, which did not make everyone happy.  This is a better idea to give everyone a chance to attend one or the other.  Or both if you so wish. 

 

And so ends day three on our way to Cape Verde.

 

Bill & Mary Ann

 

No Pictures