We had a nice day at sea without the deep swells we had yesterday. There was some motion with pitching, but not so bad you couldn't walk. In addition, there was a definite drop in the temperature as well as the humidity. The temps were 70 degrees and humidity was 51% at 10am. Winds were 9 mph and the skies were clear with a few clouds later in the day. Sea swells were five feet according to Captain Rens. During his talk, he mentioned we were 250 nautical miles from our next port of Punta Del Este, Uruguay, and the ship was doing 14 kts.
Tomorrow's port will requite tendering and we will be using two local boats that hold more guests. Also, we will have two of our tenders transporting the folks too. The Captain warned that it may be windy, and we all needed to be careful with the tendering process. He ended his talk telling us that some whales had been spotted earlier in the morning. Sorry we missed that, although we suspect they were far in the distance.
There was a port talk at 2pm with info on Punta del Este, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo. Why all three ports, we don't know. Right now it is 10pm, and we are still searching for the lecture on our TV. It is a mystery why they are doing these talks so close to the actual port days. If their intention is to sell more excursions, they are missing the boat.
There are two speakers onboard. One was Dr. Michael Douglas (not the actor) with a talk on the Antarctic Environment at 11am. The next speaker was Dr. Jim Jacobs speaking about the geology and micro brews of Brazil, Argentina, and Chile.
There were three sessions of water coloring and a one hour session for the craft workshop at 2:30pm.
We did take the time to go to the Sea View Pool and get some sun. Today two waiters came over and offered us beverages, which was nice. They were intrigued with Bill's t-shirt which was from the Philippines over 10 years ago. It had the MS Amsterdam on the front and the map of the Philippines on the back. Of course, the waiters were both from Manila and loved the shirt. Bill has another one printed with the officers and crew on the back from the 2014 Grand World Voyage. On another note Bill did get a few pictures of an Albatross.
Dinner choices were not too exciting tonight. We both ordered the shrimp appetizer, always good, and one salad and a bowl of chicken soup. Entrees were one Peruvian chicken (spicy) and one lamb loin wrapped in filo dough with chopped spinach under the dough. Neither of us cares a whole lot for cooked spinach, and there was no mention of it on the menu. We think our waiter will be more informative because we should have told him our preferences. Now he knows. Desserts were a strawberry tart and a sliced banana with a little chocolate sauce.
There was a show by the World Stage Cast with Solid Gold and songs from the 70's. A movie was shown in the Wajang - Alive.
Looks like we are in for some weather tomorrow and no mention of rain.
Bill & Mary Ann
