Noon Position: N 13º 34′ 02.16″ – W 094º 20′ 54.99″

We took advantage of the time change to wake up early and get a couple loads of laundry in before the crowd arrived. There are 4 washers on each floor. On our floor there are 120 staterooms. So they tend to get kind-of busy on a sea day.

Washing begun we went looking for someplace open for breakfast (the normal places open late on sea days). We ended up at Mamsen’s where we had their signature waffles.

We had time for exercising before the first lecture of the day:

The second lecture of the day was a scientific look at the differences and similarities among whales, dolphins, and porpoises. It covered the evolutionary history, feeding habits, and reproductive processes of the various species. The lecturer also spent a bit of time looking at the closest relative – the Hippopotamus.

Afterwards we grabbed a quick lunch and then retired to the pool deck to enjoy a bit of sun and warm pool waters. Cheryl said I needed to work on getting rid of my farmers’ tan. Fine. But it was a great relaxing time.

However, all good things must come to an end. We returned to our stateroom to watch the broadcast of the talk on “Citizen Spies” that we missed yesterday and freshen up for the 6:30 lecture:

Kyle Acierno reviewed processes (both historical and current) for becoming an astronaut – from buying a trip to the International Space Station to ordering a VR headset and ‘tour the space station’ app – and price points in between. Currently options are rapidly increasing and include private companies including Virgin Galactic, Blur Origin and SpaceX.

Then it was off to the cafeteria for amazing grilled tuna, outstanding pad Thai, warm and comfy mac and cheese… I’ll spare you the photos and ask you to trust us that the food was ‘to write home about’ – so I am.

Bruce’s Brain Busters saw us once again hit the 50% mark with 10 out of 20. But we had fun playing with our pencils.

Then it was back to the stateroom to help Cheryl add a comment to the Day 10 post and finish this.

I’m sorry I didn’t have more pictures today. I promise I’ll have more the next time we’re in port – which is Thursday.

Till tomorrow… That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Nite all, R