Noon Reading:

• Position: S 20° 09.23′, W 153° 30.19′
• Speed: 16.8 knots
• Course: 236º

…we’re heading southwest toward New Zealand. We are scheduled to arrive on Tuesday January 31 after 5 days at sea. And if you are confused by the math, so are we. The best we can do at this point is say “International Date Line” and proceed with the confidence that the crew will keep us posted on what day it is.

After 3 consecutive port days it seems a bit like sea day things were a bit backed up. So in addition to the normal stuff – lectures, meals, naps, games, we also tried to squeeze in a bit of photo/video curation and blog catchup. (Full disclosure – I’m actually writing this on the morning of Friday 1/27 and I’m just now uploading the Tahiti snorkeling video, which is the last thing I need to do before posting the 24th. But I promise to catch up before I fall behind again in New Zealand.)

Here’s what the schedule looks like: (I’ll give you the full schedule and post pics below)

• 6:15 – up and out to the deck/treadmill
• Breakfast
• 9:00 – “Behind the house” tour (galleys, food & beverage stores, I-95, Engineering Control Room, Laundry, business office)
• 9:30 – Lecture: “What does it mean to be 2% Neanderthal?” (got there late but caught the important stuff)
• 11:00 – Lecture: The Kon-tiki Expedition”
• Lunch
• 2:00 – Meet and Greet with people going on our private excursion to Luxor
• 3:00 – World Cruise Choir rehersal
• 4:15 – Passport Pickup (we had to turn them in before Fr. Polynesia)
• 5:30 – Bible Study
• 6:30 – Lecture: “The European Explorers Arrive in the Pacific”
• Dinner
• 8:00 Bruce’s Brain Busters (9 of 18)
• 9:00 Breathe

Photos:

Here are a few photos from the “Behind the Scenes” tour. Note that there are no photos from the control room. That was the only place where they don’t allow photos.

Couple of notes about “Behind the scenes”

• I-95 is the main ‘below deck’ corridor in a ship. It’s connected to everywhere on the ship (both passenger and crew areas as well as crew cabins) and is the fastest way to get to anywhere and is used for moving goods and materials quickly around the ship.
• In the laundry he explained that if we had any Covid aboard they would implement special laundry procedures to isolate all linens and laundry for the affected cabins, using special machines, wearing PPE, and such. Thankfully we’re clear.

At dinner they were displaying a large fish – that the Chef had explained we would be eating tomorrow.

So that’s about it for the day. One other Note:

Nite all, R