Noontime location check: N 17º 19′ W 83º 23′

The morning started with a bit of a lie-in. It was a combination of recovering from last night’s celebrations (Thanks Jerry for sharing your excellent Champagne), a bit of a Christmas cheer, and the fact that the ship was really rockin’ and arollin’. (Note; We, of course, don’t yet really know the meaning of true rockin’ and arollin’. I’m sure we’ll become much better acquainted as we venture along.)

Eventually we hoisted ourselves out of bed and made our way, weaving down the corridor, to the cafe where a bit of food (and caffeine) in our stomach helped us to feel a little more human. We lingered until it was time to head down to the theatre for the first of today’s lectures.

It was an interesting review of the history and current status of this most hunted of all whales. (OK, later it was the Sperm Whale that was most hunted, but from the inception of recorded whaling history the Right Whale was the prey of choice) Of the three major sub-species of this whale only one is thriving. One is endangered and the third is on the brink of extinction.

The next lecture was given by Robert Wallace – retired from “a 3-letter agency”

He started with an overview of the US intelligence community and briefly talked about his 30+ years of experience in the CIA. Then he talked about “This Day in Intelligence History” – today being the anniversary of Washington’s crossing the Delaware to attack the Hessians. The operation was successful because of his use of pre-operation intelligence. As a result of its success he began to utilize intelligence more frequently, and more effectively during the war.

Following the intro he reviewed topics like ‘why does someone become a spy’, ‘why is spying significant’, Why we are all spies (unless you’ve never attempted to figure out what was in that package under the Christmas tree), and he finished with homage to the most famous of all spies – “He knows if you’ve been sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake.”

Following the lecture it was upstairs to the deli:

Before ‘Holiday Name That Tune’. Which was abysmal. Out of a possible 45 points we got 18. We’re particularly bad at identifying the decade for each song.

While we were there I took the opportunity to capture a few photos:

Killing time in the lounge turns out to be a particularly dangerous venture. We were waiting until a 2:00 seminar on Birthstones and Anniversary gems – conducted by the staff of the jewelry shop. Sadly the setting was so peaceful that Cheryl had to retire to our stateroom to nap. Missing the jewelry shop talk…why does it feel like I’ve dodged a bullet?

The next event on our dance card was a lecture on “The collapse of the Mayan civilization.” Not sure why but we chose that instead of the Holiday Line Dance class 🤪.

At 4:00 tea we sat with a lovely Mother and daughter from Salt Lake City. It was fun to compare travel notes with these serious travelers.

5:00 found us on deck 1 midships where the Jewish community on board lit the final ‘candle’ in their menorah.

Then it was back to the room for a brief stop before heading to the non-denominational worship service at 6:00. The service was led by a retired Episcopal priest and used several passengers as readers of the parts of a liturgy provided by Viking. After the service I introduced myself and offered to assist with services throughout the voyage.

Conversation with the priest and the Resident Historian (who has been in charge of services in the past and is glad to turn the process over to other volunteers) lasted beyond the time for the lecture: “The Sweet Story of Rum” so we decamped to the caffeteria for supper. (The lecture will be rebroadcast on the stateroom TV so we’ll not miss anything really important.)

As I noted before, we’ve pretty well become ‘cafeteria people’. The food is excellent and unless we are joining others and will be committing a multiple hours to conversation we’re just as happy to eat and get on with our day. Besides, the food is excellent and we get to set the portion sizes. And did I mention the excellent food? I’ll spare you the photos but the lobster vol-au-vent was a real treat and the beef Wellington was perfect. The only problem was cutting back on the sushi. And the chocolate.

But what’s Christmas without great quantities of chocolate?

This evening we took advantage of the much more clement weather and ate on the Aquavit Terrace (the terrace at the back of the ship – I’ll post a photo tomorrow). Looking up we spotted a Cheshire Cat moon smiling at us.

After supper we moved forward to the Explorer’s lounge for Bruce’s Holiday Trivia. We scored 21 out of 31 possible, which was good enough for 4th place. Who knew that Clarance (the angel in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’) had a last name – Oddbody?

The show this evening was a musical variety show presented by all of the performers on board (there are at least 15 of them). It was excellent and the theatre was packed, a great way to end a very different but no less enjoyable Christmas.

Finally, Cheryl wanted me to post today’s Nautical Term (from the Viking Daily):

AS THE CROW FLIES

When lost or unsure of their position in coastal waters, ships would release a caged crow. the crow would fly straight toward the nearest land, thus giving the vessel some sort of navigational fix. This is also why the tallest lookout platform on a ship came to be known as the “Crow’s Nest.”

I hope everyone had a great Christmas wherever your travels have found you.

Merry Christmas, R