Noontime Location Check: N 13º 17′ 04.30″ – W 078º 40′ 50.93″

Up on time this morning and down to the gym. It’s confession time. I have frequently maintained that “nothing of musical significance happened in the 80’s.” I am using an 80’s dance mix as my treadmill music and have come to appreciate the fine artistry that decade brought to the world. There, I said it.

Breakfast this morning was out on the Aquavit Terrace. It was great to relax with an extra cup of coffee watching the wave trail forming behind us.

The first lecture was a review of exploration from B.C. to the present – with emphasis on the Silk Road, the Chinese, and Lief Erickson.

Following the lecture we had coffee with our new friend Christeen Isgro. She and her husband will be joining us on the Petra excursion (her second time there) and she had lots of good information and advice.

Then it was almost time for lunch.

…so we wandered over to the Pool Grill for burgers. In addition to the normal burger/dog fare they offer several creative salads and (a great discovery) peach iced tea.

1:00 saw us joining a Bayeux Tapestry Tour. Viking has installed blow-ups of sections of the Bayeux Tapestry in the stairwells on the ship. This tapestry tells the background and story of the Norman Conquest of Britain in 1066.

After a short break we were back in the Theatre for:

It was actually a very informative presentation of the role Hollywood has played in forming our impression of pirates.

We hung out in the Theatre waiting for the next event – the 4:30 Port Talk about tomorrow’s port; Cartagena, Colombia. Then it was down to the Atrium for the Explorer’s Society reception. The ES is everyone who has sailed with Viking more than once. Needless to say this included almost everyone on this cruise so it was a massive event – SRO on all three levels of the Atrium and people sitting on the grand staircase. We grabbed a glass of bubbly and a nosh and chatted with a few people, then headed back to the Theatre for the 6:30:

After dinner we subjected ourselves to another painful session of Bruce’s Brain Busters. We scored 5 out of 18 points. It was brutal.

That was so bad that we skipped the evening show and returned to our stateroom to lick our wounds, read, and BLOG.

Here are a couple of other items:

Nautical term: Leeway

The “weather” side of a ship is the side from which the wind is blowing. The “lee” side is the side of he ship that is sheltered from the wind. A “lee shore” is a shore that is downwind of a ship. If a ship does not have enough “leeway,” it is in danger of being driven onto the shore.

So that’s it for now. Nite all, R