AT SEA

Thursday, January 29, 2009
Sunny, hot, 80 F

This last day of the cruise was very busy. I walked two miles around the ship’s Promenade Deck for the Susan G. Komen “On Deck for the Cure Fund Raiser. Afterward I sprinted to the special luncheon for our Cruise Critic group—I got to sit with Vera and Ken and he is going to give me information about the Tuskegee Airmen and some of the things they do with students. The Captain and many officers attended our lunch. This was quite an honor, too!

Then our group had a special tour of the bridge-this is no longer common since 9-11. The windows are so huge. It would be very easy to stand watch on this ship for four hours as opposed to my four hour watches on the U.S. Brig Niagara. I thought it was very interesting that I could see many similarities in protocol to those of a ship reconstructed to represent the Niagara of almost 200 years ago.
Some interesting facts Oli, the 3rd Officer (from England), told us:
The ship uses 40,000 gal. of fuel per day--it is refined on the ship (heavy fuel oil)
The ship gets 20 meters per gallon
Each engine is 28,000 hp (there are two)
The ship could spin all the way round in 2 minutes
Antipiracy plans are in place
Whales do get in the way and they do everything possible to avoid them--no whales or dolphins sighted on this cruise

It was difficult to say farewell at dinner-our CC friends have been very special. Manuel, our waiter, was excellent and took care of us very well. Nanta, his helper from Thailand, was very sweet. Lonelo, our cabin steward took very good care of us, too.

Culinary Delight of the Day: Baked Alaska, roast tom turkey

TK's Takes: The sea was calm and the temperature seemed the warmest yet--his favorite day. He did not enjoy packing up. His favorite pool aft seemed about 90 F.

A Note to our Granddaughters B and B: I picked up some post cards that had the islands' currency attached so we can compare their coins to ours!