As mentioned in the previous days post, I did wake up early and go out on the balcony to look for the comet. After spending about 15-20 minutes searching the skies for the comet, but seeing nothing, I logged onto the internet to perform a Google search to see if I could find out where to look in the early morning sky, and if the comet was even visible. Unfortunately, based on reports on the internet, the comet had mostly burned up going around the sun, and had faded so much that it is very difficult to see with the naked eye. I still was able to see 4-5 shooting stars, I think these are a few remnants from the Leonid Meteor Shower earlier in mid November, so all was not lost for my effort.
Sunrise At Sea
In addition, the conditions were very clear, so the pre-dawn sky was full of color, and the sunrise was very sharp once the sun finally peaked above the horizon.
Sunrise At Sea
I also took the time on the internet to post some additional pictures into the photo albums, and got us up to date through December 3 on the postings. The internet works well at 5:30 AM in the morning, not too many folks are using the service at that time!!
After Stephanie got up, we went to breakfast in the buffet and then we walked to the stern of the ship just to look out at the water. We actually saw a blow spout from some type of whale that was a few hundred yards astern. It surfaced and blew about 3 more times, and then it was gone. We never saw any real portion if its body, but it was unmistakeably a large whale based on the size and height of the blow stream. We then proceeded to go back to the room and sit on our balcony, enjoying the sun and calm wind conditions. We did not stay out long because we did not want to take the time to apply sunscreen, and we were not sure how long we could be exposed without any protection, and not get burned.
We then headed off to the gym for another exercise period on the elliptical and treadmill. The temperature was a little over 70 degrees at noon, so it was the best overall weather day we have had since the day before we left home. Our forecast for tomorrow for our last port stop in Funchal, Madeira, is for partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the 68-70 degree range. The Captain even informed everyone that the ship was going to stay an additional hour in Funchal, so we will now be in port from 8:00 AM until 5:30 PM. It is always amazing that we normally see a short port stop day the day before we spend 7-8 days crossing the Atlantic Ocean. One would think the port day could be extended since we have so many days left to make the actual crossing, surely enough to make up and hour or two.
After exercising, since it was so nice and sunny on our balcony, we did some hand washing of a few clothes items in our bathroom sink and then hung them out to dry on our clothesline that we strung outside on the balcony. Most of the clothes we washed were athletic wear, which dry very fast, but some were heavier and took a while to dry, even in the sunshine.
A lot more people spent time outside on the pool deck in the lounge chairs today, everyone was enjoying the warmer weather. It was warm when you were in the sun, and protected from the slight wind, but it quickly cooled if the sun was no longer shining on you area of the deck.
One item of peculiarity that we noticed late yesterday was that the dining area staff were no longer placing any silverware or glasses on the tables in the buffet area. Even the salt and pepper shakers had been removed from the tables, replaces with the small paper packets. When we went for breakfast, we overheard someone ask a waiter about this situation and they were told that there was apparently an outbreak of something on the ship causing stomach virus problems, and that it was being done as a precaution to help avoiding spreading any germs. One odd thing we noticed was that although the passengers were not touching as much, the server we had at lunch, who was part time buss boy, and then became part time drink server. For each glass of water we requested, we received a new glass, filled from a water dispenser. They were no longer using pitchers of water for refills. But, after busing everyone else s dirty glasses at a vacated table, here comes our “clean” glasses of water in the same gloved hands that had just touched all of the dirty dishes, no washing in between. It would have made a lot more sense to have one person only handle dirty dishes, and another person only handle clean glasses for drink service.
Relaxing Sea Day
On Our Balcony
Later in the afternoon, we spent some more time in the sunshine out on our balcony, relaxing in the lounge chairs.
At 6:00 PM, we headed to the Explorer’s Lounge to catch another show by the ventriloquist we had seen the night before. This was a different show, and he used one other “dummy” in addition to his main dummy named “Grandfather”. Once again, the show was really good, and as he had done the night before, he was able to get on unsuspecting volunteer to come up on stage so that he could place the dummy mouth mask on him, and proceed to completely embarrass him by saying funny things in his ventriloquist voice while making the dummy mask mouth move. In essence, a human dummy. The entertainer had specifically asked if anyone in the audience had not seen the show the night before. Most had, and knew what was in store for them is selected, but this man had not, and paid the price by being completely humiliated. The man was a good natured participant, and added a lot of hand gestures to go with the words being placed in his fake mouth, so to speak.
Before the show had started, we saw our new friends Mike and Barb getting a seat, so Stephanie went and talked with them a little before the show started. After the show was finished, we all got together and planned to meet for dinner in one of the lounges before heading together to dinner the Dining Room. We met them in a lounge called Crooners, and while we were taking, another group they had met from Canada came in and we introduced ourselves to them. Two of them accompanied us to dinner, making it a group of six. Dinner was good, and we had fun with our new group.
After dinner, we actually went and participated in a “game show” similar to Jeopardy. We did not win, but did a lot better than I had expected we would. Your team wrote done the answers, and took them to a judge on stage, and if correct, received fake money in the amount of the question value. Unfortunately, we did not get the correct answer on the Final Jeopardy question, and having wagered everything, ended up with nothing.
Since tomorrow is our last port of call in Funchal, Madeira, and we are getting up early to get ready to go ashore, we called it a night and headed back to our room.