Whiskey Jack Adventures: Cruising the Atlantic Ocean

Yesterday evening we had dinner at the Chef’s Table again. 5 courses of California cuisine with 5 wine pairings (interestingly none of the wines were Californian). Although the meals there are very good, it is not the place to go if you are famished. The appetizer was a dressed sweet potato chip. Yep, one chip about the size of a 50 cent piece in the center of a big plate. Norma amused herself by watching the reaction of other guests to this presentation. Wonderment, surprise, smiles, then laughter and finally one bite to devour and surprise again at how tasty it was, leaving you wanting a dozen more.

In the evening we played trivia as usual, this time with a whole different team that invited us to join them. We did very well and were only one correct answer off from winning. After that we went to another musical performance (see pics).

We should mention at this point that the “moderate” seas of the Atlantic are not conducive to sound sleeping in spite of our comfortable “queen and a half” bed. At dinner last night on a lower deck we had a window table and the view was not too dissimilar to that through the window of a front loading washing machine. Luckily it got dark soon after we sat as you didn’t want to watch the huge swells and think about food. Although we are getting a bit used to the constant motion it will be nice when it decreases in the Amazon River. As mentioned before, motion sickness is generally not a problem for us but we suspect that a few of the guests are suffering.

With having another day at sea we are taking in as many of the guest lectures as we can. They are all well done and these past few days has seen the theatre full with everyone having a similar idea. Today, after an afternoon trivia session we went to the naturalist’s talk on the Amazon. Currently we are slowly proceeding toward the mouth of the river and the water has taken on a very brown colour. About 20% of all the water from all the rivers worldwide that dump into the oceans comes from the Amazon. It is the start of the rainy season now so that explains where all the water comes from – high humidity out there – it’s like a sauna. We are due to pick up our river pilots tomorrow morning before we enter the Amazon proper. By the way, the ride has smoothed markedly.

Norma is taking in another movie in the theatre today.