almost to Fiji

February 27 2010
The weather overall was better today. In fact as the day went on, it got downright pleasant and the seas had that indescribable blue color that cannot be seen anywhere else except on the open ocean.
Ed went to the gym and I finished up the blog and then uploaded everything while saving our seats in the Cabaret Lounge.
Port Talk: Vanautu
The beaches in these places are unbelievable and as we’ve been sailing toward our ports, we’ve seen islands in the distance, some occupied, most not. And several atolls too. Many of these islands are simply volcanic results and Vila Vanautu is no different. We reach here Tuesday. Again this port talk lady is warm and seems amused by much of what she’s telling us.
Trivia
We didn’t do well at all in the morning which had an awful selection of questions. In the afternoon we did better but didn’t win. The membership in our group fluctuates so it’s hard to get a handle on people’s abilities and it seems rude to reject someone when we have an opening but many folks don’t contribute anything. So you wonder why they come.
Lunch
We sat with the astronomy afficianados from lunch yesterday. Sweet lady; rather proper but genttel and a nice conversationalist. Since I’ve stopped ordering dessert and ordering fruit I see that Ed occasionally asks for blueberries but overall he still orders dessert. Just so he doesn’t push it off on me I’m Ok with that. Ha.
I chose to catch up on my Discovery magazine and a few others rather than going to this afternoon’s lectures. One was by the WWII guy and it was on hurricanes and volcanos including a discussion of Katrina. Ed took a nap; any time he sits still for a minute he’s dozing off.
I’m sorry I missed the “What’s new in astronomy?” but it conflicted with the boat building contest which was held today. Boy some folks really put a lot of work into them. If any of the photos turn out, I’ll post a selection. One was a submarine that wouldn’t sink. All did float though many listed dangerously. The supplies used were clever including a watermelon hull as the boat for one entry. A member of each team got up and described their boat and some folks got carried away droning on and on. I just wanted them to get on with the competition after a while so we could see who won. But it is hilarious when folks get into it and many did; lots of folks didn’t go to the dining room because they were engrossed in building their boat.
Dinner
Everyone was here and Nancy made a comment about what a fun table we are. I absolutely agree. It is a delight to have such a fun group. They served their champagne to everyone which we agreed we’d start consuming as soon as we sat down to the table. We talked about a wide ranging group of subjects but we often come back to the trivia questions since many of us play trivia.
Laundrymat update
Ok so Peg said she went to the laundry room without incident today. Someone else said that when one of the boat contestants was describing her team’s entry she said that their ship had a laundry mat with 4 washers and 4 dryers on every deck. This got a big hurrah as did several other decorating and architectural features their ship had such as a tub in each stateroom. Well you get the picture. It was a riot.
And speaking of that, I have to go do my hand laundry, squeeze it out with a beach towel, and hope it will dry by the morning. If it doesn’t then I have to hide it in the closet above the small refrigerator we have in the cabin. The heat from the fridge helps to dry my unmentionables but the cabin steward changes the ice bucket in there so he’s exposed to their shocking site of my medical bras. Poor fellow. Probably better than a lot of things he’s seen in his job I’d bet.