Day 15 - South Pacific Ho!

Look, we're south of the Equator!

Usual morning (with walnuts, but the prune shortage is on its second day): Tai Chi, Coffee with Dario and the 4 cadets, Hula, line dancing with Jorge. I’m not giving a lot of detail because it is the same thing every morning, but that makes it seem like they’re not each a highlight of my day, which they are. OK so it wasn’t really a usual morning because we crossed the equator! The Captain had told us yesterday that King Neptune’s schedule was so full he’d had to put our equator crossing festivities off until we cross back, so there wasn’t a party. Dave made it a party, though, because it happened during Coffee with Dario. Dario had encouraged Dave to announce it, so after we crossed Dave said Loudly “And that’s the Equator” and then we all  stood up and cheered and looked out the window to see if we could see the marker line on the ocean.

Dave was feeling a little under the weather so he had a quick lunch at the Lido. I ate at a 6 top with an interesting group of folks but the service was crazy slow – our appetizers took about half an hour to appear after we ordered. I had told my server that I needed to be done by 1, so my main course came while everyone was finishing their appetizers, but their food hadn’t arrived when I left.

I was in a rush because the navigators were giving a talk at 1 that I wanted to go to. It was a good talk – the junior 2^nd officer was very funny. I had to leave early because I’d forgotten to grab my ‘uke on my way there. It’s a long way from the front of the ship where the talk was to the back of the ship where our cabin is then back all the way forward and up to the Crows Nest, but I got there in time to get a good seat. It’s so fun to get to the top of the stairs and hear the sound of everybody warming up. We were in great form today, with everybody singing along. For E Huli a couple of us who are in the papa hulu (hulu class, called pupu ori in Tahitian, if you’re wondering) got up with our hulu teachers and danced.

I was pretty tired so I took a nap in our cabin after – Dave had the door open and it was nice to nap and listen to the ocean. The Pacific has been living up to its name, with long low swells that gently rock the ship, pretty ideal for sleeping. Dave didn’t want to share his coughing with the folks in the dining room, so he ate outside at the Lido while I went to the dining room. My moussaka was absolutely delicious.

I was starting to feel a little scratchy in the throat so we decided to have a quiet evening in our cabin catching up on talks that we’ve missed. Sadly the talks weren’t posted yet, so we had a quiet evening in the cabin reading. It was absolutely fabulous!