Royal Clipper Transatlantic 2014: At Sea 13

Sea Day 13 ~ Saturday April 26th

I overslept & missed the Captain's 7am Tai Chi, but made Amanda's class at 8.

I'd taken my camera & took a pic of some of my fellow exercisers.

Unknown peeps in the stripes, Andy in yellow &
Amanda to his left. My mat is next to Little David,
 but I can't see Jerry. Maybe he had a lie-in.
Big David's head is behind the pillar.

After breakfast I did a bit of Jo practice at 1/4 to 10, & then had a short, cold, sunbathe before lunch.

I sat alone on the starboard side for a while & then Ernest joined me. He gave me a pen with a torch on the end (cool!) & a scarf. How kind & sweet of him :-) 
I can't remember if I said in an earlier blog, but he goes on the RC every year. 
That would explain why he sat at the Captain's Table at dinner - see below

After lunch, I had another cold sunbathe with the book, & then went into the Hamman to warm up.
Although I still had the camera in my bum-bag, the Hamman didn't have its photo taken, but there's one of the gym.

The central atrium & the bottom of the
midships pool from the restaurant.

The 'body' was in the water behind Sergey.

Back on deck I was having a chat with Christine when there was suddenly lots of excitement ~ the crew were having a Man-Overboard drill.

Apparently they must all do it, & as the lovely Amanda & Vadim were new crew, it was their turn.

Being quite short I couldn't see the body, so I stood on one of the benches behind the bridge.
Whilst I was trying to get the little red man in the view finder (the RC was rolling about a bit), a German guy said "You must go down". 
I thought he was concerned I would fall, so I said "I'm OK. I'm just trying to get a picture of the boat & the body".

He then said "No, you must go down", but as Amanda & Vadim were just about to drag the body aboard, I stayed there & got an action shot just as he said "You must go down, I cannot see". So he wasn't concerned about me falling after all. Then he said I was a stupid woman in German. 
How rude.
It may not sound much written down, but the tone of his voice was very caustic, & not a "Please" passed his lips, so I was quite annoyed with him: especially as he was over 6 feet tall & would have had a much better view of what was going on, than I had. And he could have seen round me. Grrr!

Once they had recovered the body, they brought it back to the ship & everyone was winched aboard. 

It was clearly a heavy & unwieldy body ~ as it would be in real life, I guess.





Even big Erik had a job getting it aboard.

The sun was out, but it was cold, so I went to my cabin to watch the end of MI - Ghost Protocol before getting ready for Erik's Abs, where I took a pic of some more exercise action.
I think that's Tom on the left, but it's definitely Jerry in the navy blue top & lighter blue shorts.

After Erik it was time to get dolled-up for the Captain's Dinner. It was a more formal affair than the usual dinners.

As I was trying to take photos of ship places & activities, on my way to the Captain's Dinner I got a shot of the forward lounge where I'd done most of my jo practice.

The Captain's Dinner menu ~ page 1

The Captain's Dinner menu ~ page 2

I put the wedding dress on for the Captain's Dinner.

I loved that dress in 1995 & I still do :-)

I had lobster followed by Chateaubriand, & drank the last of my bottle of red. 

I had a couple of glasses of champagne as well.

Some crew from Goa & me in the Library

Daniel's pic of Lidija introducing the 1st act

Another Daniel pic. Judging by the laughter I could hear,
Peter wielding a razor was very funny.

There was Baked Alaska to end with, & most of the crew came up to the restaurant - including the Chef & his minions.
I didn't see Damion, though?
Maybe he was up to his elbows in washing up?


There were also speeches, toasts & the ship's song. It was all very emotional, & yours truly got quite weepy. 

That may explain the quality of the pics I took. They ended up in the deleted bin!



Then it was time to get ready for the 'Guest and Crew talent Show'.

Those taking part went into the Library which was acting as a Green Room for the evening. 



I was quite a long way down the running order, so I didn't see many of the acts. 
Fortunately, Daniel did, & most of the photos are his.

The Goa lads doing their act. Another Daniel pic

Gede & guitar

Crew member 'Thingy' singing his heart out

The 1st rei!

When I was on there was the usual giggles when I Kiai-ed, but it didn't go too badly.
Well, it felt OK ;-p

See below for what it looked like! !

Thingy & Amanda shakin' their booties

Tony singing "Goodbye"

Tony was one of the later acts, & sang the Goodbye song from the operetta The White Horse Inn. He was very good. 

And he was funny, milking the Goodbyes from behind the mast. 

Tony still singing "Goodbye", & waving goodbye as well!

The Purser & Prakash being fed while Lidija'
splits her ribs laughing

After Tony there was a very funny act from various crew members. The 2 in the pic had to eat & drink according to a story, but were fed by crew behind the blue sheet. I think Ramon was one of the hidden crew. I had it all written down, but it's disappeared :-( 

Amanda & Erik leading the dancing

3 guesses what dance this is ;-)
Mind you, it may not be that obvious, as the
Ys got a bit mixed up with the Ms!

After the show, Amanda, Erik & Lidija got quite a few passengers up for a dance.



I managed to avoid it by getting up onto a chair for some photos.

Avril getting someone up.
Connie & Harry are behind on the left, Amanda's
doing a solo, & Tony is having a dance as well.

The Talent Show evening ended with me getting a Mine from the bar.

It's called a Mine because I made it up, & it consists of Cointreau, Malibu, pineapple juice, & a dash of lemonade to give it fizz. 
It's quite an apt name because your head stays sober, but your legs get taken out ;-p

Then I decided to try & dance with everyone still standing.
Well, all the chaps, anyway!

The dances included a bop with Big David, JP & someone whose name I didn't know, but I asked him to dance anyway! 
I also did a jive with Little David ~ who said turning me was like driving a car with power steering. He sounded complimentary ;-), so I'll take it he meant I was easy to dance with.
Following Little David, I danced a cha-cha with Harry, & did something with Marcel. During our dance Marcel told me how excited he was about getting married to Gabi & how much he loved her. So sweet, & I got all weepy again.
Following Marcel, I had to strong-arm Andy to dance. Maybe he didn't dare refuse after seeing me with my Jo ~ har har. Not ;-p
Patrick was my penultimate partner, & in between him & Harry ( a waltz to Moon River), I bopped on my own ~ well, there was music playing, & I'd danced with all the men!

So, I managed a good bit of exercise as well as the adrenaline of performing my Jo Kata, & it all helped to offset 2 helpings of Baked Alaska & all that alcohol!

IRO the Jo Kata, Andy had videoed it, & he sent it to me to watch once we were home.
It was pretty dire: raised shoulders, high stances, & not very fluid. At least the Kime was OK.
Andy was all for putting it online, but I persuaded him not to!

So, that was the end of Day 13. Only one more to go :-(
OAO

Royal Clipper Transatlantic 2014: At Sea 11 & 12

Sea Day 11 ~ Thursday April 24th
The Itinerary says At Sea 1, but that's because its the 1st sea day of our 2nd leg. It's the 11th of the total.

Anyway, I managed to get up for Sergey's Tai Chi at 7am, despite a long day's walk & a late night chat, and (of course) stayed out on the deck of the Tropical Bar for Amanda's exercises.

In my notes I wrote "on other port side" about breakfast
I have No Idea what that meant? 
Duh %-@ 
Scratches head (beware the sawdust ;-p )

After Brekkers I chatted for a while with Peter amidships, did a bit of my usual reading & sleeping (Holiday & all that), & went to lunch with Harry.

I had my free back & leg massage at 4pm, so I didn't go to Sergey's Story Time: I didn't want to walk out before the end.

In between lunch & 4 it was more reading & sleeping, & after the massage I read on my bed. 
While I was there, there was a tannoy announcement about whales, so I grabbed my camera & ran.
As bloody usual, no sign of cetaceans for Shirl :-(
It was sunny, so I read on the aft deck until 7, watched a snatch of MI-Ghost Protocol while I got ready for dinner, & had dinner with Tony, Michael, Ian & Conrad.
As per norm, little Conrad spoke with great authority on everything under discussion, including rugby. He seemed surprised that I disagreed with his opinion about scrummaging, & Tony was struggling not to laugh*. He hid it well in his pudding, though.
* & then he made a joke about peeps who talk bullshit, & I was struggling not to laugh.  
Tony is so funny & has a great dry sense of humour :-D  
And what a lovely man.
After dinner there was a Pub Quiz in the Piano Bar, & I joined Collette & Bernie, + 2 peeps whose names I didn't write down. After being ignored on an answer in the pub at Oban on Stewart Island in 2011 (& where our team came 2nd), I stuck to my guns & our team won. I think we got a bottle of fizz, but it didn't go far between 5 of us. 
Ah well, better than a Crackerjack Pencil ;-)*
A behemoth of children's programming, for nearly three decades Crackerjack pretty much marked the start of the weekend with its mixture of sketches, pop performances and of course its games. Countless different games were played down the years - there were any number of straightforward on-the-buzzer quizzes, alongside other games like the jigsaw-based Jig-Jak and Hangman variant Take A Letter, but the show's signature game was Double Or Drop, devised by original host Eamonn Andrews, in which kids had to answer questions while holding on to an ever-increasing pile of prizes (with cabbages added to the heap for wrong answers). Win or lose, everyone went home with the coveted "Crackerjack pencil" (later replaced by the "Crackerjack pen").The famed Crackerjack pencils were only given to children who actually took part in the games, and they were kept under lock and key so nobody else - even the presenters and crew - could have one. One exception was made in 1961 when the Queen visited the set and was given pencils for Prince Charles and Princess Anne. The pencils were abandoned for a short time in the early 1970s but were subsequently reintroduced, and later on there were Crackerjack pens as well. Leslie Crowther once stated in an interview that he was never given a "Crackerjack" pencil, yet people would constantly ask him for one many years after he stopped hosting the show.

After the quiz I sat with Tony, Gabi & Marcel, & ~ because the clocks went forward again, it was gone 0130 when I got to bed. Whereupon I read for a bit until my eyes drooped.

Having taken no photographs the whole day ~ in the absence of interesting things on deck & me missing the cetaceans, here are some delicious looking food photos courtesy of Andy.

By the fact that there is still a knife & fork on the table, this must have been one of Andy's starters?

A nice light starter so as not to fill up the tum for what's to come.
Hey, I made a rhyme.
I'm a poet & didn't know it*

* That is a very old phrase, & I don't know who 1st said it. 
Another one from a children's book is:
It wasn't the cough, 
That carried him off.
It was the coffin,
They carried him off in!

I'll get my coat  .   .   .   .   .

I think this was a starter as well?
Either that or a fish course.

Whatever it was, it looks scrummy.
Yummy and scrummy - childhood terms for the taste of food. I remember using them when I was a kid. They're actually quite old - well, a hundred years or so - they're late 19th century - is the first time I've found a reference to them from 'yum, yum' - 'yummy' from 'yum, yum' - first, referring to delicious food, of course, and then to attractive people. That became a usage in the 1990s, which was quite fashionable for a while. People talked about 'yummy mummies' - that is, the perfectly-groomed woman who goes to yoga classes, stays slim, has clean children and has a four-wheel-drive. And other usages came in too - 'I've got a very yummy job', people might say, and recently, I heard somebody talking about somebody who had a very yummy blog on the internet - in that sense, it means, sort of, delightful and attractive, rather than delicious. 
Scrummy', anyway became modelled on 'yummy'. It developed in the early 20th century some years later, again, originally with reference to food - scrumptious, you see, it's a derivation from that word, which means delicious. People talked about 'scrummy cakes' and 'scrummy recipes', and then, started using it as an adjective too, more than 'yummy' did, you know, 'that was scrummier', 'this is scrummiest'. I have heard 'yummier' and 'yummiest', but 'scrummier' and 'scrummiest' seems to be more common! Something 'sounds scrummy'. There are 'scrummy TV shows' now. The word, evidently, has moved on! 
And this! Mmmmm 
Some sort of savoury pate? Well, I imagine it would be savoury? Broccoli, asparagus etc. are not usually served as part of pudding, even in the most avant garde cuisine!?

I remember this cutlet. It was scrummy, too

When I was younger I was not able to eat lamb: I'd get spots when I ate some foods, & lamb was one.

Now I don't ~ I'm obviously no longer prone to adolescent acne ;-p, so I can eat all sorts of stuff I didn't for years, including lamb, coffee, salted peanuts & strawberries.

Nice & red: that's the way to do it ;-q

I really don't know how Andy managed to hold off tucking into his dinner when it looked like this?

Peach Melba?

And a lunchtime dessert table. I'm hungry just looking at it!

Sea Day 12 ~ Friday April 25th

I woke before 0630, & grabbed the Jo to do a bit of pre-dawn practice on the Tropical Bar deck in order to check clearance all round.
I didn't want to whack any of the audience, especially with the big Yokouchi at the end!
It was Lidja's turn to run the 0700 class. This meant Yoga-y stuff as opposed the Tai Chi we did with the Captain.

Then it was Amanda, as usual.
I had breakfast with Ernest & Harry, took a few kiwis on deck & read the next book in line ~Gateways.
Gerry was up there as well, so we shared the kiwis.
There was mast climbing again, so I lurked well before 1030 to ensure I got another go.

I went up 2 before Andy, & managed to get a couple of him climbing up the rat-lines.

That's Amanda's R leg. She stayed up there the whole time
 to help us off the rat-lines & up through the access hole

Somebody?? took a couple of me & Andy? It's a shame he didn't show his teeth ;-p

This is Andy taking a pic of me taking a pic!

Once down on deck again, I took a few lying down & looking up, & when I got home Andy E'd a few to me which he'd taken.


The pics give a great impression of how high we'd climbed.
Sadly, we were only allowed up to the 1st cradle/platform, which was a bit disappointing, but I'd expected it after the mast climb on Star Clipper in 2006.

I'd love to go all the way up :-p.

Note the shadows on the left ~ 1

Note the shadows on the left ~ 2

From the shadows on the 2 which initially look identical you can get an impression of how the ship was rolling while we were up there. Not at all nauseating, in my opinion, but obviously more than it felt like. We'd clearly got our sea-legs by then & didn't notice a bit of rolling.

Patrick on his way up

Harry putting on a cheery face, pre-climb ;-)

I took the opportunity to get some more action shots after that, & managed to photo Patrick, Andy & Harry going up, down & up respectively.

After all the excitement it was time to chill & chat, & take some more pics of my lovely fellow voyagers.

Mr Chill personified ~ Jerry from Canada

Big David getting his harness fitted by (big) Erik.

I like this pic of Patrick (another big ;-p ), me, Andy & Helmut.

The very chilled Helmet sorry, Helmut

And then it was lunch time ~ Chef's best.

As usual, unlike Andy's, my food photos tend to look a bit like vomit on a plate*, but this was very tasty, despite what it looked like.
* Check out the Hamilton, NZ, seafood pate from Sept 2011!

Post lunch it was more book, more sleep, & more chats with various peeps like JB, Andy, Amanda, Gabi & Marcel.

There was no "Erik's Abs, so I spent 40 minutes stretching down in the gym, & had a bit of a 'singalongaMonika' before going down to my cabin to prep for dinner.

I had dinner mostly alone & then went up to the Piano Bar to see the documentary about a whale. Good film, but I was sat next to Tony who started to snore ;-p.

I let him sleep ;-)

Before I got there, I took the last 2 pics of the evening sky.
I really like the one of the jibs.


After the film I sat chatting with Tony, Marcel, Gabi & Harry, & Marcel got some filched hot chocs. out of his cabin & we all had a midnight night-cap. Well, not quite midnight, as I was back in my cabin & in bed before 12.
My bed-time read was very short this evening as I was very sleepy.

I'd had the next day's Itinerary placed on my pillow & realised we only had 2 sea days left of our marvellous voyage across the Atlantic :-(
OAO