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