Seven Months Seeing the World

Changing Hemispheres - October 22

At 8:30 this morning, the Captain announced that we were in the Strait of Gibraltar and we could see the Rock of Gibraltar off the port side. The Strait is where Europe and Africa are only separated by 8.1 miles of sea. This is where the waters of the Atlantic Ocean meet the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

I quickly got dressed and headed out to see the rock (which I had not seen since 2014). I took three laps around the deck (just under a mile) as we passed by. With such a short distance between the continents, we saw numerous ships much closer than we usually do.

I was a little hungry so I went to the Lido and had juice and a bowl of Cheerios before heading to the Crow's Nest for Sit and Stitch. Talked to the Judys about their projects and worked some on my socks.

At 11 there was a Trivia Pop Quiz in the Crow's Nest and Judy (Bob) and I played.

I am still working on a schedule for my days and was exploring lunch before or after trivia when I was incarcerated. I tried lunch before today and I think I liked it better. I had the taco bar for lunch. I was somewhat surprised that it was still there considering the thoughts on self-service in relation to Covid. It was tasty and I ate by the Lido pool.

I still do not have a trivia team. There was a couple sitting next to me playing by themselves and I asked to join them. We did fairly well.

When trivia was over, I headed to see the craziness that is Arts and Crafts. Janet was already there - she had come at 11:45, had lunch, and was reading her book when I arrived. By 2 o'clock every seat was taken and crafts don't start until 3! I've decided that I will become choosy and not try to go every day. That will free up time to swim or do something else. Today we decorated a folder for cruise items and made a pair of earrings with an African charm.

With trivia again at 4, you cannot linger over crafts. All the teams are pretty much set and I couldn't find any to join (my teammates from 1pm had told me they were going to the afternoon movie), so I played on my own.

After trivia I went by Guest Services for two items. First, I had heard that you could sign a list if you were not going ashore in Mozambique. I enjoyed the tour I did there in 2018 but it was not a place I would feel comfortable walking around on my own, so I had already decided I was not getting off the ship on this cruise or the world cruise. The lady I talked to said you only had to sign if you were getting off so the ship would get you a visa. I am not sure what she told me was right so I will stop by again and talk to somebody else to make sure I don't spend $75 on a visa I won't use.

Second, I cannot access my Holland America account with my future cruises on it. I wanted to look at some of the excursions in the ports that are repeating but every time I try to log in, it tells me, "We are sorry we could not process your request at this time. Please try again later or contact us for assistance." I have been trying to do this for four days and keep getting the same message. I can see my bookings on the Navigator App but cannot do anything with them. She couldn't find a way to get to my bookings, either.

I really thought that I walked 2-3 miles just going fore to aft many times during the day. Turns out it is only about 1-1.5 miles so after trivia I did 4 laps around the Promenade deck (3.5 laps = 1 mile).

I used the time before dinner to get my laundry together to send out, work on a project winding yarn for Judy (Lee) and getting a start on the blog.

Tonight was our first "Dressy" night. HAL used to have "Gala" nights. Recently they changed to "Formal", "Dressy", and "Casual". Nobody is sure exactly what the difference is between Dressy and Formal. From what I saw tonight, there wasn't much difference for men. Most men had on a jacket and tie, there were a couple of tuxes, and a few men had neither a jacket nor tie. For women, I did not see any long dresses (although I am sure there were some out there) and many had on cocktail dresses, nice dresses, or pant suits. We did have a special menu but no pillow gift.

The show tonight was called, "Ole! Musical Comedy". it was a duo of classical guitarists with comedy bits added to the playing, and some pop music and dancing thrown in. I enjoyed the show.

Starting at 9:30 there was a Masquerade Party in the Crow's Nest. It was described as, "Mask required, but this time for fun!". I went up to take a couple of pictures and then went back to the cabin.

At 10:40 pm we officially crossed the Prime Meridian and are now in the Eastern Hemisphere where we will stay until the beginning of December.

One more sea day before we get to Tunisia.

Smooth sailing until next time.

1pm trivia - we had 15/18 and the winners had 17

1. What is the world's largest office building?

2. What was the tallest tower in the world until 1930?

3. Which vegetable was considered a sign of eternity in ancient times?

4. What movie was Tom Cruise's first leading role?

5. In what country was Trivial Pursuit started?

1. Pentagon

2. Eiffel Tower

3. onion