Day 31 - Monday, 12/09/24 - At Sea to Gibraltar

 Last night after watching the first half of the Seattle Seahawks versus Arizona football game on television, we quit watching the game and went to bed. Just before 11:30 PM we began to hear the whirr of the motors of the deck machinery, and then the vibration of the thrusters and we knew that we were in the departure process. We turned on the television to the bow and aft cameras to watch the ship leave the dock and head out of the harbor into the darkness of the night. As for me, I fell immediately asleep as is my custom and I really didn't wake up until about 6:30 AM the next morning. At the morning coffee chat, which happened right after our interdenominational devotional time, Nick, Cruise and Travel Director, indicated that at 2:14 AM was the first clanging of the anchors against the side of the ship as we encountered the rougher weather the Captain had projected. For him there was no going back to sleep and it was a tough night for him.

Parenthetically I'd like to note that there seems to be a common misconception about where the smoothest place to be on the ship is. The common wisdom is that you want to be low and in the middle of the ship. However, after sailing nearly 1000 nights on Holland America ships alone I've reached a different conclusion. We have found that the least motion to the ship is in the stern and as far back as one can get. The reason for that is what I call simple physics. When the ship is under power, it does not rock around the center of the ship, but rather the motion is stable at the propeller for the most part with the most motion at the front of the ship or bow. And therefore we now almost always choose to be in the aft 1/3 of the ship and it's worked out well for us.

Let me return to my account for the day's activities. Nick's coffee chat was with Jacque with one of the two ship doctors. He is from South Africa and practiced rural medicine for a number of years and then babies way to cargo ships. He's a young man that I would estimate is in his mid 30s and blushingly he admitted that he has a girlfriend who is a singer in the Ocean Bar band. Also, his mother joined him in Alexandria and is staying in until Cádiz.  Jacque is a very pleasant person and really likes the adrenaline of practicing essentially emergency medicine 24/7. He's the junior doctor and they are assisted by three nurses and have a complete medical facility at their disposal on the ship. He also noted that he is a Holland America employee and not a contractor which I found very interesting.

There were supposed to be a 10 o'clock lecture after the coffee chat, but the speaker was unable to present. I ran into the speaker later in the day and he was also one whose sleep was disrupted by the apparent wave action. So we just relaxed in the showroom and chatting with friends before Nick's 11 o'clock port presentation on Tangier, which was pretty good.

We ate a quick lunch in the Lido and met a couple from Florida who were traveling with his mother and had a very pleasant conversation with them. As we're getting ready to leave, a mother and her son stop by the table and Angela asked if they were from Burien, Washington, which is our home city.  She had heard that there was a couple from Burien on the ship. The lady was very surprised and acknowledged that she was that person and we had a very nice conversation with her and her son. She lives near a grocery store that my wife frequents. It turned out her son went to school at the same high school. My wife taught there for over 20 years however she did not have him in any of her classes as she specialized in foreign language.

Back at the main stage, we attended the afternoon lecture by Richard on the topic "the Pillars of Hercules ". He did an excellent presentation on the topography of the Mediterranean Sea and its relationship with the Atlantic Ocean and the significance of it to the civilizations of the area. I would note that Richard was also on the Grand South America cruise last year and we really liked his presentations there. We're looking forward to more of them as we do the crossing. We've also run into him in the various ports along with his wife who was another presenter and their little four-year-old daughter.

After the lecture, we went to the Wang Theatre to watch the movie, The Queen of Spain, but it turned out to be a bust of a movie that didn't engage us as it was done with subtitles and a plot that didn't make any sense. So we left after 45 minutes. Also, the Wajang theater is exceptionally cold and I even sent a note on the Navigator app to ask for the temperature to be raised as it's gotten colder as the trip has progressed.

We returned to our room and found that there was a very, very strong petroleum smell. I typically am not bothered by smells, but this one was so strong that I called the front desk and they said that there was maintenance being done in the area and that we should just leave our bathroom door open and allow the exhaust fan to remove the smell and fumes. So we did. We returned to the Crow's Nest where we secured front facing chairs and spent the rest of the afternoon until dinner up there which is our favorite hang out in the afternoon. The servers recognize us because we always order the same thing: two Coke Zeros and a decanter of nuts. We were blessed with a very beautiful sunset and after that we went down for a light dinner. It was a dressy night, however, we didn't dress up. Also, it's Casino Royale night in the Mix area.

Evening entertainment was the Flamencos, a male group of Spanish dancers that we saw a few days ago. Tonight's Main Stage show was an improvisation around a dinner table and while it's not my style of entertainment, I still have to admit they have a lot of talent and energy to be doing this type of dancing. However, I think the audience voted with their non-attendance in that the showroom was probably less than 50% occupied.

Because of our late departure from Cagliari, we are not expected to arrive into Gibraltar and be alongside the dock until 4 PM. So tomorrow will be like another sea day. Our shore excursion is still scheduled and we will participate in that and we have a late departure that night from Gibraltar to go to Tangier, which is our last African stop.