Day 38 - Monday, 12/16/24 - At Sea to Florida - Day 4

This day didn't go as planned. We got up at our regular time to attend the 8am interdenominational devotional time and then the coffee chat with Nick. Today his guests were three cadet officers from the bridge. They were an interesting group and two of them were in their second cadet experience on board. The other was only 19 and in his first round of practical experiences on the sea.  One cadet commented that his least favorite job was creating the power presentations of the ship maneuvers which are shown to us in the captain's briefings.

The 10 AM lecture series was Bradley Jacobson speaking on the use of AI in every day life. He totally engaged with the audience and they fed him suggestions about things they would like to know about like what is the best hybrid automobile or what is the highest yielding CD in the US or Canada and much more. The audience was quite large and I'm expecting that it'll continue to get larger. This class is very popular and is scratching where people are itching. Nick followed with his Holland America Origins canned presentation, however, we did not attend it as we've seen it many times before. The water was getting a little more choppy, and I adjourned to the Lido deck to relax and watch the waves and create a draft of our 2024 Christmas letter before lunch. On my way to the Lido I had checked out the Crow's Nest, but it was too cold to watch from up there.

Our 2pm afternoon lecture was by Richard Watson on the topic of the Atlantic Ocean. He gave a multifaceted presentation on the composition and components of the ocean and comparison with the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. He also displayed the currents and underwater topography of the Atlantic Ocean. It was quite interesting and useful information given that were right in the middle of the north Atlantic Ocean. During his presentation, it was augmented by frequent rolling and pitching of the ship and added a sense of authenticity to his presentation.

Our next presentation was supposed to be a musical trivia show by Hyperion Knight, but the stage crew was having difficulty rearranging the stage due to the significant motion of the ocean. Eventually, Nick came on stage with the mic and announced that his show was canceled and would be rescheduled. It was simply not safe to move a grand piano across a moving stage. So we made a quick dash to the theater to watch a movie called the Estate. I recommend that you not watch the movie with an incredible amount of fool language in it and scenes that I will not describe. During the movie the Captain came on with an updated announcement about the rough seas, but I could not hear much of it due to the noise from the movie being played.

After the movie we met with friends in the Crow's Nest for a farewell drink. We had traveled with them on many excursions during this voyage. The other couple that was going to join us did not show up, and we learned that the lady had fallen in the spa area. Later we learned that she fractured her wrist. I checked my navigational map and found it the ship had altered course in order to reduce the effect of the motion of the ocean, but the motion was still pretty significant. Then we ate a light dinner in the Lido before attending a classical music session with the string Trio, which was quite good. It was then announced that our evening guitarist entertainment was canceled, and in its place the movie, "the Blue Angels"would be shown at 8 o'clock in its place in the main stage.


The movie is a brand new movie this year and it was really a fun movie to watch since we've seen the Blue Angels a number of times and when they come to Seattle, they park within a few miles of our home. It was also interesting to watch the movie and the flight maneuvers from a significantly pitching ship. I'd recommend this movie to anyone who has even a mild interest in aviation or enjoyed the movie Top Gun.

While waiting for the movie, I also fired up my ChatGPT app and designed a Christmas card for us for 2024. It turned out pretty cool and I think we'll use it along with our Christmas letter. It reflects our two lives of cruising and camping.




Tonight we gain another hour back again. I'm really liking these rollbacks as I feel like I'm getting a decent amount of rest for these early wake up calls on the return voyage. Hopefully the seas will calm down a bit with not quite so much motion to the ocean, although I am not really troubled by it. The back of the ship definitely does not have as much motion as the front of the ship does, so we are quite comfortable in our aft state room.

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