2/9/17 Thursday En route to Half Moon Cay, Bahamas
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We're banging along at 15 knots on course 011* with the wind coming at us at 35 knots (Beaufort 7) resulting in an apparent wind hitting the ship at 42 knots from the starboard bow.
The walking decks are closed. The pool in the Lido is a semi-wave-pool due to the ships pitching and rolling. The internet service is down, possibly because the satellite antenna can't keep up with the ships movement.
I guesstimate the sea state to be 5, with the wind blowing the spray off the tops of the waves.
Just before noon the internet came back up. I looked at the e-mail (nothing vital) and left a status report on Hangouts.
We came back to read for a while, then attended the 1700 Sip-n-Savor. The savory was a small pork potsticker that was really good. The wine was a Napa Valley shiraz that I found a little rough.
Since we'd missed lunch we ate an early dinner. It was great. And we finished off a half-bottle of Malbec we had left there yesterday.
It was too early to go to bed, so I headed down the hall with some laundry & did that. Now we can get home without having to do it again.
After that, we stuck the "Privacy, Please" notice in the card slot and took it easy. Ship is still wallowing a little bit. Supposedly it will be better tomorrow in the strait between Cuba and Haiti as we head into the Bahamas.
2/10/17 Friday En route to Half Moon Cay, Bahamas
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The long swells that caused the pitching and rolling for the past few days have gone away. So the ride is much more comfortable. We're between Cuba and Haiti (picture at left).
Today we'll approach the Bahamas and begin wending our way through them to tomorrow's stop at Half Moon Cay.
At 1100 we're about 12nm from the eastern tip of Cuba and it's time to go to the culinary arts center to learn shrimp scampi & avocado soup as announced by Keri and prepared by Chef Ronald. Following immediately after that at noon is the Mariners lunch.
Several hundred of us Mariners (veterans of two or more voyages on Holland America ships) gathered at the deck 4 entry to the dining room for the Mariners Society Lunch. Wine was complementary(!) with the gazpacho appetizer, D's short ribs, and my trout.
The Captain gave a short address of appreciation for our fidelity to HAL with a promise to keep up the service and HAL traditions.
We received our gift of a tile showing Rotterdam (or Amsterdam as they are the same class of ship). We'll add to our collection.
Then we went off to Happy Hour in the Crow's Nest. We watched the sea and the clouds with black bottoms. One of them turned into a small shower, the first rain we've had this trip. Amazing.
It came time to dress for dinner in the dining room. Not formal, just gray slacks, blazer and tie (!) for me, and D had a colorful top over black slacks. We were seated with four Canadians and had the greatest time talking with them.
Beside our common points in Canada, we'd all been to Perth Australia and the Margaret River region, and to the Port Douglas Australia region on the Great Barrier Reef. They've also done river cruising in Europe and appreciated our tales of family on the Danube. The two ladies were sisters with their husbands and live in the far west of Ontario and into Saskatchewan. We were able to talk with them about Fort Francis and Winnipeg, and so forth. The food was good and the company great.
D took off to the show after that. I had a wine in the Crow's Nest and then back to the cabin to do these notes. I found a towel bed-monkey hanging from a hanger just as we'd seen done in the demonstration this afternoon. D came back with gifts for the grandsons and happy with the performance she saw.
Now we're going to slow down and settle in for the night.
