An extra hour.
Another nice aspect of cruising around the world is that every few days you gain an hour. Last night we set the clocks back. That meant that we got up at an earlier time than usual. Janice likes to devote that extra hour to the gym. I tried to get online and post the first few days to this blog, but ran into some problems.
The best part of the morning was the start of Tai Chi. As I wrote earlier, Robert and Bronwyn, who taught the class in ’09, are back. A lot of people showed up this morning. It was so familiar and comfortable.
I also checked out the port lecture on Manta Equadore. Barbara, the Travel Guide, is also back from ’09 (I think she said this is her 12th year). Adrian’s second lecture was about the life of a coral reef.
After lunch we checked out one of the informal sports activities, Champagne Ring Toss. Unfortunately, neither Janice nor I were able to toss the ring over the neck of the champagne bottle and win it.
Next we went to the Creative Writing Workshop. Given that I can’t even keep up with writing a few paragraphs a day summarizing what happened that day, I can’t believe there are people who came on the cruise planning to write a whole book!
Tonight was the big Captain’s Champagne Welcome Reception, first formal dinner, and first headline performer. First, a lot of (free) champagne and wine was served. Second, the dinner included escargot and lobster tail, and more wine. Finally, the headliner was Mitzi Gaynor. At age 75, she is back on the road (or sea—it was her first time) doing a one woman show about her life and career. She was wonderful: funny, cute, and still with a good voice and good moves.