February 27, 2020 - Thursday

Azamara Quest Cape Town to Athens 

Cruise Day 8 - Sea Day

Pictures to follow with better internet

We awoke to a beautiful day. The sun was shining. The clouds were beautiful. The swell was about 8 feet and the stabilizers were doing there job. We felt only a gentle roll as we walked the halls.

We both attended the shore excursions presentation this morning. Coverage was for Reunion, Mauritius, Colombo, Cochin and Mumbai. We had already selected our excursions for these ports while we were at home. After viewing the alternatives, we are satisfied that our selections are the best for us. Had we decided otherwise we could have swapped into other tours up to 48 hours before tour departure.

Again, we spent our free time working on our notes in the cabin.

At 2:00 I attended another lecture by Greg Redfern. This one was The Future of US Manned Spaceflight.a Greg has a either been present for or has had access to films of all of the major testing that has been going on for our future flights to the moon and beyond. While it was all very interesting, it is somewhat disconcerting to learn how vulnerable the program to funding whims. The priorities simply are not as high as they were in the Kennedy era. And Space Force is not the answer.

We saw Denise and Mark. His burns are helping well. There is no infection, and the dressing is getting smaller. He will be free to get it wet in another day.

On another note, increased sanitation is still the order of the day. One of the servers advised us that there were 4 new gastro cases today. We will have to have a few 0 days before things return to normal.

Dinner was excellent. The ventriloquist entertainer was outstanding. He had us rocking with laughter. We kept wondering if he was using a voice recording for his bits. We could rarely see his lips or throat move. He sang. He did a wide range of voices. His jokes were actually very funny. We had a good time.

We delivered a comment card to the front office earlier in the day. All passengers have received these. We make it a practice to complete them. We believe it is important to let the office know who is taking good care of us. To our surprise we had a phone message when we returned to our cabin after the entertainment. The front desk was thanking us for our comments. They would be passing them on to the staff we mentioned. We will be expecting smiles tomorrow. These reports get added to personnel files and aid the crew in advancement.

At 9:15 we went to deck 10 for a star gazing session with Greg Redfern. About 30 passengers joined us. Because of the lighting on the deck it was almost impossible to see the stars. some of the brightest were visible, but even the Southern Cross was difficult to see. When he had concluded that everyone who wanted to do this had arrived he led us up to deck 11 forward. Once we were safely there, the cruise director turned off the few lights up there. Wow! What a sky. everything popped out. The Milky Way was clearly visible. The pointer stars and Southern Cross were obvious. Even the false Southern Cross was visible. Greg proceeded to use his laser pointer to point out constellations as he explained light and how many years ago the light we were seeing left the objects we were watching. This was a great experience. 

The only downside was the need to compensate for motion of the ship. Standing this high and this far forward magnified the rocking motion. It was definitely worth the effort. We may not have another night this clear for a while. We are heading into rain and clouds for Reunion and Mauritius.

The clocks go forward again tonight. We go to bed wondering how the time goes by so quickly and enjoyably.