October 12, 2023, at sea, Zuiderdam Grand Africa cruise

Last night the ship clocks moved one hour forward and while I got the time changed on my phone I did not hear the alarm go off this morning because I can’t get that app on my phone to work (even though I uninstalled and reinstalled it and when I did a test last night it worked). Jeff’s alarm went off later but he didn’t change the time on his phone so we got a late start. If you’re keeping track that is – Susan changed time, alarm didn’t work, Jeff DIDN’T change time, alarm worked (heavy sigh). Jeff went to the gym and I headed up to 10 (outer, uncovered deck) to walk. Then did a quick breakfast and spent about an hour an a half on the back deck in the sun. Neither of us were hungry (especially since we ate breakfast so late) so we skipped lunch.

At the captain’s noon briefing he said there is a fairly significant weather system in our way and we are trying to go around it heading more directly east now as a result. Since we have further to travel now, our speed has increased to 20 knots which is either max or really close. We’ve covered 630 miles (always nautical unless I state otherwise) with 2400 or so to go. We’re expected to have smooth sailing for at least the next 24 hours.  For the first time, the captain addressed what is going on with the war in Israel. He said that Corporate was monitoring the situation, which is critical given that we have to go through the Suez Canal and have stops planned at Egypt and Jordan. He said that currently a cruise ship, I believe it was a Royal Caribbean ship, was transiting the Suez Canal.

I had a watercolor painting class at 1:30 and of the 4 ladies at my table, 3 of us are named Susan and I don’t remember the 4th’s name… I’ll get it at the next class! The next two photos are our watercolor projects and the 3rd picture is my masterpiece (said with an eye roll).

Jeff went to Andy Fletcher’s next lecture at 2 – Albert Einstein – special relativity, space, time and weirdness. Here is a highlight or 2 from him:

Andy began with Albert Einstein and how he was 4th in his class in Switzerland, had to find a job because no one would hire him as a physicist and was hired as a class 3 patent analyst.  When he got the Nobel Prize for his General theory of Relativity, he was promoted to a class 2 analyst!  The biggest takeaway was that if it was theoretically possible, the closer we get to reaching the speed of light, the slower time becomes.  This means that if, in theory, we ever reach the speed of light, all time (past, present, future) will converge at that point.  Zero will equal infinity.  I have read two of his books and they will definitely open your eyes and minds to where we stand in the cosmos.

Back to Susan … the above means that Star Trek is purely fiction. There is no possibility of ever achieving warp speed! I’m totally bummed!

We sent laundry out for the first time. If you do laundry by the bag my hint is to lay it all out in a stack and then roll it before you stuff it in the bag – you can get so much more in that way. Also, take a picture of what you send so if they lose something you can show them what it looks like. If you’re interested here are the laundry charges for this trip:

For dinner I had the smaller version of Mahi Mahi Diablo … we’ll just call it Mahi 🙂 Jeff had the steak. We went from dinner to Music Trivia and fared better than average. From there we went to see the comedian Sid Davis on the Mainstage. He was on our Fall South Pacific cruise and it was a lot of the same material. His timing seemed like it was off a little bit. After that we listened to a few sets at the Rolling Stone bar where we had another nice visit with Pat and Cyndi. Called it an early night because they keep stealing hours from me with these nightly8 time changes.

As an added bonus, and because my mom asked where we put all of our suitcases, here you go! Two stacked behind the patio door curtain on one side, and one suitcase behind the other side of the curtain, one next to the desk, one in the closet, and the smaller suitcase that opens in the middle is opened up under the bed and Jeff is using it as a drawer for all his snacks and books. Yes, you counted right 6!! We left all of our snorkel gear in a suitcase along with our backpacks and school supplies we brought to give to a school on one of our later excursions.

We are still 5 days out from our first excursion and pictures of foreign places. All I have now is what’s going on around the ship. I promise this will get more exciting!

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