My favorite view
Geometric shapes for the photo class
Today at sea was a long and packed sea day, and one that amazed us at least a couple times with how small our world is since we started serious international travel six years ago.
We started our day attending the 9am coffee chat with Jonathan, our Cruise Director and the Unexpected Boys. It was interesting to learn more about them and how quickly this group of four came together. Their rehearsals only began on September 3, which was one week before our ship departed from Fort Lauderdale. They, however, didn't join us until Peru. I also searched my previous cruise blogs and found that we had heard the second of two of their shows (different cast members) exactly 3 years ago on the Statendam as it sailed through Malaysia on its way to Singapore to be transferred to new owners.
Jo Bradford presented a fast paced session on Photographic Creativity which was marred by interruptions from a crew drill. She showed some amazing pictures taken with a cell phone. Meanwhile Angela continued her ukulele lessons. Martin Cohen gave his final Main Stage presentation on Coral Reefs which was quite good. Throughout our voyage, he has been an anchor presenter on a wide range of topics. David Happe gave his overview of the next 3 ports of call of which one we have already visited on the first segment.
After lunch with Deborah, Tani & Rose, singers from the Cook Islands delighted us with more Tahitian music in the Ocean Bar. HAL should book them more in venues where there is beverage service as I'm pretty certain it would do well. Dr. Sperlich gave a repeat talk on Polynesian Cultures and more of the new passengers should have been there! Gerald McCormack also presented a nice display of Polynesian Ornamental Plants and attendance there was very light. A couple of us slipped out to attend Jo Bradford's Phoneography class.
While walking around the deck taking photos for the Phoneography class, I was wearing my Seattle Seahawks shirt and a couple commented on the shirt. It turned out they are friends of a couple who are long term friends of ours in Tacoma. It's a small world. Then as we were getting ready to watch tge Unexpected Boys show, a group behind me noticed the shirt and it turns out they graduated from the same high school that my wife taught at for 20 years. Again, it's a small world.
The Unexpected Boys gave another two full house concerts on the theme 'The trip of a Lifetime'. They are being well received even by a largely non-native English speaking audience. It goes to show how music transcends borders and languages.
Dr. Cohen gave a poignant story time talk about getting bitten by a coconut crab. Afterwards, Marny, Arlene, Angela and I enjoyed a terrific private chat with him. It was a good opportunity for us to give positive feedback and encouragement about continuing the EXC format. We all conveyed that it HAL had eliminated the next segment, a number of us would have booked through to Auckland.
It was a good day, and tomorrow is the first of three repeat ports. Stay tuned.
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