March 8, 2010 added afterwards

March 8, 2010

Today I went to the Captain's story time about "Ballasting". It was very pleasant, but a lot of what he told us, went over my head. No problem with that, it was still interesting enough, not to fall asleep.

After that, Ross and I wanted to go in the net, but it was closed off. So I went to ask the second officer if we could use it. Luckily for us, the captain was there, and we got the permission. When we were nearly up in the net, I went back, to tell the captain we would be in the left side of the net, so he would know, how to ballast the ship in a proper way.

When I told him, he answered, he had already done that! He has a very good sense of humour, and can take a joke. But is also not afraid to pull your leg though! Love it!

Finally we were both settled in the net. It was great. Just feeling the wind, hearing the water, and see the waves smash against the ship. Lovely.

When we finally got out, we told Amtyor, the second officer, we were done, so he could adjust the ballast again. I do not know if he understood the joke.

After a nice dinner, the day was closed off with a Dance under the Pacific Stars. Followed by star gazing on the top deck.

Walt has an amazing programme on his laptop, showing you everything, what is up in the air. If you ask him to show which stars are above Amsterdam, he can. More and more people are coming to the bridge, to have a look and ask Walt all kind of questions.

In the beginning of the cruise, he went to bed at a quarter past nine! Now, he is one of the last ones, to go to bed. In two weeks time his sister and brother in law will be joining us for the Panama/Sint Maarten Cruise.

Mateo, the cruise director told me, that of the 127 passengers, presently on the ship, 50 will be staying on, and 103 (!) new passengers will be joining us. It will be a crowded ship for the fourteen days, not only that, but the dining room will be very, very noisy with so many passengers. The crew have to work very hard.

When we are in Sint Maarten, we will end up with 85 passengers doing the Transatlantic Crossing. Which is not bad at all. I have heard that most of the passengers will be German. I only hope, they do not know each other, otherwise it will not be that pleasant for the other passengers. We will see.

Ineke