20240429 Sapphire Princess South Pacific Cruise Day 26 - Sea day 1 of 8 back to San Pedro

Sapphire Princess South Pacific Cruise Day 26 - Sea Day #1 back to L.A.

We awoke to many loud bangs on the bow as a semi-angry sea and strong winds were pummeling the Sapphire Princess.

The Captain reported that there was no nearby weather threat and the rough seas and wind were coming from a system well away from us. We will deal with this for another day or so and he said that he expects things to smooth out.

Yesterday afternoon, we started the long, 4,100-mile sail back to San Pedro near Los Angeles. We will be at sea for eight days, arriving in port on Tuesday, May 7. Sea days have a definite routine to them. Folks have their favorite activities and ours involves trivia, ukulele lessons for Arlona, some reading, and socializing.

Speaking of pummeling, we started out with trivia and this morning was brutal. I think it was our worst round of the cruise. No matter, we soldiered on and did better in the progressive trivia, but returned to mediocre at afternoon trivia. Here are our goofs for the day (there's a bunch):

• In the 1950 original version of Father of the Bride, who played The Bride?
• We had no idea - it was Elizabeth Taylor
• What is a group of frogs called?
• We had this before but it escaped all of us - an army
• What color is the Sports & Leisure pie piece in Trivial Pursuit?
• Orange
• In Aladdin, how long was the Genie trapped in the lamp before Aladdin released him?
• 10,000 years - we could hear Robin Williams saying, "XXXXX years in the lamp gives you such a crick in the neck..." but guessed 3,000 years
• What is the warmest sea?
• Red Sea
• What was the first newspaper comic strip?
• The Yellow Kid
• How many countries are in South America?
• Arlona listed 12 and figured she missed one, so we guessed 13 - it was 12 - Arlona had correctly listed them all
• What is the most imported food in the world?
• Bananas
• Which country has a festival where participants throw tomatoes at each other?
• Spain
• Which fingernail grows the fastest?
• The middle finger but we find conflicting answers on the internet
• Where can you find Luxumberg Gardens and The Latin Quarter?
• We guessed Barcelona, but they are in Paris
• What did Joseph Priestly discover in 1774?
• Oxygen
• How many James Bond movies are there?
• We guessed 22 - it was 27
• What US State is closest to Africa?
• Maine - Quoddy Head - the lighthouse is at the easternmost point of the US and is roughly 3,154 miles from El Beddouza, Morocco
• In literature, what pen name did Charles Dodgson use?
• Lewis Carroll
• What was the only Summer Olympics where the host country didn't win a gold medal?
• Montreal, Canada, 1976

Let's just say that we learned a lot today.

Arlona continued with ukulele lessons. The entire group will perform before the end of the cruise.

We have abandoned the buffet for lunch. We've tried it a few times and have been underwhelmed every single time. Lucky for us, there are a couple of options on Deck 14 by the pool. Preggo Pizza has a few grab-and-go slice options daily. The Trident Grill offers burgers, hot dogs, marinated chicken sandwiches, pulled pork sandwiches, and a couple street taco options. Between both, we can enjoy lunch without repeats for a week. Plus, we can see our bartender buddy, Saju, at the Neptune Pool Bar for something to wash down lunch. That will be our lunch hangout for the rest of the cruise.

Arlona has been working on some knitting and crocheting projects on sea days. Here's her latest finished product - a cell phone purse.

It is perfectly sized to fit her cell phone and a few other small items

The artist, modeling her creation

Today was a day of crew drills. Maritime laws and procedures require frequent crew drills for a variety of emergency situations. This helps ensure that the crew will be ready to respond in the event of an actual emergency.

Senior officers were staffing an emergency call center - the phones were continuously ringing with reports from all over the ship - lots of stripes here

Tonight was the fourth of five formal nights. Of course, we dressed for dinner.

We headed to the International Dining Room for a nice dinner. The hostess, Mariana, had our table ready as always. She makes sure that we get into our favorite section every night.

In case the clothes don't give it away - this photo is from last night - Mariana always takes good care of us

Our stellar dining team, Waiter Rhandy on the right and Assistant Waiter Lenzil on the left

After a yummy dinner of lobster and crab cake, we headed to the Explorer Bar for a game they called The Gift of Gab. It was more fun than expected. The basic idea is that they put a seemingly random group of words on the screen. You have to figure out what common phrase they make when you read the words phonetically.  Some examples:

• Dead Hay Off Tomb Arrow = The Day After Tomorrow
• See Chore Elf = Seat Yourself
• Comet He Affair Hearse = Comedy of Errors

We only missed one, but one team was perfect, nailing all 25 for the win. The one we missed?

• Meat Are Sin Hue Chain = Me Tarzan, You Jane 

Once we heard it, we felt silly for missing it.

Tonight, we lose another hour, moving to UTC-9 or five hours behind the U.S. East Coast. We have two more hours to lose over the next seven days.

Tomorrow is sea day 2/8 to L.A. and will have more of the same.