20241207 Seabourn Sojourn Grand Africa Cruise Day 12/96 - Sea Day

Grand Africa Cruise Trip Day 12/96 - Sea Day - Ducks and Other Birdies

The ducks are getting into the Christmas spirit - Arlona found this on the way to afternoon art class

I've already mentioned cruising ducks. Some people think they're stupid, but others find them good fun. The gist is that you place rubber duckies - large or small, in non-obvious places on a cruise ship. Others, as they walk around the ship, will see them and pick them up, brightening their day a bit. The person finding it can keep it, or hide it for someone else to find.

 Today was a duck day. We found them all over the place today.

The yellow blends in

Subtle

These little ones are magnetic so you can stick them to steel walls and ceilings

It keeps you paying more attention as you walk around because you never know where you might see a duck.

This was our final sea day for this stretch. We have two days in ports before another run of four sea days. Sea days mean scheduled ship activities. This morning's fun competition was a putting challenge on Deck #11. This is where the birdies come in. The putting course is more challenging than it looks. There are multiple slopes and ridges built into the putting green. Couple those with the movement of the ship and you have a difficult time getting a putt to roll where you intended.

Cruise Director, Nick, kicked off the challenge. He placed two shuffleboard disks on the green to make the "tee". He then chose the target hole. One by one, each contestant putted from the tee, counting the number of strokes until the ball was in the hole. 

After everyone was done, Nick moved the tee and chose a different hole. We repeated the process. Nick then totaled everyone's strokes. The three leaders then had a one-hole playoff, following the same process. There was one winner who holed out in 2 while the others took three strokes. I included his photo below, he is wearing his prize - a spiffy, new Seabourn ball cap.

Champion Golfer of the Cruise (perhaps that's overstated)

I went down and found Arlona was working diligently on her morning painting.

Trivia today was rough once again. That's the bad news. The good news is that it was rough for everyone. We did better than we thought and moved up to second place overall, just five points out of first. The reasons we aren't in first:

• What is the birthstone for May?
• We guessed ruby, but it was emerald
• In what country was chess invented?
• We had this question on a previous cruise but couldn't come up with India
• What is on the flipside of the Beatles' first U.S. #1 single, I Want To Hold Your Hand?
• We didn't know that it was, I Saw Her Standing There
• What city has the most skyscrapers (150m or higher)?
• We guessed Shanghai - we weren't even close - it was Hong Kong - Shanghai is #6
• What musician got his nickname in high school because of his neat attire and fastidious manner?
• We had no clue that it was Duke Ellington
• Queen Elizabeth reigned during the terms of 14 U.S. Presidents and met all but one while they were in office - who did she not meet?
• We guessed Gerald Ford due to his short tenure, but it was Lyndon Johnson

For those counting, that means we missed half of the questions today! Lucky for us, everyone else did too!

The bonus question was worth up to 80 points, 10 for each right answer. We got 70 points. Name the movie each scene is from. I'll put the answers below if you want to give it a go guessing.

Answers

1. The Wizard of Oz
2. Fight Club
3. Citizen Kane
4. Seven Samurai
5. The Matrix
6. Inception
7. Grease
8. The Truman Show (we missed this one)

Arlona went to art class this afternoon. She completed two projects today. Here are the incredible results!

The inspiration

Arlona's interpretation

The inspiration

Arlona's interpretation

It's pretty easy to see that Arlona has really developed some impressive watercolor skills.

We attended a Name That Tune game this afternoon. It was difficult because rather than playing the songs to identify, pianist Dominic Ferris played the songs on the piano. It's one thing identifying songs from the original recording. It is quite another identifying a pianist's interpretation of those songs. With 20 songs, identifying the song and artist for the pop songs, the movie and song for movie songs, or the song and composer for classical songs, we scored 21 out of a possible 40 points. Amazingly, 22 points won, so we were a very close second place.

We decided to try something different for dinner tonight.  Seabourn turns the pool grill area into Earth and Ocean from 7:00-9:00 each evening. It is a casual concept restaurant with chef-created cuisine. Here's a look at tonight's menu.

 Arlona started with the burrata and I had the scallops. We both had short ribs for our main course. I ate part of the lemon pie for dessert. Everything was delicious.

We decided to skip the show tonight and headed for the suite for the rest of the evening. Arlona found these on a brief walk around the ship, so it was a fitting end to the day.

That's a different Christmas duck than the one from this morning, and they'll all be hidden again tomorrow

Tomorrow, we'll be in Mindelo, São Vicente, Cabo Verde, and will head out on a tour.