20250110 Seabourn Sojourn Grand Africa Cruise Day 46/96 - Sea Day

Grand Africa Cruise Trip Day 46/96 - Sea Day Sailing in the Indian Ocean

It was another sea day full of activities here in the Indian Ocean. It started with a putting competition. I was back in winning form, posted six putts over three holes, and won outright without needing a playoff.

There was an odd bone on the putting course

Ball and club added for size reference

About twenty red-footed boobies were circling.

Of course, that meant we needed to watch out for the occasional bombs...

Arlona worked on a necklace today, attempting to match a bracelet and earrings she made earlier in the voyage.

The complete set

The featured event today was the culmination of a week-long boat-building competition. Five teams built boats using materials they found around the ship. The requirement was to float the length of the pool (with crew assistance for propulsion) carrying a 1.5-kilo tin of caviar. All five vessels successfully met that requirement. The judges awarded points for style and & glitz, "flam-buoyancy", seaworthiness, safety, crew experience, and environmental impact.

Fifth Place

Built from beer cans recycled from a crew Christmas tree that had already recycled the cans

Fourth Place

Caviar mutiny - they got robbed as they went first and suffered from score inflation

Third Place

Queen Esther - they lost points when some of their glam blew into the water

Second Place

Affordable Luxury - they scored points for their six water-tight compartments

The Winner

The Black Pearl

The only vessel that sailed with a live crew

They scored extra points for hand-presenting the caviar to the Captain

Trivia was a little rougher today. We missed three questions and one of the four bonus answers. We're still solidly in second going into tomorrow's final round. The misses:

• In The Jungle Book, what kind of animal is Bagheera?
• We goofed and said tiger - of course, he is a panther
• In what country would you find the oldest religious temple, Göbekli Tepe?
• We guessed Mexico, but it was Turkey (or Türkiye)
• What play by Shakespeare play begins, If music be the food of love, play on?
• We guessed Midsummer Night's Dream but it was Twelfth Night
• Bonus - what are the only four words in English that end in "dous"?
• We got horrendous, stupendous, and tremendous but missed hazardous

At 1:00, Seabourn hosted a special lunch in The Restaurant for the hundred or so of us doing the full 90-day Grand Africa journey.

We both opted for the short ribs

We were lucky to get seated at a table hosted by our terrific General Manager, Harry ter Horst. It was a very nice lunch, chatting with other 90-day guests and Harry.

Arlona continued her beading art this afternoon making a new necklace.

She called this one, Shades of Blue

The resident artists, Tim and Young Mi, are very nice people. Tim coaches on the watercolor projects and Young Mi instructs on the beading projects. The sessions, conducted mornings and afternoons on sea days, are always well-attended.

We attended the port talk about our two ports in The Seychelles. We headed to the Observation Bar for a cocktail or two. We also had a couple of snacks from the snack buffet they offer there. With the big lunch that we enjoyed, that was more than enough to satisfy us for dinner so we skipped going to a dining venue tonight.

I talked earlier about the boobies following us. Tonight, they must have called their friends because there were fifty or more flying along with us. A few of the lazy ones hitched a ride on the Deck #6 mast and the Deck #11 mast. It was an amazing sight, watching them follow the thermals and dive to try to catch a meal. It was fascinating.

Hitching a ride

Let's see how many we can fit

Just one more?

Nearly a full moon

Settling in for a night ride

We popped back to the room to process these photos before tonight's show. We found this waiting for us.

It was a lovely traveler's journal for all the Grand Voyage guests

Tonight's show was the second performance of the Barricade Boys. We missed their first performance. Tonight's performance was fun with four-part harmony of Blues Brothers, Beatles, Bruno Mars, and more.

Tonight, we'll time travel forward for the last time for quite a while. We'll shift to UTC+4, or nine hours ahead of U.S. East Coast time to align with the time in our next destination, The Seychelles. Once we leave The Seychelles, we'll start gaining hours all the way to The Canary Islands on February 19 where we'll be at UTC+0. Then, we'll lose one hour as we work our way back to Barcelona at the end of February. Tomorrow is our final sea day before reaching The Seychelles.