20250111 Seabourn Sojourn Grand Africa Cruise Day 47/96 - Sea Day

Grand Africa Cruise Trip Day 47/96 - Sea Day Speeding

Our menagerie - the penguin we received as a Grand Africa gift, the puffin I won putting yesterday, and the cruise bear I won today at Baggo

Today was our last sea day of this Cape Town to Seychelles segment of the Grand Africa journey. That meant more Sea Day activities like Baggo, trivia, art, and putting.

The day started with Baggo. After three rounds, I was part of a three-way tie for the lead. In the playoff round, I had ice in my veins and came away with the win, scoring a Seabourn Sailor Bear plushie.

Arlona started a personal watercolor art project today. It will be a multi-day project and she'll resume once we sail from The Seychelles. I'll keep the subject secret until she is ready for the big reveal.

Today's trivia was the finale of this multi-day cumulative trivia competition. We were just 55 points out of the lead. We only missed one question and closed the gap to 35 points at the end of the three rounds. Our miss:

• What is the full name of T. E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia?
• Thomas Edward Lawrence

It all came down to the bonus round. Today's bonus was a photo bonus. Name the eight celebrities pictured below. I'll put the answers a little lower if you want to play along.

We got five of the eight correct. Unfortunately, so did the leaders, cementing their victory. As runners-up, we all scored a three-piece set of nifty Seabourn packing cubes. 

Here are the celebrities.

• Top row: Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Hugh Jackman (we missed Hugh)
• Middle row: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman
• Bottom row: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruise Willis (we missed both of these)

Cruise Director, Nick, bombing the photo

Titanic Swim Team Front: Sue, Reed; Middle Rusty, Emily, Gita,; Back: Garry, Arlona, Margaret, Michael, Scott

Putting competition didn't go well today. The ship was moving a lot, in part because we were sailing extremely fast, and it certainly impacted the ball's trajectory. I finished in second but one bad hole killed it for me. Oh well.

Name That Tune found us in our familiar second-place position. One other team has a couple of folks who are absolute music junkies and they routinely score in the mid to upper 30s out of 40. They are hard to beat.

This afternoon, the guests who participated in the watercolor and jewelry beading projects got to display their work in Seabourn Square. Arlona had several paintings and her jewelry on display. Guests could purchase any of the watercolors with all proceeds being routed to the crew appreciation fund to benefit the entire crew. Someone purchased Arlona's painting of a dhow boat, meaning that Arlona is now a professional artist.

As I mentioned, we were sailing fast. We had been cruising at the ship's top speed, 19 knots. In the Captain's noon announcement, we learned that a crew member had taken ill and needed immediate medical attention beyond what was available on the ship. Therefore, we sailed at maximum speed, arriving in The Seychelles around 5:00 this afternoon rather than early tomorrow morning.

They readied a tender boat to transport the patient to the port - we couldn't dock as a commercial vessel was in what will be tomorrow's dock position for Sojourn

Our thoughts are with the patient as we hope she gets the medical care she needs.

Sailing past some of the smaller islands in the 115-island Seychelles archipelago

The sky added drama to the whole thing

Arriving at the island of Mahé in Seychelles

Victoria, Mahé, Seychelles - our destination tomorrow

A small wind farm - eight turbines

We attended another hosted dinner tonight. The hosts were Dalton, a singer, and Aurora, a dancer - both part of the Seabourn Six production cast. It was another nice dinner. We skipped tonight's show, the second performance from Sandy Grigelis. We will dock in Victoria on Mahé tomorrow morning and will be taking a tour of the botanic garden and beach.