Grand Africa Cruise Trip Day 75/96 - Sea Day Return to the North and Prepping for Pirates
It was another gray start to the day today but the sun was trying to burn off the morning haze creating a brilliant orange glow.
We crossed the equator overnight last night, returning to the Northern Hemisphere for the first time since December 19, 2024. That's 51 days in the Southern Hemisphere.
We started the day like most sea days - with Baggo in the atrium on Deck #4. We played a mix of regular Baggo where bags scored 10/20/30/40 based on being on or in the close or far boards. Rhys mixed it up with weak-hand throwing and a round of negative where bags that missed scored -20. In the end, we had a four-person semi-final and a two-person final. I came out victorious again today.
Arlona's was painting today.
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| The inspiration |
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| Arlona's interpretation |
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| A cool warrior shield example |
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| Arlona's cooler version |
Today was our final accumulative trivia for this leg. We started in fourth place, 65 points out of third and a spot on the podium. That was a lot to make up in a single day. Here's a spoiler - we didn't close the gap. The misses:
- If you landed at Mérignac airport, where in France would you be?
- We guessed Marseilles - it was Bordeaux
- For whom did the KGB use the code name "Boar"?
- We guessed JFK - it was Churchill
- What physicist developed the Uncertainty Principle?
- We guessed Hawking - it was Werner Heisenberg
- In what year did the QE2 make its inaugural voyage (1954, 1959, 1964, 1969)?
- We guessed 1964 - it was 1969
- For the bonus, we were asked to name the five countries with the most UNESCO World Heritage sites
- We weren't even close - they were Italy (60), China (59), Germany (54), France (53), Spain (50)
We finished in fourth - still respectable out of twelve teams.
We absolutely crushed a Grammy Song of the Year Name That Tune this afternoon, scoring 33/40 naming 20 songs and the artists. It was a terrific team effort with everyone contributing to different answers. We won easily with the closest team only scoring 27 or 28.
This afternoon, Seabourn hosted a Grand Africa cocktail party for the roughly 100 of us on the full 90-day sailing.
They held it in the serenity area of the spa on Deck #9 aft, with the rear doors open to the outside. Cruise Director Nick made a few announcements, thanking everyone for traveling on this journey and outlining a few activities still to come in the just under three weeks we still have to go.
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| Sipping pink chocolate martinis - they added grenadine to get the pink tone |
Following the get-together, we enjoyed dinner with friends tonight in Solis. We enjoyed pre-dinner specialty cocktails.
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| That's a smokey bubble on the drink - after a couple of minutes, it bursts, flooding the area with smokey goodness |
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| Fancy ice blocks with the Solis logo |
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David, Emily, Arlona, Margaret, Michael, Garry - That's Primrose in the back - I didn't get the other server's name
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| The sommelier took the photos for us - Hostess, Vania got in on this one too |
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| Primrose, our outstanding server |
We had a nice dinner and a nice evening with friends.
We decided to skip tonight's show, a guest singer, and return to the room. We made a brief detour outside on Deck #5 as we heard rumors about anti-piracy preparation. Sure enough, we found some.
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| Two high-pressure water cannons were in place on each side of the ship, charged and ready to deter any boats that might attempt to come too close for comfort |
It sounded like these will be set up and ready to fire potentially until we get to The Canary Islands. Ah, the joys of travel.
We should be docked by 7:00 tomorrow morning in Cotonou, Benin. We're not taking a tour and will take the shuttle into the town and explore on our own.
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