Today was pretty uneventful until about 5:00 pm. We had been sitting out on the balcony enjoying the balmy weather. The sea was almost flat and it seemed as though the ship was just floating along idly, making no wake.
Right after Ken commented on the slow speed the ship was maintaining, the Captain came on the speaker system to make "an important announcement." Except for the daily noontime report and announcements prior to leaving a port, this Captain doesn't make an announcement unless it is important.
The Captain said that about an hour ago two ladies had reported to a crew member that they had seen flares on the starboard side of the ship. The captain asked that the two unknown ladies report to the Purser's Desk as soon as possible. He also said we were turning around to go back toward the area where the flares were seen.
Even though we are on the port side of the ship, just a few minutes later many men could be seen standing on their balconies peering through balconies. We watched as our ship turned around and the we began to sail away from the sun.
A bit later the Captain announced that more than 2 passengers had seen the flares and he thanked everyone for their help.
We went down to dinner. Everyone was talking about it - in the elevators, in the hallways, at dinner. Everyone had to recount all the different cruises they had been on when the ship had to turn around. After these stories had all been told, people started telling each other about every rescue incident they had ever read about.
Finally, during our dinner, the Captain announced that they had a satellite photograph and had been able to determine that the objects sighted had been two orange buoys and we were returning to our original course.
I realize there are a couple of things here that don't make sense. Why did it take an hour for the messsage to get to the Captain?. If it got to him faster, why did it take an hour until he decided to turn around? How do you mistake a buoy for a flare? Where did the photo come from? I didn't hear the last announcement very well due to dining room clatter, so maybe I missed something.
So now, let's rewind and go back to the exciting day we had before dinner. In the morning we went to a lecture by David Russell entitled A Destroyer at War. It was about HMS Express during WWII. The lecturere had a family connection to the ship, so that made it a little more interesting, but I am not as fascinated by WWII history as Ken is.
Later on I went to a talk called iPad Tips and Tricks by Dan, the Assistant Cruise Director. It was surprisingly crowded. There wasn't even standing room. I didn't realize so many people on the ship had iPads. Dan shared some very useful tips and I am glad I went even though I had to stand up for almost an hour.
After dinner we went to An Evening with Derek Floyd. He was given a larger venue for this show. I liked his performances in the more intimate piano bar better. We got there 30 minutes before the show and got the last two seats. I'm not willing to go to very many things more than 30 mintes early, ven with my Kindle. they originally had him scheduled for two shows, but cut it back to one, thus creating the crowding problem.
Finally, we went to a performance by Jennifer Fair, an opera singer. We have seen her on before, on an earlier cruise, and we remembered that her show was very good. I think the show we saw this time was the exact same show, but it was a good one, so it was nice to be able to see it again. She has the ability to bring opera down to the level of people who have never been to the opera. For example, before singing O Sole Mio, she talked about Elvis Presley and his rendition of It's Now or Never. She also alternated operatice pieces with popular music such as Think of Me from Phantom of the Opera and Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah.
By the way, the weather has gotten very nice and the sea is calm. It's so relaxing.
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