Thursday February 18 – (Clock change – 1 hour) We left Valparaiso late yesterday afternoon and started our track across the Pacific with the next “stop” (unfortunately we can’t get off) is Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Chile. This first day at sea saw the start of a new series of speakers and entertainment that will be with us across the Pacific. The first speaker was Graham Howell (who will do all port lectures during the trip) who gave an interesting introduction to Papeete (Tahiti), French Polynesia. Next was a fascinating talk on the precision flying team – the UK Red Arrows – who perform at air shows and special events. The speaker, (Squadron Leader) Ruth Shackleton was the operational manager of the Red Arrows (retired a year ago) with fascinating live “behind the scenes” stories and video. In the afternoon a pathologist with 30 years experience Dr. Andrew Adam, did the first of many murder and death related talks and this one entitled – “Victoria without Albert” recounted the story of Queen Victoria’s 40 years of Mourning following the death of her husband Albert. The evening show was choral – Bruce Morrison, a West End musical actor, who gave an excellent rendition of various musical theatre songs by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. He was mesmerising and will do a Matinee in a couple of day of Les Miserable songs.
Friday February 19 – (Clock change – 1 hour – Same as NY) An hour in the gym started the day, which was made more complicated by the rolling and pitching of the ship. It is an observation that we have made (I would love to hear if other have had the same experience) is that the Pacific Ocean (as it’s name implies) is more Passive / calmer than the Atlantic. That being said, the Atlantic seems angry with choppy waves and white caps, but the Pacific has a lot more peaks and troughs to it’s waves, but with a smoother surface. The result is that one has a lot more movement of the ship (despite it’s stabilisers being deployed) in the Pacific as opposed to the Atlantic. This makes walking around the ship even a bit more complicated. James Floyd, A Scottish Geologist who leads expeditions in the Arctic / Antarctic, gave a talk on Easter Island which was “Standing Room Only” and 4-5 deep in the standing! Rapa Nui as the island is called has gone through a series of invading European groups and finally in 1888 Chile annexed it as part of it’s territory. The Maoi or Statues were erected by the various family / settlements as deities who would look over their day to day lives and keep them safe. Rondo Rongo, the native language has a strong Polynesian influence and is derived from the same proto-language. This talk was followed by Dr Andrew Adam’s second lecture who spoke on “How the Victorians turned Murder into Entertinment”. Today, murder and all its sadistic relatives provides the basis for most TV, Film and other such entertainment. Was this started in the Victorian era? The afternoon’s lecture was by Ruth Shackleton on her life and various postings and tours of duty in the various theatres where active war was being waged. After tea we started playing a travel trivia game and in between, I worked on organising photos so that more and more can go on the blog. No show this evening as it is a repeat of Apassionata, a show we have seen many times.
Saturday February 20 – At Sea crossing the Pacific Ocean towards Easter Island, which we reach tomorrow. Due to the lack of facilities for a boat this large and influx of people, we will be sailing by it, but hopefully will get some great views and pictures. Today was a day of lectures and entertainment starting with Graham Howell on the Island of Morea which we will visit after Tahiti, then to a very interesting discussion by Mike Harvey on “Who will be the Next President” including a very interesting and accurate prediction methodology which has predicted the popular vote winner for all presidential races since its development. While there are still imponderables given the early state of the primaries and the question of an independent running, it is leaning towards a Democrat succeeding in the Presidency. The afternoon was taken with a matinee performance by Bruce Morrison (who sang the Lloyd Webber mix last night) doing the story of the development and singing tunes from Les Miserables – excellent West End performer. During the late afternoon we played a trivia game, sorted photographs and the evening performance was an excellent Irish / Australian singer, very amusing comedian who had the audience in stitches and great impersonator – Paul Martell.
Sunday February 21 – At Sea in the Pacific, sailing past Easter Island. Sunday morning started with going to Church for the Second Sunday in Lent by the Deputy Captain followed by a very interesting discussion with the Pathologist Dr. Andrew Adam on “Doctors who Kill”. – a study of the “Golden Era of Medical Murders” (late 1800’s to early 1900’s) when all pharmacies had arsenic, strychnine and other such poisons on their shelves as they were deemed to have medicinal properties. This allowed Doctors to murder family, friends etc for the same reasons as any other murderers – Money, Jealousy etc. I will treat the whole subject of the visit to Easter Island in a separate post, (once I cull the 600+ photos taken of the island today)!! However, suffice it to say that it lived up to its expectations and then some. Whereas we were supposed to sail by slowly to get a glimpse of the island, due to circumstances beyond the control of Cunard, we spent the entire afternoon there, so got a really good look at the place. The weather was spectacular, the colour of the sea a magical Azure and the triangular shaped island was in all its glory. We had dinner at the Italian Piazza Restaurant and the head Chef de Cuisine, Maynard, cooked for us personally at the table, a real treat. As it was too late for the show and we needed to all off dinner, we walked around the deck (1/2 Kilometer each walk around) and had great views of the full moon lighting up the sea.
Roger & Anne Travels 