Sunday April 16, 2023
A fun Sunday at sea starting with the Captain doing the Church service, the last he will do as next Sunday he leaves the ship and Nassim returns for the trip across to New York.
The lecture by David Wright, the historian, was all about Mary Queen of Scots. He presented her story again with such excitement that it brought her to life. She became Queen of Scotland when she was merely a few weeks old and was also the Queen of France and in many ways rightfully should also have been Queen of England. However due to her jealous advisors and her bad taste in marriages, she ended up basically being locked up for almost half of her 40+ years. Despite what appeared to be a close friendship with Queen Elizabeth of England, she was rebuffed and imprisoned by her. All this mainly because she and Scotland were Catholic and England, after Henry VIII, was Protestant and anyone showing allegiance to the Vatican was not to be trusted. We then decided that as it was Sunday, we would enjoy a lunch at the Verandah Restaurant.
The afternoon was a lot of fun as the ship put on a “Country Fayre” in the Queens Room, for the first time in 4 years. There were the games, the stalls and silent / public outcry auctions: throwing a wet sponge at an officer’s face; guessing the number of chocolates in a vase; stopping a mouse going down a tube with a ping pong racket; and other such fun games were on offer. We greatly enjoyed the event together with a lot of the passengers. It was opened by the Captain and all proceeds go to one of 4 selected charities. A lot of money must have been raised and we will know soon. However the big excitement was the auction with Neil Kelly, the Entertainment Director being the auctioneer. Some items went for US$ 500 and a lot more. Perhaps the two biggest items were a private tour of the engine room, something that is virtually never done and the biggest one, fetching US$6,000 was the paper, signed navigational chart. Apparently these are no longer used or even made as all is digital, but the Admiralty was asked if they could prepare one and it went for a bundle. I bid in the silent auction, and to my surprise won – a private backstage tour of the theatre, which I have always wanted to see, but just made it to the dressing rooms and the crosswalk behind the stage. SO I am looking forward to that.
The evening performance was by TIANO – standing for “Tenor Piano”. It features Chris Hamilton, the multi award winning composer and pianist who did a “Liberace Style” performance the other day, and Shimi Goodman, the spectacular Tenor who brought down the house a couple of nights ago. Together they are absolutely one of the most spectacular acts we have seen. If you ever hear of them performing near you, we highly recommend you go and see the show, you won’t be disappointed.
Roger & Anne Travels 