Friday June 09, 2023
A restful day at sea with 2 lectures, gym and show. The lectures today were by the Astronomer / Artist Martin Griffiths who spoke of many artistic impressions of the moon over the centuries, from very primitive to modern day detailed maps. The named areas have varied a bit over time but today the one constant is that no area of the moon can be named for anyone that is alive to avoid people calling after friends and the jealousies that could arise. Most names for the bright side of the moon are positive like sea of tranquility, peaches etc, with those on the dark side are more negative. Mostly the moon is thought of as female although at some point it was considered as having a male face. The hare or rabbit of the moon was important to many cultures and the Navajo think of it as a deity and were seriously annoyed when ashes of humans were scattered there as it affects their deity. Another interesting fact that at one time about 120 years ago, Britain claimed ownership of the Moon!
The second lecture was Pete Goss, the adventurer who has undertaken many ocean sailing races. We have heard him before and written in the blog about him. However it is very interesting to hear his story of saving a drowning Frenchman during the world race and how he had to operate on himself in mid race without anesthesia. The video clips of the raging seas of the Southern Ocean really bring into perspective the treacherousness of the race.
During the afternoon there was the gym for some, work for others and the Captain’s cocktail for the frequent voyagers, with the winners at 92 were a couple who had spent over 3,000 days on Cunard ships. Second place went to someone with 550 nights. Interesting that all the guests of the Gold to Diamond status aboard amount to over 1,000 and have a total of over 28 years on Cunard Ships. The American Captain introduced his key senior staff, none of whom we had met, but did chat to one of the middle management of the Tours area who was with us on the World earlier this year.
The evening show was Worby and Farrell (today is Farrell’s birthday) who we had seen before but are a brilliant piano duo. They perform some well known classical music pieces usually in a faster tempo, on one piano while having some amusing anecdotes in between. It is interesting that at midnight tonight we are entering the Arctic Circle so at 10 PM, the sun is still high in the sky and we will likely see no darkness for the next week. Interesting to experience.
Roger & Anne Travels 