7 April Sea Day Thirteen We Are The Champions!!!

And the trivia champions are— THE BOYS!!!!! A convincing two-point victory. What actor entered a look-a-like contest in Monaco and came in third? Not sure anything else happened that is worth mentioning in this blog.

Karla reminds me that we went to the Q&A with the ship’s Staff Captain and learned about the manning and operations of all the deck hands and bridge crew. These are all the people who are not in engineering or hotel operations. They navigate the ship, launch, operate and recover the Zodiacs, submersibles, and the special operations boats. Painting, docking, even ship security and just about anything on the outside of the ship falls under Deck Operations.

Today’s lecture was about volcanic activity in the Lessor Antilles. The impact on these small islands is horrific, added to earthquakes and hurricanes life can be very hard. In July 1995, Montserrat's Soufrière Hills volcano, dormant for centuries, erupted and soon buried the island's capital, Plymouth, in more than 12 metres (39 ft) of mud, destroyed its airport and docking facilities, and rendered the southern part of the island, now termed the exclusion zone, uninhabitable and not safe. The underwater volcano, called Kick 'em Jenny has a nautical exclusion zone because gases so reduce the buoyancy of the water that ships may not float.

There was a farewell reception for all aboard. Usually these include candid photos of places visited, but since we’ve been mostly at sea they displayed pics from the laundry, kitchen, bar staffs, etc. Out Captain departs tomorrow and seemed genuinely touched by his first experience on a Viking Cruise. Given that he arrived with just five days’ notice the professional team aboard must be special. He had written a recommendation for the Security Officer but had no idea he would be serving with him.

Dinner in The Restaurant. We'll see how full it will get later next week.

The ocean rushing by