January 13th,14th,15th,16th

On Saturday, January 13th we headed toward Barbados continuing on our south easterly track to run parallel with the Brazilian coast through the Amazon Ridge. The temperature was 28 degrees and it was a beautiful day. Passengers were sunbathing on deck and I had a lovely swim in the Pavilion Pool late morning while Alan went to a lecture, ‘The Age of Exploration’ by Captain Richard Hayman. After lunch I went to learn how to play ‘Craps’ because it appeared to be such a fun game as all players shouted excitedly! After a leisurely afternoon I went to the hairdressers. My new hairstyle is really taking shape. It was another formal evening but with a twist, as we were sailing the Caribbean it was ‘Pirates Night’. We should have borrowed Thomas’s Captain Jack Sparrow head gear, as it would have really stolen the show!
After dinner I went for my first real game of Craps! Alan watched and we had a really exciting couple of hours, it was very lively and great fun, but I lost my $50 this time. (I do have a better idea of how to lose now though!) Because our watches were to go forward an hour we had an early night.
When we awoke on Sunday, January 14th the Trade Winds were beginning to take effect and the sea had a swell, but not too much. The air was humid and on deck it was just like a sauna with temperatures around 29 degrees. We were travelling at 27 knots and had sailed 2158 nautical miles from Fort Lauderdale. With 2370 to go we were almost half way to Rio de Janeiro. We were heading south easterly taking us some 300 nautical miles north east of the Mouths of the Amazon River and through the Demerar abysal plain. Then through the Amazon Ridge and the Arquipelago de Fernando de Noronha, a group of small islands some 200 nautical miles off the coast of Brazil where we will continue our southerly track paralleling the Brazilian coast. Tomorrow we will be crossing the equator. After making contact we had coffee with Gary and Wendy O’Hanlon and chatted for a couple of hours. (Alan has got the suite number of the Gaugels so we will be making contact soon.) It was a pleasant surprise to find an invitation from the Environment Officer, David Latham, to dine with him in the Brittania Restaurant at 8.30pm. We had to ring the captain’s secretary to accept and arrived promptly. He was a charming young Officer and very interesting to speak with although we weren’t impressed by our other four ‘competitive’ dinner guests.

At 9.10am on Monday, January 15th Alan stood on the balcony with his GPS and announced that we had just crossed into the southern hemisphere. He had watched as the latitude changed from 0 degrees north and registered 0 degrees south confirming that we had crossed the equator. The sea didn’t seem to care, it remained deep blue and calm with slight white waves breaking alongside the ship, but we rejoiced as it was our first crossing of the equator on the ocean. At 10.00am we had an emergency drill – a bomb search in which we all had to participate. Dummy bombs had been planted to ensure that a search was carried out by passengers. Then for those who wished to join in there was an emergency evacuation to life boat stations (one step further than the normal boarding drill.) Had there been a real emergency the ship was just six hours from Fortalez, Brazil, at this time. We didn’t go that far, but did search our suite as requested. It is good that these procedures are carried out. At lunch time all passengers gathered by the Terrace Pool for the ‘Crossing the Line Ceremony’. Volunteer ‘Pollywogs’ were coated with various liquids from the ships galley and thrown into the pool in the presence of King Neptune, his Queen and Seaweed Court. (Of course we will be crossing the equator four times on this cruise so perhaps we will get closer to the fun next time.)

After all this excitement we needed a rest after lunch so I went to the cinema while Alan had a snooze. We dined that evening at the Lotus Japanese restaurant with Kay and Peter Bradley, friends made in the dining room on the QE2. It was a five course meal that was as delightful as we remembered from previous cruises. We listened to the pianist in the Commodore Club until the early hours when we advanced our watches yet again (we are now 2 hours behind the UK.) We have cruised past Recife and Cobo Branco the eastern most tip of Brazil today. (Are you marking it on your map, grandchildren?)
Our first interest of the day on Tuesday, January 16th, was listening to a passenger lecture on his experiences in the Nazi death camp, Auschwitz. Having visited and been very moved by the camp I felt great empathy in his recollections. He had entered aged 15 in 1944 and watched as his parents were taken to the gas chamber. He and his wife have founded the National Holocaust Endowment Fund to establish and fund college level education on the Holocaust. With light breeze and calm sea we were travelling at 25 knots toward Rio it was brilliant sitting on our balcony in the warmth of the sunshine during the afternoon. This evening is a Rio Carnival masked ball, so we are looking forward to that and I am going to the gym to lose a few pounds first!!! More about this later.