Dinner with a Hotel Manager and Captain

Wed. Feb 25th



Coordinates:



Time: 08.40

Speed: 26.6 knots

Lat: 29 degrees 12.18 S

Lon: 038 degrees 17.1 E

Course: 74 derees



Well dinner with the Captain was delicious and beautifully presented. We sat with our German hotel manager, he is in any case a Chef and is responsible for feeding us all. He told us how and what they are able to pick up from various ports; for example they had had to get rid of alot of peanut butter from the States so had picked up more in cape Town. Our very excellent racks of lamb last night were from New Zealand and the precious bananas we have been given in the last two days have actually been brought all the way from the States at various stages of greeness and ripening!

We had base ball 'nuts' at our table and a sports fanatic librarian (a delightful young woman) and our conversation veered between Stephan's (our 'officer' hotel manager) family in Thailand and baseball; great teams, plays and players, curling, tennis, soccer, American football and basket ball. It was hilarious at times, partiularly in discussion of the Beckhams in the States and the number of foreign players in British soccer teams....apparently George's team, Arsenal, doesn't have one UK player! Stephan told us about the fact that Boris Becker has had money problems and is hardly spoken of in Germany any more after being their great hero but there was all round respect and admiration for Andre Agassi and Stephi Graaf (? spelling) for all the good works they do for disabled and disadvantaged children. I boasted about our Scottish/British tennis player Andy Murray (grandson of a school friend) who is now the great white hope of British tennis and could possibly win Wimbledon. he certainly has the killer instinct lacking in Tim Henman...right? You can understand why Stephan's eyes glazed over at times!

We are about half way between the South African coast and the southern tip of Madagascar according to our TV map and speeing along at over 27 knots....not for nothing is this called the fastest ship in the world. We are hoping to catch up on the hours we lost in Cape Town. Global studies today was a fascinating talk about Mauritius and the Dodo, a large (rather stupid) bird now extinct....by the hand of homo (not so) sapiens. Also heard abput the formation of islands in the Indian Ocean and Pacific. Mauritius, like Hawaii is volcanic.

I am sitting looking out of the balcony door as I type. The sea is bright blue, white capped and swishing loudly past the ship; there are puff balls of clouds in a watery blue sky...will I ever be able to sleep again without this wonderful sound?!