Smooth Sailing

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We left Cape Town sometime shortly after midnight, we think. We were each up between 1 and 2 am and at sea though we could still make out the shore line. The lights of Cape Town however were long gone. So we have calm seas and calm winds. All good and still on schedule.

Clay was up first and I reluctantly rose around 7 am. Marketplace breakfast started at 7:30 am. Clay is disappointed that while individual servings of peanut butter finally returned they are an oily substitute for the Smuckers he enjoyed for the first 1/2 of the cruise. I was thrilled to find individual serving jars of REAL maple syrup back on the buffet. Since Saturday and Sunday this week will be early starts in Namibia, I had my weekend big breakfast today. Yesterday was the other as we had a hot buffet breakfast at Aquila. The new captain doesn't make his daily announcement at 9am but at noon (or a few minutes after if we recall correctly from NWP16).

Last needlepoint opportunity for me is at 10:30 am port side in Palm Court. There was already a lady passenger there when we left for the cabin at 9:05 am. She was first in line last segment too. I haven't seen them run out yet and seas are calm so if I wind up at the end of a line it'll be okay. I'll probably go closer to 10:20 am. I'm back. There was another big turnout, though none was as big as that first segment out of LA in January. I got a cosmetic sized bag that Mom gives to a friend of hers. I have to say that the turnover size in Cape Town is the largest we'd seen yet. A bit of a surprise given the difficulty of flying to and from Cape Town. Also Clay and I agreed that this segment didn't seem particularly appealing to generate enough interest in a difficult flight to begin it. It is a very long segment. All we can figure out is Crystal must have advertised a very low per diem offer on this segment to generate all the crowd. The ship is still not full witnessed by all the show cabins on tour yesterday.

Reflections says Marketplace has a South African buffet today. I have no idea what that might include other than grilled meats, or a braai (say bry). We'll see. Tonight is Formal and we have reservations at Umi Uma in keeping with our preference of avoiding the hysteria of Waterside on Formal night with its lobster and caviar offerings.

Back from lunch and they had quite a spread. They had biltongs and droewors, bbq warthog ribs, ostrich medallions, African pork stew and sausage sandwichs and again suitably they had Malva pudding. We learned about biltongs, droewors and Malva pudding from our SA guides at the Mt. Nelson lunch.

It is 1 pm and we are waiting to be called for the face to face Namibian immigration inspection. The captain's noon announcement was lengthy and chatty compared to the previous captain's. He announced how relieved he was when we sailed out of Cape Town a little after 11 pm. He announced he was running with stabilizers which as Clay pointed out the previous captain rarely mentioned and we had both suspected for long stretches of sea days he was not using them. The ride is remarkably smooth compared to appearance and the opposite was mostly true under the previous captain. The captain we have now is the one we had for NWP16. He is a social animal. We saw him lunching in Marketplace and getting ice cream at Scoops. Lastly, the captain mentioned we'd be at our anchorage on schedule. The itinerary, the destination lecturer, nor anything else we've heard or seen indicated this was not a docked port. We find it hard to believe the captain misspoke and that means a tender port tomorrow.

The immigration inspection was quick and painless. They didn't take our passports back today. They haven't said but maybe we keep our own passports this final 1/3 of the cruise. I don't know. Not anticipating anything else newsworthy, I'll post this now.

It has been cool to chilly today with cloudless skies. There has been a persistent chilling mist or water surface fog though. We had expected the weather to become substantially warmer as we travel north towards the equator. We are a little surprised but not disappointed with the chill. Weather predicted in Luderitz tomorrow is 60 to about 75 F. It is said to be a slight malaria risk zone, but that seems higher risk than reasonable for such a cool, desert environment. I think my bug repellent clothes are too lightweight for the temps and I'll plan to dress normally. Which raises the issue of the bite I sustained sometime prior to waking up Wedsnesday morning. I didn't feel it when it happened but the shower stung an area above my left breast. I got out of the shower and found a red angry looking patch about 2 inches by 1 inch. It had 3 little focal red points in it. I sprayed it several times a day with Bactine. By today, it was angrier and a pustule had developed. It reminds me of a fire ant bite but it didn't hurt when it happened. I have no idea when it happened. I think it had to be while I slept in pajamas as opposed to Tuesday when I was fully covered up. Anyway, today Clay pleaded with me to cover it with Neosporin and put a bandage on it so, we'll see how it looks in the morning. Next question raised is the 2nd WC shore side event, an evening in the Namib desert. If the forecast holds, it will be chilly. The dress code is smart casual, but in sand? We'll see how that goes.

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