Day 13 (Jan 16 - Sea Day)

Tai Chi again today. My Chi must be very happy by now! OK, you busted me. I ate breakfast in the room again today. This decadent lifestyle is very easy to get used to.

Vantage group topic today was Creationism. Heh, heh, heh! I just love the way some people get so wrapped around some of these topics. A little sadism surfacing in my personality I think. I pretty much closed down the session after all the hand wringing and anguish with a quote I remember and a suggestion. The quote (I have no idea who said it - someone check it out if you want) was, "To truly understand reality is to go insane." Then I suggested that all of mysteries of existence have been placed here for us to keep us occupied on Sea Days. It got a pretty good laugh and then we broke up.

Next was an astronomy lecture on the outer planets. Our astronomer is really good. The audience is growing and more and more people are out on deck stargazing. I take some credit for spreading the word that he makes himself available at 7 and 10:30 PM.

Went to Beat the Crew this afternoon. It is a recurring trivia game. They have 4 podiums ala Jeopardy and three audience members compete against one of the crew. It was mildly entertaining but I'm pretty sure they are running out of ideas to amuse us and keep us out of trouble on Sea Days. Tomorrow they are offering a kitchen tour. I almost wanted to do that until I realized I had another Vantage lecture at the same time. I can just see the planners saying, "Well, we could take them for a tour of the kitchen...." Years ago I went on a behind the scenes tour at the San Diego Zoo where they showed us how they prepared food for the animals. I suppose seeing the ship's kitchen might be interesting after all. Perhaps I will get another chance.

Early star gazing was not too good. The moon was too bright and there were some clouds. I went to the movie. Yes, they have a movie theater. Well, that is generous. It is really a good sized room with three tv screens in it (one is a pretty big projection tv and the others are flat screen, probably hi def screens. The movie was Mr. Bridges, a pretty intense movie about a serial killer (well actually several killers) with Kevin Costner and Demi Moore. The best part was that they had bags of pop corn on a table for those who wanted it. OK, the movie was not bad. Brutal but not bad if you enjoy a little violence. The stage show was a repeat of Renato, the opera singer. Supposedly an all new show but I think once with him was enough.

Later stargazing was much better. Although the Southern Cross teased us for quite awhile. The moon was still a problem and the clouds were in just the right spot to obscure the southern horizon until perhaps 11:30. Finally the entire cross was visible.

Didn't mind the late evening because we had to set the clocks back an hour again. I'm now in the time zone west of the Pacific Time Zone. At midnight just before going to bed the tv told me we were 4528 miles from Ft. Lauderdale, 2948 from Panama and only (LOL) 887 miles from our next port, Nuku Hiva. For the GPS literate among you: 5º 19.11" S and 125º 42.94' W

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