Friday at Sea

Ugh, woke this morning to pelting rain and rolling seas. the wave must be 25 feet at least. I took a couple of pictures from the window seats on deck 2, as the crests were in line with the windows when the bow went through the swell, but the pictures just don't capture the majesty and power. Here are a couple of my attempts anyway.

Breakfast was something new - scrambled eggs with poached salmon and onion. Good!!

My idea about adding to a post several times a day did not pan out. I am just too busy to go through the login procedures every time. I am completely spoiled by the instant access I have at home.
Dr. Cunningham's last talk covered humans going to Mars. Apparently many of the impedimenta are possible with an infusion of $$$$. Not a real shock. intriguing was her information about space weather (her term for radiation). She asserted that space weather is already a part of our daily lives as we are so satellite dependent and they are all impacted (literally and figuratively) by radiation. Solar winds leaking radiation into our atmosphere are what cause the auroras around the North and South Poles, where the earth's magnetosphere is thinnest. Hence Iceland's employment of an official Space Weather meteorologist who helps the island's tourism bureau know when and where auroras should occur.

I relished learning that the sci-fi ideas of gamma rays is not all that weird. But more, I enjoyed finding out about the Institute for Research in Schools which is a UK non-profit which arranges for regular students to access actual research data. The official term is LUCID data. I was tickled to learn that a mars lander has its own Twitter account - @MarsCuriosity.  I can't wait to try it out. I wonder if my Soccer Gods twitter account is still active, probably not.

The Scavenger Hunt was more fun than anticipated.

I forgot about the Captain's Cocktail party. Rats! I wanted to go because I wanted to see what beverages were served 11:15 AM...mimosas? maybe. Oh well, there'll be another one on the crossing home.

RADA performed The Importance of Being Earnest, one of my Oscar Wilde plays.

Knitting lasted for a couple of hours this afternoon. Tracy and Karen and I were in compatible work mode. Karen is returning to NYC, so we are already planning for the upcoming crossing.

While we were stitching, a gentleman I met yesterday stopped to say "Hi, Marty". I was astounded! as yesterday when he told me he was Jonathan Green and seemed to expect I would recognize his name, I was polite but flummoxed. the last night I realized he was the Gullah writer, illustrator and playwright from South Carolina. So, today I told him the story and mentioned Mom's fascination with the Gullah culture and stories. He came back with an autographed postcard for her. I could not tell him she was deceased; I'll keep the card and know she'd have enjoyed it.

I dined with Einar and Jimmy. We laughed and shared stories for more than an hour.

No evening entertainment, other than a film I had no desire to see as the ship's movement is so pronounced that anything active was cancelled: the show, the planetarium as the dome could not be lowered.

All in all, a good day at sea.