Day-23: A Day At Sea En-Route To Taiwan

Day-23: Monday, February 24, 2014

Beginning Location: South China Sea
Final Location: Taiwan Strait

Slept late today, we weren't up until 0730 as our first event wasn't until 0930. As these fisherman were experiencing, the water was a touch rocky this morning with 12-15 foot seas and a fairly hefty wind.

After breakfast and dressing for the day, Sheila was off to the "Bridge Lesson". Seems there's a new "Bridge Sheriff" in town so after not thinking much of the bridge-mistress of the first cruise, Sheila is trying again.

For me it was a little Helium work and then down to the Nautica Lounge to reserve our seats for this morning enrichment lecture "Taiwan, A Thorn In The Tiger's Paw", the story about Taiwan formerly Formosa and it's struggle for independence and its likely future as some sort of state within the "big" China.

Sheila arrived for the lecture just as it began with a bridge instruction book in-hand. She likes the new instructor and has plans for the second session later this afternoon.

Following the lecture I hung around for a cooking demonstration by two of the ship's senior chefs. Today's fare was to be:

• Tomato Carpaccio & Sicilian Tomato-Basil Tartar with Creamy Mozzarella
• Zucchini Wrapped Jumbo Shrimp with Parmesan Cheese & Angel Hair Pasta Al Limone
• Panna Cotta with Frutti Di Bosco

The chefs, both from Italy and proud of it, were performers as well as chefs. Their comedic routine made the demo entertaining as well as informative.  In the end the food seems to be easy to prepare and the three prepared plates looks great. In closing the senior chef did suggest that all of us watching could easily prepare the same dishes but suggested if we chose to do so that we start out by finding two chefs and a clean-up staff for our kitchen otherwise the cooking exercise would be a bit more daunting.

Lunch followed in the Terrace Cafe, it was Tex-Mex day so I had pasta and roasted ham. Sheila had pizza and a salad. Seating was limited for lunch but Sheila found a 4-seater with two open seats. We politely joined a couple, again, very similar to ourselves. Well other than one small difference, they were from Switzerland and spoke German and French, we spoke only English; the lunch was accented with much nodding, elongated words and hand motions, most of which none of us understood. Nice people if we could have only understood a word or two of what they said.

We settled in for our second "enrichment" lecture for the day, "Close Encounters of the First Kind! The West Finds The East!" Another good lecture setting us up for the upcoming port visits.

For dinner we met up with new folks by sharing a table in Toascana Ristorante. Our table-mates were from Victoria Island, British Columbia.  The gentleman had graduated from the Canadian equivalent of West Point and served a stint in the Canadian Army before heading to law school and a career in Canadian law. We enjoyed the company and the meal.


Lastly, we stopped for Golden Margaritas and the opportunity to give $15 to the casino treasury. We'll get it back, just not tonight.


It's time to say good-night, so GOOD NIGHT!