Day 9 - At Sea

Sunday, Jan. 13, 2013

Well, today was a somewhat uneventful day.  In the morning, we were sitting on our deck, and land was in sight, off to the west.  We didn't know what it was, so I set up the GPS, and after it found a satellite, it informed us that this was Cuba.  We were sailing Southeast along Cuba's east coast.  We were close enough to see the land, and some of the features.  It looked like one long beach, with the waves lapping up on the shore.

The first thing we saw was a boat out fishing.  It looked pretty small, but through the binoculars, it appeared to be much bigger.  It was clearly fishing.  A town came into sight a little later on, and through the binoculars, I could see a tall pointed shaft at the edge of what appeared to be a harbour.  I assumed it was a lighthouse.  In the bay, I could see other buildings, but I couldn't make out what they were.  There was a tall stack with smoke coming out of it, so I figured that was a power plant for the area, but who knows.

I had to go and exchange my card again, because they gave me the wrong colour again.  The blue one I received didn't show all the cruises we had been on, and even though I had the fix made on the first half, the change wasn't there for the second half.  So, off to see Rocco, the Captain's Circle host, once again.  He was embarrased, and apologized all over the place, but he did get it fixed for us.  He also gave each of us a passport with stickers that showed all the cruises we have been on with Princess, and when we went on them.

Then it was up for breakfast, which was very late - almost changeover time for lunch.  After we had grabbed our food, we found Karen and Lloyd and sat down with them to eat.  Good food and good conversations have been had all the time.

After breakfast, we let them know that we were going to be watching the football game on the big screen.  It began at 2:00, so Karen and Dawn decided to go and play Bingo.  I sat out on our deck and read, while Dawn was away.  Very quiet, the breeze was gentle and cool, and it was quite nice.

When they came back, Dawn told me that she was 2 numbers from winning $400, so it was almost a successful venture.  Then, we went up to Deck 14 to get ready to watch the game.  After finding a lounge chair (they were hard to come by because there were so many people sunbathing), we sat back and waited a few minutes for the game to begin.

Watching the Game on the Big Screen

The game didn't look too good for Seattle.  They were down 10-0 at the end of the 1st quarter, 20-0 at the end of the half.  The started the 2nd half by going for a touchdown, that Atlanta answered (27 - 7), but then they seemed to get things going.  The defence picked up, the offence really started working, and as it turned out, Seattle scored the go-ahead touchdown with 31 seconds left to play.  This turned out to be too long left, because Atlanta basically marched down the field, got into field goal range, and scored a field goal with 3 seconds left.  Pretty disappointing, but it was sure an exciting finish.

After that, it was back to our room to warm up (we had been sitting in the shade for much of the game, and with the wind, we got quite cold).  Stanidng out on our deck, the sun was shining on us, the wind was gentle by the walls of our deck, and we warmed up.

The next game was coming on (Houston and New England) so we finally found it on our TV and settled back to watch this game.  Karen phoned to go to supper, so we went.  This was the same menu as last week, but by now, we know what we like, and only take that.  They had made rhubarb pie as one of the deserts, so Dawn and I had to have a piece of that.  We took it down to the ice cream stand and got the guy to put some of it on our pie, and then went back to the dining room to eat it.  It was very tasty.

Sheep Made Out of Towels

After that, Karen and Lloyd went for a smoke, and Dawn and I went out to see how the football game was going on the big screen under the stars.  It turns out there were just over 3 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, but New England was killing Houston, and it got worse while we sat on a lounge and watched.

There were some ladies sitting beside us who were from Rhode Island.  Dawn chatted with them, and we learned some things about their accents, and their interest in football.  They wondered about where French was spoken in Canada, so we filled them in as best we could.

With less than 2 minutes left in the game, we could see that it was over, so we went back to our cabin.  There, Jason, our steward, had made a sheep out of towels and left on our bed, when he got our room ready for the night.  It was quite well done.

An interesting movie was on, so we watched that, and by the end, we were both pretty much ready for bed, so to sleep we went.  Tomorrow, another day at sea ...