October 28 & 29, 2024 – Monday & Tuesday           Day 33 & 34 of this journey 

Sea Days 

We left Cozumel in the evening and headed south into the Caribbean. We have a long way to go to get to the Panama Canal. Rain is in the forecast as well as moderate seas. 

Sunday night was pretty much a rock and roll night with our ship plowing through the swells. We are near the front of the ship and that magnifies the amount of sound or noise that we hear. 

Monday, we spent most of the day in the cabin. Between the wind and the light rain, as well as the swell, it is not a day to be walking on the outer decks. But what we are treated to are boobies! I am quite certain we must have seen them on our last World Cruise, but not the way we are seeing them today. There are 15-20 that stayed with the ship all day as they fished. They would fly right up to our window, so we had excellent views.

Diving for dinner

This guy found a spot to rest and wasn't moving.

This is not my photo. But shows the catch well.

This is a flying fish. This is what the boobies were hunting for today.

Hello! (not my photo) This is how we saw them so often. Just looking at us.

They are a very common seabird and not at all wary of the ship. They dive after their prey, then pop up almost immediately and are back in the air. We saw at least 3 different varieties, including brown boobies, red footed boobies, and masked boobies. The masked ones have a light blue beak. Their markings really vary from bird to bird. We watched them all day.

 

On Tuesday, the rain is still with us as is the wind. The rock and roll isn’t quite as bad. And the boobies are still hanging around. 

At 10:00 am, the World Cruisers were treated to a cooking demonstration by Chef Wayan and his pastry chef. Chef Wayan is making ceviche for us, and the pastry chef is making Dark Rum Chocolate Mousse. We met Chef Wayan on the first World Cruise. He was a guest chef for several days and designed a menu for the Chef’s Table specialty restaurant.

The Spa decorated the pumpkin for the counter.

For the ceviche

For the mousse

The finished ceviche

Chef Wayan

Pastry chef preparing the mousse

Chef Wayan has a very upbeat personality, and we see him everywhere on the ship helping out the culinary staff. He obviously has a passion for food. He was demonstrating how to chop a jalapeno for the ceviche and popped a slice into his mouth. Then sort of choked and went for a bottle of water. He really laughed at himself over it.

Tastes of the ceviche were passed out while the pastry chef went to work on his mousse. In just a few minutes he has it ready, garnishing it with fresh berries. Then Chef Wayan brought out a bottle of Patron Tequilla, poured everyone a shot and we toasted. 

A very enjoyable morning. Chef says he’ll do more of these for us and hoped to give us a hands-on class for sushi making. 

We had a brief meeting at 11:30 to meet the other travelers that will be departing the ship in Manta, Ecuador. Some going to the Galapagos, some to Machu Pichu and some doing both. 

The Daily Briefing is back live in the Aula Theater, which is preferable to the recorded only version that they needed to do for a few days.

 

Tomorrow will be our passage through the Panama Canal.