We are half way to Perth now. Very much in the middle of nowhere. No land at all in any direction for many hundreds of miles.
A sunny, hot day but today definitely more swell on the sea, driven by something other than wind – current, I suppose. The swell is not noticeable really on the ship, but you can see it when you look out over the water.
We had a good session at art this morning. I did one of my own saved images which was of two elephants, face to face. Very pleased with it. Bob laboured long and hard over a portrait of a Japanese lady in traditional garb. By the end of our session he had made great headway with the sketch.
The clocks went forward another hour today, so midday quickly became 1pm. We get a briefing from the Bridge Officers at midday each day. It covers our position, progress over the 24 hours, weather, sea conditions, and generally includes some interesting nautical facts of the day.
In the afternoon, as per normal in these climes, we lazed out on the pool deck, reading. Both of us fell asleep at some point. 😊
No great drama to report from the day. A comment from one of the comedians the other night rings very true around the pool: If you can’t see your Speedos, you probably shouldn’t be wearing them. There’s one man who clearly can’t see his and definitely shouldn’t be wearing them! I doubt he’s even seen his knees for some years. Horrific!
Two interesting lectures, selected from a few, today. Firstly a lecture on The Berlin Airlift by a military historian, Aldon Ferguson. Very interesting with lots of video clips. And also the first in a short series of lectures by explorer and author, Jacki Hill-Murphy, about travelling the length of the Amazon, in the footsteps of the first women explorers of 1769. They travelled 4200 miles from one of the sources, a small stream in Ecuador all the way to the Atlantic in dug out canoes or hammock boats. These ladies must have been quite extraordinary especially for their time.
A good dinner as usual. Then the show which was amazing. A multi instrumentalist, called Davey Howes. He played the piano, the trumpet, the pocket trumpet, the flugelhorn, the post horn, the drums. He sang. He played a range from classical, through big band, jazz and even rock and roll. Most amazingly he played a variety of “things” that I would never have imagined could make a musical note. For instance, he played a garden hose fitted with a shower head and at one point he was playing it while whirling the whole lot around his head. He played a shower hose and head. He even played a walking frame where he’d put a mouthpiece in one of the feet and an “outlet” into one of the other feet. They all sounded vaguely trumpet like. Amazing!