29th June 2016

Sea Day Partly cloudy Temp 33c Smooth Sea

From the Navigator

In the early hours of the morning, Sun Princess will transit the Ceram Sea on a north-westerly heading and at approximately 6am, once abeam of the island of Pulau Lifumatola on our port side, we will then enter into the Molucca Sea. We are scheduled to cross the Equator in the early afternoon, continuing on a north-westerly heading for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

After a very good night’s sleep and with no events to attend until 11.30am we spent time in the Atrium with coffee and our iPads to check our emails etc. During the morning there was the crossing of the Equator Ceremony where the Pollywogs (people who have not crossed in a ship before) are presented to King Neptune. It’s not compulsory thank goodness as the performance is quite messy. In fact, it was so messy that the people were dunked in the pool, they don’t do that now because they used to have to close the pool for a day while they cleaned it out. We have seen and photographed quite a number of these ceremonies so we gave it a miss. While we were in the Atrium some of the staff gave a demonstration of Fruit & Vegetable Carving and Betty has some nice photos on her iPad which she may share.

 At 11.30am I went to another lecture given by David Russel entitled “Pearl Harbor 1941 – A Date That Will Live in Infamy” which was of course the surprise attack by the Japanese that triggered America’s entry into world war ll. Having visit Pearl Harbor on more than one occasion I thought I knew most of the story but David expended it out more. It was really amazing that it was a surprise at all, the Americans had numerous warnings that there was a likely attack by Japan but they were ignored. They had already broken the code used for communication between Japan and their embassy in the USA. A US ship just outside of the harbor at Pearl Harbor actually sunk a Japanese submarine and radioed back to report it but politics got in the as the person receiving the report thought that as the captain of the ship was on his first command he was just trying to big note himself so the report went no further. As most of you will know there is now a memorial which is situated above the wreck US Arizona in Pearl Harbour which contains all the names of the people who lost their lives on that day. What you may not know is that the cost of this memorial was largely funded from a concert given by Elis Presley.

In the Patter today at 1.30pm it was advertised that you could join your international hairstylist for a complimentary lecture to discover the perfect style for you. There was even a chance to win a free up style. As they were doing nothing at this time Bev & Betty decided to go. When they got there they found out it had been cancelled, they also found out that there is only one hairdresser on board and he is fully booked. There will be some long haired people at the end of this cruise.

Betty, Bev & Ian went to the movies this afternoon to see “Daddy’s Home” Starring Will Ferrell & Mark Wahlberg. It did not look like my sort of film judging by the trailer on the Wake Show but Ian told me it was quite good. By the way for those of you who do not know the Wake Show is a program on TV which is actually recorded the night before but is presented as if t is live. The Cruise Director Mark Turner with usually his deputy give a rundown of the day’s activities and give any other announcements as required.

Our entertainment for this evening was Donna Campbell’s second show where she sang music from the 50s,60s & 70s. Her show was OK but not as good has her first one. Not all of our group came to this show but some went to the Visa Lounge to hear “Fiore” with music of the world. Fiore is the 2 violinists who play pre dinner music in the Atrium each evening and are quite good. I think we made the wrong decision. Maybe they will give another concert.