30th June 2016

30^th June 2016

Sea Day Smooth seas Temp 32c

From the Navigator

In the early hours of the morning, Sun Princess will enter the Celebes Sea, proceeding on a north north-westerly course for the remainder of the day. In the evening at approximately8pm we will be abeam of Little Coco Island where we will alter course to port, proceeding through the Basilan Strait on a westerly heading. We will pass abeam of Mindanao Island, the second largest Island in the Philippines on our starboard side as we transit through the strait. We will then enter the Sulu Sea at approximately 10.30pm.

As we put hour clocks back one hour last night giving us an extra hours sleep Betty decided to give the Tai Chi a try, It starts at 8am and is done to a DVD on the big screen in the Vista Lounge so it was shower and go for her then meet me at 9am for breakfast. Coral & Norline from our group do Tai Chi each morning on Sea days but they wake early anyway.

The lecture for me at 11am was another one by David Russell this time about a victory “Battle of Midway” A major turning point in the Pacific War. Once more the US was able to be warned of the attack on Midway by breaking the Japanese codes. This time they did take notice but although they knew there was going to be an attack on their forces somewhere they did not know where because the Japanese referred to the target as AT. Someone in the US force got Midway command to send an open message to the US command saying Midway is short of water. The Japanese picked up the message and sent one to their command saying AT is running out of water. The Americans then knew Midway was the target and they were waiting for the attack. Although the US lost a number of ships in the battle it was considered a win because it put a lot of the Japanese fire power out of action as well.

Believe it or not todays Ballroom is billed as “How to put a Square Dance on a round floor”. We have done this with him on another cruise, he just does some basic square dance moves but in a big circle thus spoiling a good dance. Not for us that’s why we don’t go to his sessions anymore. Line dancing today is Brazillian Line Dances led by the Deputy Cruise Director who comes from Spain and is very hard to understand, again not for us we like Country Line Dancing.

Tonight we once more went to the Princess Theatre to listen to vocalist Don Winsor

Don has had lots of experience in musical theatre and it showed. He has a very nice baritone voice and he sang a wide range of well know songs from various musicals. He is an American but he now lives in Melbourne.