World Cruise - Day 18 - Jan 30 - At Sea

Good morning, sunshine:

So that’s not really a sunrise photo, it’s actually a pre-sunrise photo.  I thought it would be a spectacular sunrise given the colors, but the colors slowly faded as sunrise approached:

Guilianna is the new coffee steward in the Club Bar (next to the Club Restaurant on 5).  She asked to see my sunrise photos and I showed them to her.  She mentioned that she also is a photographer and she just completed her photography coursework.  I think she may be in training to be a photographer on the ship?  Anyway, she asked me if I had adjusted the white balance in the picture and I said that not only did I not adjust the white balance, I didn’t even know what white balance is.  She offered to give me lessons each morning when I come to get my coffee.  So she will be teaching me about F-stop, aperture, white balance, ISO, etc.  I am reading the manual for the camera, but in most cases it assumes you already know the terms and functions, it just shows you how to set them.  So this will be very helpful.

Everyone has been super helpful with my new camera.  Sergio Peschard, Curt Cornell and Jim Wilcox (all Cruise Critic members and all excellent photographers) have already given me pointers and tips on my new camera.  This is my first DSLR, so I’m a neophyte.  Also I have a EOS T3, not the T3i like I posted earlier.  I thought they were the same camera, but the T3i is 18MP while the T3 (what I have) is 12MP.  I reviewed both when I bought my camera and the T3i was about $300 more, so I thought it would be better to go with the better entry level DSLR to get started.  They were both top-rated cameras at Amazon and I don’t really want/need the larger pic file size at this point (especially with the blog, since the EOS T3 is producing files in the 5MB range, while the PowerShot typically produced files in the 2.5MB range.  They are both 12MP, so not sure why one produces the larger files, but I guess that’s part of the learning process.

Here are two pics of the same scene, one taken with the EOS T3 and one taken with the PowerShot.  Can you guess which is which?

The first one is the PowerShot and the second one is the EOS T3.  Anyway, I can see the difference, but not sure if you can see the difference on the blog.  Enough on cameras…

Susie asked if the ducks in my pics from San Diego were sitting on real turtle shells.  Nope, they were just rocks.  But they do have a turtle shell look, with several different colors.

Today is a little cooler, with an expected high of 66 and a low of 57.  We’ve had outstanding weather the entire trip.  This will probably be the low temp for quite awhile as we will be heading southwest on our trek toward Hawaii then crossing the equator toward American Samoa.

Apparently there is some sort of deck party for crossing the equator and all pollywogs (anyone who has not yet crossed the equator—Krissie and I fit in that category) are put on trial for presumed offenses (spending too much time at the buffet, etc.) and then sentenced.  I’m not entirely clear about what the sentences are, but I’ve been told to wear an outfit that I don’t mind getting dirty.  Hmmm….

I think Gavin MacLeod (Captain Merrill Stubing of The Love Boat as well as a role on The Mary Tyler Moore Show–he was Murray, I think?) is onboard, or at least that was the original plan for him to get on at San Diego and continue with us to Pago Pago.  I haven’t seen him yet.  Maybe he will be there tonight for the Captain’s reception for formal night?  That would be fun.  Greeting at the door by the Captain and the Captain.  I mentioned to Krissie that I wanted to get my picture with him and she replied: “Well, I want to get my picture with the Beav.  We’re buds.”  Jerry Mathers (Beaver Cleaver) is scheduled to join us in Auckland. 

I got the “Log of the Cruise” a few days ago (when we arrived in San Diego) that gives a log of the first 15 days and the ports, including distance traveled (in nautical miles, multiply by 1.15x to get miles) and speed (in knots, multiply by 1.2x to get MPH):

Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale) to (Aruba), 1,083 nautical miles, 16.9 knots

Oranjestad to Santa Marta (we didn’t stop in Santa Marta, we stopped in Cartagena, but apparently this is the info they had), 381 nautical miles, 10.6 knots

Santa Marta to Panama Canal, 266 nautical miles, 17.2 knots

Panama Canal to Puerto Quepos (Costa Rica), 442 nautical miles, 11.4 knots

Puerto Quepos to San Juan Del Sur (Nicaragua), 188 nautical miles, 14.8 knots

San Juan Del Sur to San Diego, 2,305 nautical miles, 17.3 knots

Total Distance: 4,665 nautical miles = 5,346.75 statute miles = 8,639,58 kilometers

If anyone is interested in looking at our photos from the horseback riding in Nicaragua, they are located at Rancho Chilamate’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150532382968533.395349.282050788532&type=1 – I was able to look at these photos briefly while online this morning.  It was really a fun day for us, as you can see on our faces.  Here are a couple of additional pics from the Facebook page:

I love the shadows on this pic of Krissie.

…and I love how this pic has two birds (look closely and you will see the one on my right arm peeking behind our kiss.

We did just OK at trivia in the morning (15 out of 20, 18 won), but won in the afternoon (16 out of 20).  Bill was awesome today.  What country first had windmills?  Iran (Bill got this one).  What does Las Vegas mean?  The Meadows (Bill got this one, too).  Should I stop boring you with trivia questions/answers?  OK, no more trivia questions/answers unless someone asks for them.

Krissie went to Zumba this afternoon.  I used my new camera to take pics.  I could really see the difference.  With my old camera, everyone moving was blurry.  Look at these new pics:

I love how I was able to capture Collette in the air, no blur.  And I love the look on Krissie’s face on this pic:

When I put it on sport mode, I can take continuous photos at three frames per second.  Awesome.  I’m learning more about the camera each day.

Emmanuelle wants to swim with the dolphins in Honolulu.  The company that provides the excursion says that she cannot go into the water with the dolphins.  She said it is her life’s dream to swim with the dolphins.  There were tears in her eyes when she said, “It hurts me so much when someone says I cannot do something that I know I can do.”  By coincidence, Dolphin Tales was the movie playing onboard today.  Dennis and I are going to see what we might be able to do to help her.  I contacted two different companies in Honolulu that provide dolphin swims (one is the company that already turned her down due to her disability) to see if they would be willing to make an accommodation.

Tonight was formal night in the dining room.  And the show tonight was one of the production shows, Do You Wanna Dance.

They did several numbers, all centering on different styles of dance.  The one above was 20s swing music.

This one above was for flamenco dancing.

Krissie and I on formal night.

We won at music trivia with David again tonight.  Arnold, Bill and Lorraine are our ringers for music (and Rosemary if it’s Broadway musicials).  I’m just there for the free lanyard.  Classic old tunes (like David plays) is just not my category.  I’m more of a generalist

Tomorrow is another sea day, our third of five on our way to Honolulu on Friday.