Wanderung 25

Bob:

The ship was moving quite a bit when we awoke--whitecaps everywhere and the wind was howling like a banshee. As we crossed the open midship area to get to the breakfast buffet at the aft of the Lido deck, we saw that the pool water had sloshed out onto the deck and the deckhands were busily squeegeeing it off into the scuppers (drains at the side of a ship's deck). We had breakfast and went to our Pop Choir rehearsal at 10:15, and by the end of that the sea was already noticeably calmer.

The Captain came on the intercom and explained that the rough weather (and icebergs!) was confined to the shoreline area as a storm front was pushing up against the Greenland mountain ranges there. It was a much smoother (and safer) ride out in the middle of Davis Straight, and we wondered if the Captain would decide to cut back in through the heavy weather and icebergs to get to Nanotolik the next morning. In the end, the Captain decided not to risk the ship, and instead he skipped Nanotolik, giving us an extra day at sea. It turned out, however, that another hurricane was churning up the Atlantic coast toward us, so the Captain decided to divert over to the western side of Newfoundland and thread his way through the Belle Isle Straight that leads to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. That altered route would avoid the heavy weather off the east coast of Newfoundland, but I had not known that large ships such as the Crown Princess could use that small straight. Apparently they could, and we were looking forward to seeing it as our passage was scheduled to be during the day.

Monika:

Bob:

I was low on energy and had a suspicious, but mild, sore throat, and as a result I took both a morning nap and an afternoon nap, something that normally happens only when I come down with some illness. Hoping I could fight it off, I did rouse myself for the Beginner's Ballroom Blitz Dance Class review with Val in the Fusion Lounge aft on Deck 7. I had the feeling, although it may have been illusory, that I was starting to come to grips with ballroom dancing after taking intermittent passes at learning it for the last ten to fifteen years, and I didn't want to miss any chance to consolidate my learning. In this case we reviewed the basic tango step and learned how to make a 90-degree turn to the left, an extremely practical maneuver when you are just about to hit some other couple or the wall in the normal forward progression of the dance!

I would have appreciate learning some of the other tango moves or patterns, but Val took it quite slowly as some folks were having difficulty--the tango is a dance with an odd step to it--so we only got so far. Still I yearn for a small booklet with a different move on each page, maybe illustrated with the numbered footstep patterns that I think Arthur Murray dance studios used to employ for their instruction. There should be some way of annotating those footsteps to indicate the orientation of the shoulders and the "long, long, tan-go-close" rhythmic pattern of the tango music (color coding?). Given that, some slow tango music, and a very large, empty dance floor, I think we could take a stab at learning some of the moves on our own. If you know of such a book, please drop me a line!

Monika:

Bob:

So after the afternoon nap, we joined our table mates for another nice dinner. The curious tidbit I learned that evening, courtesy of Laurie, was that there apparently a law still on the books in Chester, England, which lies on the border with Wales. The law states that an Englishman cannot be prosecuted for shooting a Welshman in the back with a bow and arrow!! But given the history of Welsh raids on the English over the centuries, I guess I can at least understand the context for such a bizarre old law, although I am surprised that it has not been officially repealed.

That lead to a a more general discussion of the death penalty, which although still popular in the U.S. was apparently abolished in England sometime in the 1960s as it had been unfairly applied. Peter, however, as a founding member of the "Hang 'em, Flog 'em" political party (Liz's description!), was all in favor of bringing back not only corporal punishment in schools and such, but also the death penalty for heinous crimes such as first degree murder, etc. He mentioned that he had actually seen a cat 'o nine tails used to whip a disobedient student back in his school days, and it had made such an indelible impression on him that he had decided to never more stray from the straight and narrow! I must say, that having acheived Brigadier General rank in the British Army, he had done a jolly fine job of keeping on the right path! In fact, I know he was a member of the county governing council and I think he had also been elected Mayor of his city. What a success story! After dinner we just retired to our room to read for the rest of the evening.

Monika: