Saturday, 27 November 2021

Still Sailing Westward to St Barts

The day after Thanksgiving I awoke to find Christmas decorations--tasteful but ubiquitous--adorning the public spaces on Riviera. Not what I expected this early, especially as we are sailing westward through warm tropical seas (below the Tropic of Cancer). For those interested there is a special Hanukkah dinner on tap for the first night (reservations required).

Monday, 22 November 2021

Sailing South Along the Coast of West Africa

Riviera continues southward, very close to the coast of Morocco, whose shoreline I can see in the distance. Although I am disappointed that we are unable to visit Casablanca, I have been to Tangier for a day in 2017. Later today there will be another disappointment when the captain announces that we will not be visiting La Palma because the continuing volcanic eruption is belching noxious poisonous vapors into the air that could seriously damage or even destroy the ship's air filtration system. Oh well, the vicissitudes of travel. So westward we sail toward St Barts.

This morning the sky over Riviera puts on quite a show:

In the evening there is another LGBTQ get-together in the Martini Bar, with the same usual suspects. There may be as many as 30 gay couples on this cruise as well as assorted older singles like myself. The Assistant Cruise Director, who is gay, organizes a mass exodus to the dining room for a group dinner, but I have a reservation at Toscana, the specialty Italian venue (there are no extra charges for the four specialty restaurants, but reservations are necessary and in high demand).

The menu in Toscana is exactly the same as on my previous Oceania Cruises--but why change a good thing. I start with beef carpaccio, sliced so incredibly thin I can almost see through it; followed by a Caesar salad with anchovies and a perfect lemon Dover sole, deboned at the table by a server with incredible expertise. Of course, I must have dessert--a tiramisu parfait.