I awoke during the night a couple of times to the wave action, but overall slept well. Getting up this morning, I discovered that, during the night, one of the liquor bottles that had been placed on the bar counter had fallen and smashed in the bar area. It was a bottle of Glenmongorie Scotch. The bottle was not just broken, but smashed. It must have happened when the ship turned around. Sarah was outside and I was asleep, so no one heard it. I sure they will replace it. There were a total of ten bottles of various spirits and wines on the bar counter when we arrived.
We had a good breakfast and retired to the pool deck (Deck 8) until Sarah took off for her first Introductory Bridge lesson at 10:00 am. There are eight lessons in all, each at 10:00 am. I decided not to attend. Terri and I took a couple of lessons when we did the crossing in 2016. We missed the first lesson which made it tough. Also, they were teaching a contract bridge version (Standard American) which was very different from what we were accustomed to playing. After a couple of lessons, we dropped out. Since Sarah is not previously acquainted with Bridge, I thought she would pick it up easier and then could teach it to me. The version they are using is called Minibridge.
According to www.minibridge.eu:
MiniBridge is a simplified form of Bridge...The idea for creating a light bridge version without the difficult bidding part and with a focus on playing was first developed in France and in the Netherlands.
MiniBridge is an excellent game in its own right but can also be seen as an precursor to learning bridge for all ages.
From what I can tell from Sarah and the literature she brought back, there is no bidding. Each player counts and announces the high card points they have in their hand (no points for distribution). The player with the highest number of card points is the "declarer" of the trump suit. Once this is determined, the declarer's partner (the dummy) lays down their cards and then, after studying the sides two hands, the declarer decides which suit will be trumps or declares "no-trump". The number of tricks to be taken is determined by the number of total points in the declarer's hand and whether the trump is a major or minor suit or no-trump. The number of tricks required range from seven to eleven.
I went back to the room around 11:00 am and Sarah had just gotten back from her class. She said Cintia had just left after cleaning up the broken bottle and apologizing profusely. We sat on the starboard side of the veranda until time for lunch. It is extremely windy on the deck in front of the suit.
The actual wind velocity is around 15 kts plus the ship's speed into the wind creates an apparent wind speed of 30-35 kts (35-40 mph). That, plus the morning sun, makes the front deck unusable. The side deck is ok however. In the afternoon, while the sun is no longer an issue in front, the wind still makes it difficult to even open the door. There is a second door off the bedroom to the side balcony.
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| Looking down from our veranda on the hot tub on the deck below us |
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| Front of our veranda |
This afternoon, Sarah took a water colors class. Later we took a complimentary tour of the galley. The ship's head chef, Eric Torralba, showed us around. He is French but has been living in the US for 12 years. He came on board in Chile and did not have a favorable opinion of the Brazil/Amazon segment of the cruise they completed before reaching Barbados. He also does not like American wheat (too hard). He made some other interesting comments. Apparently they had a crew change in Barbados. That might help explain some of the confusion and surprising inconsistencies we encountered upon boarding...like the beds not being twins and the shower still having soaps and lotions left by the previous guests. Also he told us that all the appliances in the galley are electric...no gas. This prompted one of the guests to ask "but how do you brown your meat?". I think he must have been from New York. Eric told us there are minimal berries on board right now because the ones that arrived in Barbados were kept in an non-refrigerated truck for nine hours in transit from the airport to the boat dock. They also have two butchers on-board to carve up the animals in cold storage...which we could not go see. Unlike some smaller ships we have been on, Eric says they do very little if any purchasing of local markets. Other than the "chef's night" all the menus are preordained by the Seabourn Company.
Tonight is one of the two "formal" nights. When putting on my tuxedo, one of the leather suspender button holes broke. I need to get another and hold my pants up until then.
I had a foie gras, lobster tail and leek soup, topped off with an apple strudel a la mode. Sarah had the same except for a golden beet salad instead of the foie gras.
Upon our return, Sarah found they left her a red rose.
