We
were getting ready for Breakfast this morning and for about fifteen minutes the
ship had stopped and was lolling about in the water covering only a couple of
knots, so not really moving. Oops, what’s happening should we take to the
lifeboats, gosh where’s the Brandy? Then we heard the Captain saying that they
had stopped the ship to test the propulsion system and that we would start
gaining speed again soon and this was a planned matter. He did refer to an
earlier announcement saying the test was going to happen yet everybody we
talked to did not hear it either.
So
this was the talking point over breakfast including delayed Chiltern report and
also as mentioned earlier another cover up of a Paedophile ring in Westminster
and people are clearly sick of their Politicians of all types. We decided to
have the big breakfast today and skip lunch and eat up some of the fruit that
is building up in the cabin. We then went to see the presentation about the
Panama Canal but the Port presenter has got such strident voice that its
uncomfortable to listen too so we then went back to the cabin and watched a
documentary of the building of the Canal which was fascinating and much better
than listening to the lady showing outdated photos etc.
The
usual over the loudspeaker update of what is happening entertainment wise today
and of course there is a so much going on from line dancing, to Ipad training
and many, many other courses which of course we, the passenger, pays for
whether we want them or not. We don’t demand much in this respect but still we
pay for it and so perhaps we will look for a ship without all this overhead.
That’s the daily gripe, but otherwise we are enjoying our trip very much.
We
did our usual walk around the deck and covered a couple of miles plus whether
we do from the near front of the ship where we are to the restaurants which are
at the back of the ship so a few hundred metres away. So we are trying to keep
fit and to get ready for the hill walking in San Francisco. As usual you get
some people who pile up their plate to almost what we would say is an
unacceptable level and looking rather chubby from it.
We
had a quiet afternoon and then dressed in the Black Tie for dinner only to find
in the Buffet which we fancied many people did not bother and the next morning
there was a strong reminder to all to follow the code or get thrown overboard
To
round off the evening we went to the show to see a Chinese musician who played
Hammer Dulcimer extremely well but clearly the theatre was not full which is
quite a shame as he was very good. From our viewpoint he did not need the
supporting band and we would have liked to hear slightly more Chinese music
rather than the one tune that he played against well known, eg Tie a yellow
ribbon etc etc which we guess he does for the majority who may not find Chinese
music interesting. The musician seems to be accompanied by a large family with
kids and parents so must be expensive for P & O
We
have an early morning tomorrow as the ship arrives of the coast at around 0530
where they pick up the pilot and enter the first part of the canal at 0630
