Day 42 – February 26, 2011 - At Sea on the way to Townsville, Australia

Jan got up early again for a walk before it gets hot.  Everyday the temperature is rising as we sail north towards the equator.  It was a busy day on the ship.  Bridge classes kept us busy in the morning along with a talk about Cairns, and a cooking demonstration by a guest Australia Chef, Owen Andrews.  His wife, Rebecca, works with him and they gave an interesting presentation of a rustic tomato soup and a beetroot and goat cheese appetizer.  We were served small cups of the soup to taste, which was a very nice touch.  He will be doing a dinner menu for the Compass Rose in the next week.  Hopefully it is not one of the nights we have reservations at other restaurants.

Lunch on the pool deck following by duplicate bridge for Jan took up most of the afternoon.  Fred read some and took a nap!

Tonight our travel agent is having a cocktail party for the group followed by dinner with some of the officers.  The cocktail party was held in the Conference Room and was well attended.  Our name was drawn to go into the hopper for the free cruise at the end of the year.  There were 16 names drawn this time and names are drawn everytime Ngaire has an escorted cruise.

After some confusion as to what officer we were dining with, we had dinner with Elda, the Assistant Cruise Director, and Cinthya, the Destinations Manager.  There was one other couple and a gentleman with us so they moved us from a very large table to a smaller table to make it easier for conversations to flow.  We enjoyed conversations about lost luggage, funny things that had happened to everyone in their travels and general conversation. 

We skipped the entertainment this evening.