15. Back to LA

As promised, a few notes written during our long sail back to Los Angeles from Bora Bora.

Back in the northern hemisphere 

We have left the International Date Line far behind, but we crossed the equator back into the northern hemisphere at 11.45am local time on Easter Sunday morning. The sea is relatively calm but there are some threatening looking clouds around. The captain said that is Giovanni sweating.

Green Flash

The atmosphere out at sea is incredibly clear and the night sky and stars are beautiful. The southern cross is visible from these latitudes. The sunsets have been wonderful too and the other evening we made a point of looking for the famous "green flash" at sundown. Just as the sun dipped under the horizon it appeared, making what what was visible of the sun look like a giant emerald ring. Quite a phenomenon and one I had never seen before.

Captain's Cocktail Party

Unbeknown to us until a few days ago, our trivia partners, Mike and Zennie are the most travelled guests on this voyage. They have their next 15 (fifteen!) cruises booked. Very kindly they invited us to be in their personal party for the Captain's Cocktail Party along with two other couples who were personal friends. Hence we got a private drinks service before the remaining rabble were allowed in and front row seat for the presentations and speeches. The captain's talk was a highlight and he could easily do a stand up routine anytime.

Captain Tuvo

As I have already mentioned Captain Tuvo is easily the best captain we have ever sailed with. His noon announcement is always informative and humourous, and when he has to say something serious he does it with gravity and sincerity. He walks all the decks two or three times a day chatting with both passengers and crew and often joins in the events and we've seen him welcoming guests back to the ship from the tenders. As a leadership and PR exercise, he is second to none. His wife and young son are also travelling on the ship.

Characters 

We always have a bit of good natured fun naming a few of our fellow passengers, some of which I mentioned in an earlier post. That last has grown. We also have..

The president- as in Billy Bob Thornton's portrayal of the US president in Love Actually 

Lawnmower man - he has a tattoo of a man mowing the lawn on his balding head

The redneck trailer trash family - needs no further explanation 

The Man from the Foreign Affairs Ministry checking on the colonies - he is always very dapper and immaculately dressed in pressed pale trousers, neatly ironed tropical shirt, colourful socks and brown shoes polished to within an inch of their life.

As an aside, I don't think I've seen as many walking aids and motorised wheelchairs all in one place in my life. At times the walkways look like a trolley park at Waitrose.

Trivia

Mike is very knowledgeable and loves trivia. When our team brains are combined (including another friend, Suzanne), ...maybe the questions are too easy or maybe the quality of the opposition isn't too great, but we become almost unbeatable. We've won so many times it's getting a bit embarrassing and we either refuse the prizes or just give them away. One lady once asked if we were going ashore next day and when we said yes, she said "oh good, at least we'll stand a chance of winning the morning trivia then!"

Uruguay is the in joke answer for any difficult question relating to countries.

Overall

Ports of call - all fabulous 

Ship - looking very tired, especially so in places. But we've learnt that the ship is being sold to P&O very soon so they aren't bothering too much to spruce things up

Staff- as always have been brilliant.

Food- A good average

Entertainment- with a few exceptions has been fair at best.

As we have sailed back towards Los Angeles the cloud has increased and the temperature and humidity  fallen back to something much more comfortable. We are due to dock in LA early on Saturday morning and then we need to get to the airport for the next stage of our trip. More to follow when that begins!