Jan 15 –At Sea on the Mediterranean. As usual on the ship I was up early. Reset the alarm for Diana and head up to breakfast. The ship usually has a Protestant minister aboard who leads a daily devotion. As you might imagine these devotions come in a wide variety of flavors, some to my taste and some not. Pastor Al is not the stuffy formal type that I don't care for. He's relaxed, open and best of all teaches the Scripture without agenda. He has a down to earth expository style and you get the feeling he's sincere in what he says. This is not always the case. Diana usually attends also but today she was just too tired to get up at that time.
We are sailing along the northern coast of Africa just about 20 miles off Algiers. The Atlas Mountains can be easily seen. They form the barrier between the wetter coast and the Great Sahara. To the west they curve south and run through Morocco.
After breakfast I grab a decaf latte, I get them at half price, and head to the Wajang Theater for the devotional. At 10am we attended a lecture on two ports, Piraeus (for Athens) and Safaga (for Luxor and Karnak). There are several lecturers on board, a maritime historian (sail to steam) and a geologist (rock types, their formation and how it affects topology. Or as Sheldon would say, 'Ugh, the dirt people!') Interesting, but neither is a dynamic speaker.
This evening's performer was Naki Ataman a pianist. He was accompanied by the base player and drummer from the showroom band. He came on took his seat at the piano and played for a solid 60 minutes. All sorts of music and it never stopped. One song was bridged directly into the next. In the center he had a little homage to science fiction (Theme from 2001, Star Wars, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits and Close Encounters. Just short phrases from each one. Except for that, I didn't notice that the songs followed any particular theme or timeline. Ragtime, show tunes, songs from the 40s and 50s, movie themes, Latin, jazz and I'm sure more genres were represented. Only time you could applaud was at the end and everyone did, mostly standing.
Jan 16 –Second Day At Sea on the Mediterranean. Regular sea day for me, breakfast, devotional and lectures. Milton Kiles presented a program on the Great Ocean Liners and Glenda Easterbrook talked about 'The Birth of the Mediterranean, a Geological Perspective. A Portuguese documentary crew is aboard filming 'The Meaning of Life' and the Cruise Director, Michael, interviewed them this afternoon. The director, Miguel Gonçalves Mendes, discussed the project and its concept. You may have heard of Mendes. His last documentary was the first one nominated for a best foreign language film Academy Award.
Our entertainer tonight was Toni Warne. She has a very 'Streisand' like voice, strong and controlled. Her show was the best we've seen so far. She sang mostly movie and show tunes.
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