Sunday, Day 29 - Feb. 4 - Cruising the South Pacific Ocean - Captain’s Fair Well Party

Another Sunday at Sea...we don’t make the Caviar breakfast! We are a bit hung over from riding the tilt-a-whirl all night. Didn’t know a ship could go in so many directions at once. Every panel, bolt, and brace or frame piece in our room complained loud and long! What a symphony!

Dick gets up and goes to the church service and on to his history lecture on Gallipoli and the ANZACs. Carolyn rolls over and goes back to sleep...things have settled down some. There was a cooking demonstration at 11:15AM which Dick had planned to attend, but forgot. These are usually good programs. We will have to pay more attention to the bulletin’s listings!

The Compass Rose lunch menu looks good so Dick heads there and Carolyn orders a bowl  of the corn chowder and a bowl of the French onion soup along with an apple tart from the menu. Room service brings that right along...ahhhhh the joys of cruising! Dick also brings her a bowl of poached pears from the dining room.

After another lazy afternoon we head to the Krew Kapers at 6PM. This is a fun show and a traditional ending for Regent cruises where the talented crew put together a show for the passengers. They do this on their own time on a strictly volunteer bases. Many of these young people a very talented!

From there we head to the Captains Farewell Dinner. Which as it turns out is not very good. They forget Carolyn's veggie, and the pasta is hard as nails even though it was ordered cook extra time. Dick's chicken dish looks like something from a frozen food package and is terrible. We pretty much reject the main course offerings and go on to dessert which is much better, but how can you go wrong with chocolate! There are more officers than usual in the dinning room and at 8PM people are beginning turned away to wait in the bar for a while.

We turned the clock ahead one hour last night so sunset is not until about 8:30PM.  We are sitting on our veranda watching a pretty sunset develop and Dick is taking photos.  Guess what?  WE SEE THE GREEN FLASH FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!  Dick even gets a photo but it is much more impressive with the naked eye than what the camera catches.  But, it does exist.  We have seen it!  Finally!  Here is what it is:

A green flash, which occurs more commonly at sunset — but can also occur at sunrise — is a phenomenon in which part of the sun can be observed suddenly and briefly changing color. It usually lasts only a second or two — which is why it is referred a flash — as the sun changes from red or orange at sunset, for example.


There is a production show at 9:30PM with the Navigator Production Company preforming “World Beat”. The show sounds very high energy, but we aren’t going to make it.

Tomorrow is a port day in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand