DAY 40 Feb 21 - Sea Day Southern Atlantic Ocean

Our second consecutive day at sea and what a day it is too. We have a beautiful clear sky and a calm sea.

For the first time in ages we have slept with our balcony door wide open.

From now on it is going to be warm weather again. Shorts and T-shirts are once again on the menu for me.

Last night prior to turning in, at about 11 pm, I saw a strange light in the sky from the balcony. It was too low to be the moon and too high to be the light from a ship. By the time I called Maria to view the strange phenomenon the light had grown smaller and then disappeared.

Fortunately I had the presence of mind to take a photo of the large object and then again of the smaller one as it disappeared. I know, I know you're all thinking UFO, and by the way so am I!!

Yesterday I mentioned that we had been invited by the ship's Hotel Manager to a special dinner event in Buenos Aires tomorrow evening. I understand that about 70 people are attending this dinner.

On Grand Voyages HAL organises one such event per voyage for their suite passengers and maybe verandah people too. It is always supposed to be a very special and prestigious occasion and is of course gratis for those invited.

My disappointment at missing a Buenos Aires Tango Show has now thankfully been slightly lessened by the cabaret planned for tonight in the show lounge.

We have the allegedly very talented group called 'Pampas Devils Gauchos' performing. This Argentinean based dance group will tonight demonstrate “a fusion of gaucho culture and the most sensual Tango dancing”.

They are reputed to be internationally famous so it should be good but probably not quite as good as the real thing in a Buenos Aires Tango Club.

I understand that these dancers joined the ship over a week ago at our last Argentinean port of call, Ushuaia, down there at the bottom of the South American Continent. Well they have certainly now had time to perfect their dance steps and hopefully their sensual movements too!!

The weather was so nice today that for the first time in probably 2-3 weeks I had my breakfast outside on the aft deck of the Lido restaurant. Later Maria ventured here for her breakfast too.

Few others had been tempted but Françoise and his House-keeping Depart-mental managers were there having a 'board meeting' as he put it.

An interesting fact he told me was that on the Falkland Islands he had observed that the traditional British red post boxes and telephone boxes, and it was something I had missed, all had the royal insignia not of Queen Elizabeth II but of her father King George VI. We both agreed that these were museum and collector pieces should someone manage to get their hands on them. Of course there was the other slight problem of getting them all the way back to the UK.

The tempera-ture was at about 70F (22C) by mid-morning and it was sunny with a clear sky.

After having a chat with a few friends around the ship and a coffee with George and Rosalyn, Maria and I decided to take some sun.

It was lovely being back again on the comfort-able loungers on the aft deck. However there was quite a sea swell with a strong breeze blowing.

As a conse-quence the swimming pool was regularly depositing its load round the deck and occasion-ally on the odd unprepared passenger.

The Captain informed us that we had traveled nearly 1000 miles since leaving the Falklands and we were now about 40 miles off the coast of Argentina.

As the afternoon developed so the sea state increased in its turbulence so Maria decided to retire after taking her ginger tablets.Hopefully she will be well enough to come to dinner.

This evening at about 9.00 o’clock we expected to be at the pilot station when we will indeed take a pilot on board to guide us up into the shallow waters of the River Plate that lead into Buenos Areas.