DAY 45 Feb 26 - Sea Day Southern Atlantic Ocean

Our second consecutive sea day before the big Brazilian adventure begins. We will very soon be in this enormously exciting country for 18 days in all.

At last night's formal dinner we had the ship's Doctor, Palma Wideman, and her husband at our table. They were a very sociable couple from California and we enjoyed their company.

On returning to the cabin we found a note advising us that due to some technical problem the water and toilet systems would be turned off from 1.00 am to 5.00 am, approximately, for these essential repairs.

Things must not have gone to plan as there was no coffee nor tea available on the ship until nearer 9.00 when the water supply was again eventually switched on. Toilets took a little longer to start 'flushing', it was nearer 9.30 before things were right there. You can imagine the comments in the Lido this morning as people found they couldn't get their caffeine fix nor a poo fix either.

CSI (our travel hosts) have invited us to a pre-lunch get together in the Crow's Nest Lounge where a free bar will be available. I must say it's a bit early but nice that they are thinking of us.

There was a good turn out at the party although some must have missed the event as it was maybe deemed a little too early for Bloody Mary cocktails.

We arrived shortly after 11.00 to be met by our event's charming hostess,Lucia, who with her customary warm embrace was waiting to greet us at the entrance to the lounge.

Also there to meet us with big smiles, were our lovely Filipino wine steward-esses, Maureen and Yvette, who were, in conjunction with many other colleagues, on duty to look after us .

Our usual seats at the Crow's Nest bar were secured and immed-iately our dear bar tender Gil was on hand to look after our needs.

Bloody Mary cocktails for me and Champagne for Maria were the orders of the day. It was however, a case of pacing ourselves today as the drinks were really flowing.

The other attentive waiting staff were soon at hand with trays upon trays of hot and cold appetizers, sufficient to cause most of us to miss lunch I would think.

Captain Albert made his usual social appear-ance, as he does at these type of events, and mingled well with the CSI clients.

He wandered over to us and we had a very entertaining talk with him about some of his previous experiences in Brazil. He also told us that Lesley his wife had disembarked the ship in BA and was now back in the UK. In this picture the Captain is seen taking to CSI host Henk.

It was a really nice day with blue skies and hot sunshine.

There were no white caps and the expect-ation was that it would remain this way right up to our arrival in Rio in the early morning. At lunch time we were 70 odd miles off the Brazilian costs in waters about 50 feet deep.

We decided to go to the aft deck by the pool and take in some sun and relax in a comfortable lounger. It was absolutely gorgeous out there with a gentle sea breeze helping keep the temper-ature down that little bit. It was nevertheless still probably in the mid to high 70s. The sky was cloudless and the sea sky blue in colour.

I enjoyed listening to some classical music from my MP3 player and caused some amusement as I conducted the pretend orchestra from my sedate position on the sun lounger.

Robin, Jennifer and her sister Rosalyn were also enjoying the wonderful sunshine from the same deck.

After a couple of hours we thought we had had enough of the strong sunshine on the aft deck. We then returned to the comfort of our cabin that was being nicely cooled by the sea breeze blowing through the balcony doors. We took the opportunity to sit here for a little while before contemplating a nap.

Henk and Lucia kindly asked us to be their guests in the fabulous Pinnacle Grill tonight.

This is a small intimate restaurant were a small supplement is charged to dine there. It specialises in huge steaks and all sorts of other nice but naughty menu items.

In the picture Ronald, the Dutch restaurant manager in the black tuxedo, joins us at the table.

We had a great meal and with it lots of laughs too. We get on very well with our two hosts and share a keen sense of humour with them.

Tomorrow is Rio day so we both want to be up and about nice and early in order to appreciate the great views we will see as we sail into this amazing place. That means early to bed tonight.