Sailing on the Tyrrhenian Sea

A decorative melon on the lunch buffet table... Yaaarr, matey.
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Our first night at sea was very restful and we slept well. After a yummy breakfast buffet, we headed to the "Tropical Bar" (the general meeting place) for the safety drill wearing our life vests. Gary got a couple of pictures of us in our stylish orange gear :-).

We also went for a talk in the Forward Lounge with Erla Zwingle from National Geographic about the Tyrrhenian World ( and the Tyrrhenian Sea) that we are sailing on now.

... a very unusual wind...

After lunch, the National Geographic group were to leave for Ponza in two tenders. The winds were up and after the first tender left (very, very choppy), the captain after changing the position and the angle of the ship was still unable to let the second tender leave for safety reasons. We were in the second group so we didn't get to go and though we were disappointed at first, I was later very grateful when the other people returned absolutely drenched and some who were seasick. Apparently the Coast Guard had closed the harbor and everyone had to come back. One of our table-mates said that the captain mentioned that this was a very unusual wind that was kicked up by a cyclone in the Atlantic.

Because of the winds, we set sail around 6p.m., an hour early. We went to the top deck to watch the crew work the sails. When the sails are out it is beautiful.. can you tell that I'm in love with this way of travel?

Dinner was fun tonight as we were invited to sit at the table being hosted by Grace Fielder (one of our National Geographic experts). It turned out that all at our table were from California. There were three from Half Moon Bay, two from Pasadena (both work at JPL- he for over 40 years!), us from Fremont and Grace, who is originally from Mill Valley and on a year sabbatical from her professorship from the Univ of Arizona in Tucson and now teaching at UC Berkeley.

Grace is an expert in the Slavic languages and has spent some time in Croatia. I'm looking forward to her talks. She is very friendly and easy to talk to.