Day 3 at sea from Tristan da Cunha to Cape Town

My birthday!

 After breakfast, we went to Uli's lecture on his diving exploits all over the world. It was a fascinating hour, which included diving in the cenotes on the Cancun Peninsula. It brought back good memories of our Central American drive. Jean and Philip wished me a happy birthday and gave me a card, which was very kind of them.

We then did our mile walk around the deck.There was beautiful sunshine and it was much, much warmer than it has been up to now on the cruise.

Birdwatching on the fore deck

Then a sight we had not seen since Stanley - another ship!! The captain told us it was a tanker heading for Brazil.

We had lunch on the aft deck with David and Chris

David and Cliff

After lunch we went to the theatre to see a film, "Samsara", that Richard Sidey highly recommended. It didn't really impress me but it was thought-provoking in parts.

We went back on deck to see if we could see any whales, but no joy.

The late afternoon sun on the ocean

Wendy then went to Kara's lecture on African wildlife, while I returned to the cabin. Then it was to dinner where we had arranged to have the large table, so we could have a birthday celebration with Jean, Philip, Rob, Gayle, Chris, Dick and Cliff.

After we sat down, I needed to go back to the cabin and saw that Helen had placed champagne and balloons there to celebrate my birthday.

The cabin decorated for my birthday

I returned to the dining-room where we had a great meal, rounded off by the waiters singing me happy birthday.

Jean, Rob & Gayle with my birthday 'cake'

Rob and Gayle presented me with a birthday present. I had no idea what it was, so you can imagine my surprise and delight when I saw it was the two Falkland Island referendum posters that I had been unable to buy when we were in Stanley! What a wonderful present, just what I wanted.

Happy Birthday sung by the staff

My birthday 'cake'

A great gathering of friends

Birthday boy!

We said our thanks to all the staff for making the dinner so special, then we went upstairs to the Crew Show.

Waiting for the show to start

 L to R - Stephen, Trevor, Herman, Andy, Tama and Martin 

Philip, Jean, Steve and Fran

Our lovely butler, Helen, and me

Evangelina

We sat with Jean, Philip, Steve and Fran and had a few drinks, served by Evangelina, and waited for the show to begin.

The show about to start

The show started with Fred, the compere, announcing the various acts, which included Joy singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" and a group of the waiters as a dance group.

The dance group

The kitchen staff, with the aid of Gayle, Tama, and Grant the chef, sang "The Birdie Song" with the audience joining in.

Fred and the Kitchen staff

Alfredo came on stage and sang "Nessun Dorma". He really has the most amazing vocal range! This was followed by one of the crew telling pretty mediocre jokes, but it was all good fun and everyone gave him a great round of applause when he finished.

Midway through the show, Fred came on the stage to ask everyone to sing me Happy Birthday. You can imagine how I felt!!

The final part of the show involved the Expedition Crew, who came on as The Waders. They were dressed in waders and masks!. They sang a specially composed song, "The South Atlantic Blues". There were great cheers from the audience as they performed.

The Waders

The final performance was by Uli and Richard in a wonderful drumming act using dustbins, their hard hats and anything else that came to hand as percussion instruments.

To end the show, everyone came back on the stage and, with the audience joining in, sang "We are the World". It was a great way to end a very enjoyable evening's entertainment.

The finale of the show

When we returned to the cabin, we found this note left by Helen, our butler, and Neil, our suite attendant.

What a great day it has been and now with only one full day of sailing to Cape Town, our great South Atlantic crossing is nearing the end.

Distance Travelled: 344NM