Africa 2023:
Day 41-42 - At Sea

	Sunday, November 19, 2023: There are few things better than sleeping in on a day at sea after two busy days in port. After a leisurely breakfast in the cabin of muesli for Debbie and an omelet for Tom, Debbie jumped up suddenly to take a photo of a dragonfly that was flying across our balcony.
	It turned out that there was no need to rush. There were lots and lots of them flying around the back of the ship.
	Sometimes they'd come right up to the window.
	The theme for today's lunch was Heritage Corner, which was celebrating all of the foods from the countries of the crew.
	Oooh. They have the Indonesian donut ball thingies that Debbie loves. We'll be back for those.
	We went to the Distant Lands Asia section, where they were featuring food from Indonesia. Look at this huge pot of nasi goreng, or Indonesian fried rice.
	We both had some of that, with Tom getting some of the lemongrass curry and beef Sumatra, ...
	... and Debbie getting the same plus a skewer of chicken satay.
	As we cruised through the Mozambique Channel, we would occasionally cross these bright lines that stretched off to the horizon on both sides of the ship. They were probably algae of some sort.
	The sea looked beautiful today, with many different currents visible on the glassy surface.
	The dessert cabinet was filled with triple chocolate cupcakes, triple berry cheesecake, and tres leches cake. That's a lot of threes.
	The snorkeling gear wasn't quite dry after a night in the shower, so we set it out on deck in the sun to speed up the process.
	We continued our occasional at-sea tradition of having an afternoon cocktail. Today's cocktail was more of the pineapple Fanta with a splash of Malibu rum. Well, maybe more than a splash.
	Glamping was tonight's special event. When we looked at the menus for the main dining room and Lido Market, ...
	... we noticed that they were decorated accordingly.
	Have we said how much we love the moving map display on our TV? We love it. Today it was especially pleasing, showing four prior ports and two upcoming ports all on the same screen.
	LEGO Debbie and Tom are all ready for the glamping event, dressed in their camping gear and toasting marshmallows over an open fire.
	The signs in the Lido Market were festive as well, and the food was cookout food. Maybe not the bagels and lox, or the Cuban sandwich, but the cornbread was definitely cookout food.
	Not only do they make all of the bread and bake all of the desserts and cook all of the food, but someone is making these awesome bread sculptures as well. They must have a time machine in the crew quarters to get all of this done.
	Chili! They have chili! And ribs! And fried chicken and chicken tenders! We ate our meal, ...
	... and then went out to the Lido Pool area for the glamping festivities, ...
	... where there was a canoe in the pool with seven people in it. The cruise director claimed they were trying to set a record for the most people in a canoe on a cruise ship, which is apparently seven people.
	They convinced one more crew member to climb aboard, and then another crew member spun the canoe so that it was free from the sides of the pool.
	They managed to keep it afloat long enough to paddle to the other end of the pool before it capsized, ...
	... soaking everyone in it. They dragged the canoe out of the pool, ...
	... and then all of the wet officers and crew jumped in and splashed around.
	What a fun time!
	There were other camping decorations spread around the deck, like these chairs and the fire pit, ...
	... and they added pots with decorative grasses around the hot tubs. Seriously. Where do they store all of this stuff? We want a shipboard tour that shows that kind of stuff.
	There were glamping-themed cocktails available, ...
	... and servers were circulating with mini hotdogs. Rumors were that they were going to be bringing around sliders and s'mores later.
	There were dragonflies buzzing around the pool, but this one was apparently so tired that it had to land on the deck to rest.
	Captain Friso and Future Cruise Consultant Chantal strode in holding hands like they were the homecoming king and queen. This was the first time that we'd seen the captain and it was hard to reconcile the person we were seeing with the voice that we heard every day at noon. Ian asked him a question, and sure enough, the captain's voice came out of that body. We stuck around for a few more minutes, and then went back to our cabin for an evening of movies and general relaxing.
	Monday, November 20, 2023: After our usual breakfast in the cabin of muesli and congee, Tom returned our empty plates to the Lido Market and walked through the pool area on his way to the Neptune Lounge. The roof of the pool was completely open and it was looking very lovely.
	Tom had gone to the Neptune Lounge to pick up our passports and yellow fever immunization cards, and to request more Diet Coke and Caffeine Free Coke Zero for our cabin.
	Around 9:30 AM, Debbie was craving something savory, so we went up to the Lido for second breakfast. Do you know about that? The turkey bacon and hash brown satisfied her craving nicely, and she had chocolate mini-croissant because they are absolutely delicious. Tom got a roll that was wrapped like a croissant and filled with an Oreo-like filling. And a few slices of cheese. Two slices. Okay, three. There were three slices of cheese.
	At lunch time, they were having the "Cake Me Away" special, ...
	... and the Heritage Food Section was filled to overflowing with cakes of all kinds.
	How do you choose?
	Do you get a slice of the crème brûlée cake or the salted caramel?
	Or the fruit pavlova maybe?
	We went to the salad station while we debated all of the possibilities. This was becoming one of our favorite lunch spots.
	We came back to the cake display after finishing our salads. Having weighed all of the choices, Debbie selected a slice of the rainbow cake and a slice of the s'mores cake, and Tom got a rainbow slice and some generic white cake.
	Here's a close up of the rainbow cake.
	At 1:49 PM, Debbie's alarm went off, and we rushed out onto the balcony. The captain had said in his noon announcement that this is when we would be crossing the Tropic of Capricorn, the southernmost point at which the sun can be directly overhead. It wasn't quite directly overhead, but it was close.
	Strangely, there were no lines running across the ocean to mark the spot.
	Tom took a screenshot of our position, 23° 26' south latitude, to mark the occasion.
	If crossing the Southern Tropic line wasn't excitement enough, today was haircut day! LEGO Tom had a mid-afternoon appointment with haircutress LEGO Debbie, ...
	... almost at the same time that real Tom was being shorn. We'd brought Tom's electric clippers and our hair-catching cone-of-shame along for just this very event.
	We had dinner in the main dining room tonight, starting with a hummus plate for Tom and coconut crusted shrimp for Debbie.
	Debbie had the Club Orange special of Peruvian roasted chicken for her main course, ...
	... and Tom had the Kheema beef served with naan. After dinner, we retired to our cabin and watched two movies including "Rogue Agent," a riveting thriller based on a true story.  Day 43 >