Day 6 Plate Tectonics, Pastries and Sushi

It started out as an overcast and dreary day. By noon however, the sky cleared. The seas today are very calm with low frequency swells of ~10'.

We finally got up early enough to go to the Colonnade for breakfast this morning. The usual buffet style. After breakfast, we attended a demonstration by the ship's pastry chef Vinoth Murugan (India?). He studied bakery in Dubai and then went on to master pastry. He showed us how to prepare a Chocolate Pot de Creme and bread sticks. T said she picked up some knowledge including the use a whipped cream dispenser (using N2O) to turn the chocolate creme into a mousse. Both of the recipes he gave us are starting points for numerous dishes. I learned not to brush garlic (or any acidic flavoring) on the bread sticks while they are rising or you will kill the yeast. He also showed how they use their pasta cutting machine to make the bread sticks.

Later, we spent a little time on deck sunny and having lunch before going to an afternoon presentation by Dr. Kim Binsted (University of Hawaii). While she is a professor of IT, she discussed general plate tectonics and the Mid Atlantic Ridge (and Black Smokers) we are currently passing over. Very interesting. She said her next presentation will discuss her project to develop a computer program which spits out bad puns. We'll have to go just to see why anyone would want to do that.

This evening was Japanese night in the Colonnade. The sushi was OK, but I think we make better at home.

No pictures today that were acceptable to T. We got a list of the passengers on the cruise. There are a total of 438 from 19 countries. The majority are from the US (222), followed by the UK (86), Australia (27), Germany (26), Canada (24), Belgium (19). Counting us, there are 10 guests on board from the St. Louis metropolitan area. There is even a couple from Overland Park, KS.

Tomorrow we have a tour of the Bridge scheduled and we have been invited to dine with the Chief Engineer, Nedko Nedev (Bulgaria), tomorrow evening.

Tonight we turn the clocks ahead another hour, the third time since we left Ft. Lauderdale.