We have three days at sea during this cruise and this is the second of them. It makes a nice change to have a day when in theory there is nothing to do other than get up late, laze in the sun and eat. The Minerva however has other ideas.
The “Activities Programme” (which always arrives under our door at about 1900 the previous evening) tells us that we have a choice of:
| All Day | Cards and Games |
| 09:30 | Ecumenical Service |
| 10:30 | Fitness Workshop |
| 10:30 | Napkin and Towel Folding Workshop |
| 11:30 | Lecture: South American Architecture |
| 12:15 | Lunch time music with Olga in the Bar |
| 12:30 | Lunchtime Melodies with Kirsty by the Pool |
| 13:30 | Bridge Tour with the Captain |
| 14:00 | Watercolour Art Workshop |
| 14:30 | Bridge Tour with the Captain |
| 14:30 | Afternoon Social Bridge |
| 15:00 | Photography Workshop |
| 16:00 | Vocal Workshop |
| 17:00 | Lecture: The edge of a Continent: Caribbean Islands fringing South America |
| 18:00 | Fitness Workshop |
| 18:00 | Early Evening Quiz |
| 18:30 | Pre-Dinner music with Olga on the Piano in the Shackleton Bar |
| 18:30 | Pre-Dinner music with Ciprian on the Violin in the Wheeler Bar |
| 20:15 | Evening Social Bridge |
| 21:30 | Opera Canteremo "Songs of Travel" |
| 22:30 | Signature Sounds music in the Observation Lounge |
There are also seven films showing on the in-room TV (most of them repeated during the day) and also repeats of all of the Lectures held so far on a continuous loop on two of the channels.
In between or around all of this, we are offered: Early Risers Tea and Coffee, Breakfast, Morning Coffee, Lunch, Afternoon Tea, and Dinner and of course Tea and Coffee etc are available on a self serve basis at any time of the day or night.
We are both attending the two lectures, Pat is going to the Watercolour Workshop and I am going to the Photography Workshop and also the Bridge Tour and of course we are both doing Breakfast, Lunch, Afternoon Tea and Dinner !
The Bridge Tour
In the entrance to the Bridge are plaques presented by many of the ports the Minerva has visited throughout its cruising life.
The Bridge is open to passengers three times during this Cruise
and on each occasion,
the Captain gives a very carefully (and obviously very practised) one hour talk about the ship, its instruments and operation.
If there were no passengers present, it would be a calm and peaceful place for most of the trip with just two crew on the bridge - the Deck Officer and a Lookout.
I will not record the technicalities of navigating a ship like the Minerva because it would take too much space and spoil it for others going on the Bridge in future.
however, two instruments which caught my eye were the Depth Sounder
and the Radar - at this stage the ship is on autopilot and the Radar set shows where we are going and which other ships are in the area.
Slightly more technical information about the Minerva and its dimensions was available
and it was slightly amusing to see the Flag Locker (I did not know they still seriously used flags to indicate the status of the ship)
and this highly polished voice pipe. If all of the navigational instruments fail, then high up out of the way of interference from any machinery or heavy metal is a Magnetic Compass. In the event it had to be used, a crewman would be up on top calling down Compass Readings to the Bridge using the Voice Pipe. We saw a similar arrangement on the Lofoten a few years ago when we sailed up the Norwegian Coast. We were told this pipe had never been used but had been polished daily !
The view from the Bridge, is as you would expect, very good. And we continued to steam slowly towards Bonnaire so as not to arrive too early.
Technically we were not at sea for the whole day, we arrived on schedule to at Bonnaire late in the evening and very carefully and slowly moored on the edge of town.
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