Day 100, Sailing toward Civitavecchia, Italy

Today was a day for some scenic cruising, although it wasn’t really advertised as such. We would be cruising thru the Strait of Messina which separates Sicily from the rest of Italy.

Good Morning Amsterdam didn’t have a guest due to some miscommunication so Gene and Donna discussed our recent ports and their activities during the Greek ports and what they have planned for Italy.

We didn’t do much today and barely left the cabin, using our verandah to check on our progress through the Strait of Messina. It was quite windy on deck and the Captain noted during his noon update that the Amsterdam was experiencing winds in excess of 50 knots for parts of the day.

As we passed the northern tip of Sicily I noticed this interesting tower that turned out to be an old Electric Pylon that was in service from 1955 and supported a 220 Kilovolt Electrical Line until it was replaced by a submarine cable in 1994. It’s now been designated an historical monument and can’t be torn down. I bet that when they constructed it back in the 50’s people hated it, but now they have to keep it. Go Figure. It is possible to climb to the top as long as you are up for the 1250 steps.

No luck for me at the Hold-em table, but Judy was a winner at crafts and made a bulletin board by gluing wine corks to a wooden ruler.

There was another Grand Dollar Redemption today. There will be one more before the cruise ends. We each received 200 Grand Dollars for attending the Murder Mystery show and I received some donations from others who aren’t collecting them so I now have close to 1,400 Grand Dollars.

The big highlight of the day was the completion of Judy’s “Solitary Confinement Shawl”.   The pattern is called Lotus Shawl and is one of the more complex shawls she has knit. She supersized it has well and it ended up being 80” wide by 42” deep with over 500 stiches in the final row.   She called it the “Solitary Confinement Shawl” because she stayed in our room to concentrate on the stitch pattern which was charted in an unusual way and she couldn’t talk to anyone when she was knitting it.

She is glad she is finished and has moved on to two scarves. One is a rayon/linen blend that is straight stockinette and the other is a superwash merino wool that is garter stitch.

The completed shawl is shown as the featured photo on the blog

We got our passports back today – The trip used 7 pages and we don’t expect to get any more stamps this cruise.

I went thru my passport and here are the countries who stamped our passports along with how much space they used.

• Australia – entry stamp squeezed onto page already full
• Cambodia – Entry and Exit Stamp – ½ page
• Indonesia – ½ page used by sticker visa with entry and exit stamps around the sticker
• Thailand – 1/3 page used by entry and exit stamp
• Sri Lanka – 1/3 page used by entry and exit stamp
• Nuku Hiva – 1/6 page used by stamp
• UAE – ½ page with 4 stamps
• Singapore – 1/6 page for one stamp
• India – 1/3 page for 2 stamps in addition to full page for sticker visa obtained in advance
• Vietnam – 1 page for sticker visa and 1/2 page for 2 big stamps
• Greece – one stamp but used a third of a page by stamping it in the center of a page
• Oman – ½ page for Muscat and 1/3 page for Salalah
• Jordan – ½ page for 2 big stamps

On the menu, this evening was a delicious Mediterranean Seafood Stew by guest chef Paulette Mitchell along with Chicken Pho and a Seafood Tower for a starter.   Another amazing dinner in a long list of amazing dinners.

Tonight’s show was Ruben Vilagrand, who performed a fantastic show combining mime, magic, and comedy. He was very entertaining and we enjoyed his show very much. He did a trick where he pretended to swallow 9 fish hooks – very realistic and a little gross, but it was pretty amazing and he executed the trick very well.

We will be in Civitavecchia, Italy tomorrow and have a chance to visit the newest ship in the HAL fleet, the Koningsdam.

• Ruben Vilagrand