Day 4, At Sea (Sydney – cancelled due to High Winds and Heavy Seas)

The weather started to clear in the morning and the winds and seas calmed down considerably since the peak gusts the previous evening.

We spent the morning in our cabin relaxing until it was time for me to head out to the Texas Hold’em tournament at 11:30. There is some skill in playing in a Hold’em tournament, but at some point you have to get some good cards. The key is to stay in the game as long as you can and then bet aggressively when you have what you think will be the winning hand. I enjoy the tournaments as it puts everyone on an equal financial footing and your losses are capped at the buy in of $60. I managed to stay in the game and keep my head down until I was one of two people left – in the money. I only had $600 compared to over $14,000 dollars for my opponent. Fortunately my luck changed for the better and I won 6 hands in a row and I was able to end up in first place. As they say in Texas Hold’em – as long as you have a “chip and a chair” you are never out of the game.

After the first Texas Hold’em Tournament, Judy and I went to the Lido deck by the pool to try out the Poutine Bar. We have sampled some wonderful Poutine when we were in Ottawa last year. The Poutine Bar on the Zuiderdam was OK, but could benefit from some lessons from the Poutine trucks we found on the streets of Ottawa. It may be dependent on your personal preference, but the cheese curds served on the Zuiderdam were quite small and I prefer them to be larger. They also had a variety of other items to use to top your Poutine, e.g. small chicken nuggets, calamari, taco meat, diced chicken, pulled pork, mushrooms and more.

There are two Hold’em tournaments each day on the Zuiderdam. In the second game, I managed to finish second place – still pretty nice – can’t complain. I have played in 6 tournaments and finished in the money in 3 of them. There are 4 more tournaments left on this cruise on the final 2 sea days.

Because we skipped our last two ports, the ship was unable to pick up someone who was scheduled to lecture about the Citadel in Halifax along with other topics. Bad news as we missed what would have been an interesting lecture, but the good news is the Cruise Director, Linda, had Hyperion Knight put on an another performance today at 3pm. I missed this show as I got caught up in the Texas Hold’em cash game and left too late to get a seat, so I returned to the casino and got back in the Cash Game.

This show was every bit as wonderful as the first and Judy enjoyed it very much. Afterwards, she spoke with Hyperion and after we cleared this with the Cruise Director, invited Hyperion to join our group for dinner and he graciously accepted.

Hyperion was a wonderful dinner guest entertaining us all with fascinating stories of his adventures performing on cruise ships as well as Carnegie Hall. I enjoyed “Grandma’s Chicken Pot Pie” which was outstanding and is one of the best pot pies I have enjoyed anywhere. If you like pot pies and don’t mind some extra calories – don’t miss these pot pies on your next cruise. Hyperion posed for our traditional “Jazz Hands” photo after dinner.

After dinner the knitters assembled in the Ocean Bar for group knitting, storytelling and general chit chat. Judy continues to work on her Frostline shawl designed by Amy Miller. As soon as she finishes the shawl she’ll post it on her Ravelry page.

About 9:00 pm the ship arrived in Halifax and we were cleared to go ashore about 9:15. We’re not sure how many people decided to head into town, but we elected to go to the Vista Lounge and see the late show featuring flute player Tara Rachelle. Tara put on an amazing performance and we especially enjoyed her medley of ABBA hits.

Tomorrow should be a nice day and we are looking forward to visiting Halifax.

• Heavy Seas
• High Winds
• Tara Rachelle