After departure Aruba yesterday we had a day at sea. We basically have to cross the whole of the middle part of the Caribbean Sea to get to Grand Cayman and that takes some time. Most guests were ready for a less intense day after doing 8 ports in a row. So a quiet day at sea was not a bad thing. Although you if then do everything that is mentioned in the daily program, it will still be a busy day.

For me this sea day was a time for a few extra inspection rounds, a few hours sleep in the afternoon and then to get ready for the evening. Tonight was formal night, with a dinner table, followed by the Black and White Ball. We have this cruise, among other groups, a group of 76 Shriners on board of which I wined and dined the Potentates These are the current, past and future chairmen of the local chapter. This group came from Sarasota and as I did not know anything about Shriners, it is a very American organization, it was very interesting to listen to hear what they exactly did. Just one basic fact: there are about 400.000 Shriners in North America. They raise money for their children’s hospitals and in a year the budget for all these hospitals is around $ 700 mln., so it is quite an organization and it does very good work. For a Dutchman, it is funny to hear the name “Potentate” for a chairman’s name. In the Dutch language, the word Potentate has a similar meaning as the word Despot and I do not think that the Shriners exactly mean that when they talk about their chairmen.

The Black and White Ball is a Holland America Line tradition that is being done normally on cruises of 14 days and longer. If the cruise has sufficient sea days, that is. On this 14 day Caribbean cruise we can normally do it, as Grand Cayman (tomorrow) is a not such an early arrival and we have an hour back tonight to adjust to Grand Cayman time. Thus I can get sufficient officers and those with officer status to come out of the wood work for an evening to dance with the Ladies. As there are also sufficient ladies officers, the gentlemen do not have to feel to be left behind. The one thing I make sure of is, that the first dances, are slow numbers. This is to ensure that I also get the officers with two left feet to attend and to prevent “show-offs” from stealing the show. The show lounge is dressed up with black and white balloons and the ball is named after the officers uniforms. Black pants and white dress jacket.

To get some of the officers over their “initial hesitation” the Hotel Manager provides a little bar for the necessary “Dutch courage” and confidence building. One thing I have not figured out yet is that sometimes the Ladies are lined up to dance with the Captain, and sometimes they seem to shy away and I have to chase them up. This time it was easy. I have a number of guests on board who follow this daily blog and they were not going to be denied. Always nice to put a face to an email name…………

We had nice weather during the day, even periods where the wind died fully down. The weather is a bit unsettled at the moment as there is a cold front building in the Gulf of Mexico that in the course of the coming days will sweep through the Caribbean. The weather forecast for Grand Cayman is quite good. The wind is not going to be from the perfect direction but as it is supposed to be not too strong, it should be a good day for anchoring. We are also the only ship in port tomorrow and that is a luxury we do not enjoy very often.