Tuesday, August 7, 2018 – At Sea – North Sea – Cloudy – Cool

Ship’s Position

Still not sleeping.

Had a nice breakfast up in the Café. Scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onions and banana pancakes with chocolate syrup and walnuts.  Seems like a lot but portion control was the key.  They had chocolate babka as a special item this morning.

I’m the only Special Interest Speaker on this cruise and scheduled to give three lectures. My first talk – “The Mystery of the Romanovs” - is today at Noon (Oy) in Celebrity Central. The Destination Speaker is Dr. Benjamin Taggie, who is speaking at 11:00 AM in the theater on the “People of Early Scotland”.

I left at 11:30 AM to set up and there was no one in the theater. Set up was quick and a couple of folks showed up. I was expecting a low turnout.

However, at about five minutes until showtime, the place suddenly filled with people. Not quite standing room only but certainly capacity (about 200). Another interactive audience and even a few people who had heard me before. A good first talk.

“Mystery of the Romanovs”

The Oceanview Café was slammed when we got there. I got my food and went over to the Aqua Spa Café, where, after a while, we got a table. The tuna salad continues to be the go-to item, at least for me, in the Café.

Spent the afternoon in the Solarium finishing “The Defector”. The ending was almost identical to another Gabriel Allon book I read earlier and as satisfying. I started a book by Lisa Black called “That Darkness”. Lisa Black has new characters in the book (she usually writes the Theresa McLean books (a forensic specialist in Cleveland). This new book is the first in the “Gardiner and Renner” Series – also about a forensic scientist in Cleveland.

We passed on the production show, “Amade” and spent some time in the library and then went to our room. I was very tired from the time change and sleep deprivation.