December 1- Day Three at Sea

Had a wonderful evening last evening. The sunset was spectacular. I couldn’t manage to get a photo that did it justice but took lots trying. Since we are sailing mostly south and the beautiful sunsets are just to our west. Makes for a lovely time for reflection and wine. 

Dined with interesting people- John and Susan- from Edenton, North Carolina. She was raised in New Bern and moved to New Jersey when they married. He promised her they would move back to North Carolina when they retired…and they did. They have traveled a great deal since then so we had good stories to share. I had checked about doing what we did on our last cruise and have our luggage shipped home by Luggage Free but discovered they didn't ship from Tahiti. John told me about another company- Luggage Forward- and we think we will do just that. Our friends the Irvines taught us how very easy travel is without any luggage.

Smiling Samuel, our Butler, delivered breakfast to our suite. What an incredible treat to have just what you want to eat appear at the door. He had worked in Dubai for 7 years and then left in 2009 to get aboard a Regent ship. The economy of Dubai had a major downturn and he was but on an 8-month leave. He said he loved Dubai and was in a serious relationship- which naturally didn’t last after he took to the high seas.

Nelma, the cabin steward is always so helpful.

She and her colleague clean 17 suites twice a day. Lots of work.

Today the afternoon entertainment was a Country Fair. The English Country Fair originated from the merchant fairs of local farmers, and usually took place during harvest. Local traders often included games in their stalls to attract attention and this led to the “pleasure or fun fair,” a place for amusement, also being held in conjunction with the commercial fair.

In the past, seed-time had its festival, as well as harvest. When the early sowing had been completed, the farmer made a sort of feast for his men, the principle feature of a ’seed-cake,’ which was given to each of them. The cake did not get its name from anything that it contained, for in fact it was an ordinary current cake. In the US the most common type of fair is the country or state agricultural fair.

Our country Fair had booths all around the pool deck. There was a “Shoot the Hoop” ball toss, a Ring Toss onto people in the swimming pool, and many other things that looked like fun. Clearly people were ready for something different on this third day at sea for this time but actually our 8^th day at sea for this cruise.

Once on an Oceania Cruise almost 10 years ago we participated in this fun activity so we were happy to see Regent had picked up that idea from their sister cruise line. Each department aboard the ship set up a booth of some sort of game including prizes. The pool deck was closed for about an hour for the staff and crew to set up the various booths. Lots of people turned out to participant and lots went to the 12^th deck to just overlook the event.  

We both sat on the balcony for a long time. Both of us saw a few flying fish. I tried hard to catch a photo to share. They look almost like birds or flying bugs when they break out of the water.

At least the sea is calm, beautiful and the breeze is delightful.