Wednesday 11th October 2023
Cruising Cape Cod Canal
Mary wrote: We got up early at 9700 and went to Deck 11 where they were handing out coffee and Danish pasties, but I found it unsuitable for taking photos, so got my puffer jacket and hat on and went to deck 7 forward and got a good position on the port side for photos.
The canal is an artificial waterway connecting Cape Cod Bay to Buzzards Bay with Bourne Bridge and Sagamore Bridge There was also a third bridge (for the railway) which I believed was called Buzzards Bridge which lifted when necessary to get taller ships through.
We entered the canal around 0800 and then went for breakfast to warm ourselves up afterwards. After breakfast we went to a talk in the Neptune Lounge by Emma from the Destination Team, featuring Hamilton, Ponta Delgado and La Coruna. Having heard her talk, I did think Mel might prefer to change from the pineapple and tea plantation tour we had booked for Porta Delgado. He checked the alternatives and said he is happy with the choice.
We stayed for the next item which was ‘An audience with the Captain, Valentin Ginglea’, but I was rather bored as it was uninspiring and I kept falling asleep. We missed the Motown talk after lunch, but Mel went to hear the classical guitarist Ben Kearsley, and I knitted my shawl. I then tried to fit a elastic to our masks ready for the Masquerade Bull tonight, but they are not strong enough to withstand pulling the elastic to stretch it to put them on. I have found I can tie mine myself which I didn't think I could do.
We were first at our table for dinner and took our masks with us but hid them underneath our napkins. The other two couples had not bothered, but we saw lots of ladies from the first sitting go to the ball with lovely masks matching their frocks. We did put our masks on for going to the Ball and Howard Johnson was singing when we were there. He was singing good disco type songs and the dance floor was packed. We stayed until his slot finished, and then went for a slightly earlier night, as we ned to be up early when we the cruise by the Statue of Liberty on reaching the entrance to New York. The Balmoral Show Company and Flunky Blue had also been playing in ½ hour slots with the Balmoral Orchestra at the Ball.
