Hello everyone,

We made chocolate tarts in the cooking class this morning. Jim managed to roll out his pastry dough with only minimal issues – not too bad for a first timer. The tarts look delicious – we are saving them for tea time today.

I was a little concerned about all the sea days but time is just flying by – the cooking class has three sessions plus two dinners and there is a very full schedule. I can’t go to all the things I am interested in.

We ate dinner at Compass Rose last night and things were back to normal from a service perspective although I am finding the food to be extremely salty. I seldom use salt to cook with anymore so I think I am really sensitive to its presence now. Chef Mike featured sauerbraten and red cabbage and potato dumplings (made from his great grandmother’s recipe which he had printed on last night’s menu). There was a comedian as the featured entertainer last night – he was not Kenny Smiles. We ended with a brief visit to the Observation lounge before calling it a night.

Note to JoAnn: the family that was injured in Funchal is not on the cruise, they were just visiting Madeira on holiday.

As Wes already mentioned on another thread we will get to have another full day onboard due to a pod issue. I’ve already re-booked our flight home on Tuesday – hopefully the insurance and Regent will cover the not inconsiderable cost of making the change. There was no problem with the hotel cancellation. Our friends Pete and Emily were going to get married on Monday in Ft. Lauderdale which is why we were staying an extra night after the cruise. They met two years ago on the Mariner New Year’s Panama Canal cruise. Lorraine and Engelbert have swung into action and now they will be married by the Captain on Monday on the ship – they’ll need to complete some paperwork in Florida to make it all legal, but they’ll be able to celebrate December 1 as their wedding date and have their wedding ceremony on board a Regent ship as a bonus.

Seas are relatively calm at the moment but the captain announced that he expects significant motion this evening. It is getting very grey with lots of low clouds. I have already taken my bonine just in case. Unfortunately I’ll have to skip this afternoon’s wine tasting as the combination of bonine and wine just puts me right to sleep.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mary Ellen