Day 71 21ST March 2011

Runner up of the crew competition

Winner of Passenger Competition

At 12am today the ships clocks moved forward one hour so we are now GMT-9 or 9 hours behind the UK. It is a bright clear day with brilliant royal blue seas around us and a clear blue sky above. We can probably see 20 miles from the balcony and the view nearly always shows an empty ocean with not another ship in sight. We were able to eat in the Pennant Grill last night with our friends Gordon and Janet. It is a spectacular restaurant in good weather since it is outside at the rear of the ship so that you can see the stars. The food was excellent and it was a lovely evening.

Some weeks ago a challenge was issued to passengers and crew to construct a ship from rubbish found on the Aurora such empty water bottles, cardboard, string etc. I had largely forgot about it but today was the final for the competition when the boats where judged by the Chief Engineer, Captain, Deputy Captain and Purser. The ships had to float, carry passengers in the form of six cans of coke and survive a storm of two men jumping into the water alongside them. There were seven passenger and five crew entries. They were amazing in that they were models of vessels not simply bits of rubbish stuck together. The winning passenger team had constructed a catamaran while the winning crew ship was a model of the Aurora. It was a great event.

We will be continuing to sail towards California for the next three days. We are due to arrive in San Francisco on 24^th March.