Thursday, February 5, 2026
We did not stop at Panama City today. Most Panama Canal cruises traveling east to west do stop here after transiting the Canal, but for some reason, the itinerary for this cruise did not provide for a port call in Panama. We have visited Panama City several times, so we don’t mind.
That means today was a regular sea day, with lots of activities during the day. I attended a talk called “Tech for Travelers: Sharing Your Journey.” It was very informative. It was mostly about using the camera in your smartphone. The speaker covered how to take better pictures, camera settings to know about before you take pictures, and how to edit pictures after you have taken them. I learned about “live shot,” why you would use it, and why you might want to turn it off (uses up a lot of memory). I learned about photo composition, aspect ratio, the Rule of Thirds, and managing headspace. Great stuff.
At noon, the Captain made his daily announcements. He had previously told us the weather forecast for Puntarenas was not looking good and he raised the possibility we might have to cancel the visit at that port. I’m reading between the lines here, but what I think happened is that a lot of passengers looked up the weather forecast on Google or weather.com or somewhere like that and they saw very pleasant weather forecasts and people started questioning the Captain’s previous warning and the grumbling and second-guessing got back to the Captain, as will happen on a cruise ship (or any ship, I suppose). I do know that Ken looked on the internet and saw a good forecast and he was surprised the Captain had such a guarded outlook.
So, today the Captain took great pains to explain why he said what he said. He told us HAL subscribes to a private marine weather service that reports on winds and currents and swells and so on, and this private weather service may render forecasts that are different than Google’s (not his exact words), but the special marine weather service is usually right, and that service is telling him that the conditions when we reach Puntarenas tomorrow may make it unsafe to try to dock. The harbor there is very shallow and there are no tugboats available there and these kinds of things must also be considered.
After lunch, Ken and I attended a mixology class for the first time. This one covered Mai Tais and Old Fashioneds. Eric, the bartender who led the class, was really good at making it fun and getting everybody involved. He included the history of each drink and went over the equipment and ingredients you should use.
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| A volunteer helps with the pouring |
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| Two different Mai Tais: The slightly darker Classic is on the right. |
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| All four of my drinks |
People from Indonesia who learn English seem to have trouble with possessives (as do many Americans who never spoke anything but English). So I thought it was interesting that Eric kept calling the recipe “Trader’s Vic Mai Tai.” Maybe he got this recipe from someone else and that’s what it said when he got it. Or maybe “Trader’s Vic” sounded right to him when he typed up the recipe. This recipe will always remind me of the lovely Indonesians who make up a large part of the work force on HAL ships.
Suddenly it was time for Afternoon Tea. Since we hadn’t gone to a Zuiderdam Afternoon Tea yet, we decided today would be a good day to try it. It wasn’t bad, but we think the Afternoon Tea on Princess is rather better.
Oh my! Only three hours until dinner time. I hope we can make it.
Red sky at night, sailors’ delight
Credit for the title of this post goes to the late, great Jimmy Buffet. I would have included a link to the song if I’d had better internet.
Today’s fabric is “Mid Century Hawaiian” by vinpauld for Spoonflower.
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