Six more sea days traveling from Hawai'i to Bora Bora, marking our Equator crossing around midnight on Day 3, January 19. Our key to enjoying these days is to keep to a routine, try new things, and enjoy the down time to its fullest. Some nights at dinner in The Restaurant we offer to sit at a larger table. Have enjoyed meeting a variety of interesting people, and some we don't need to hang out with again. Also enjoying the food experiences at The Chef's Table and Manfredi's Italian Restaurant.

This week's lectures and experiences include:
"Polynesian Voyaging and the Great Pacific Highway" - Dr.Lisa Matisoo-Smith
"Sir Francis Drake - Ruthless Pirate or National Hero?" - Dr. Robb Robinson
"The World's Greatest Living Explorer" - Geoff Peters (Geoff's subjective choice is Fedor Konyukhov - look him up)
""Moai and Marae: Politics and Religion in Anient Polynesia" - Dr. Lisa Matisoo-Smith
"Pacific Escapes: How a Sojourn in the South Pacific Changed Lives" - Dr.Joseph Kess (Gauguin, Melville, Michener, Brando, etc.)
"DNA Ancestry Tests: Fact or Fiction?" - Dr. Lisa Matisoo-Smith
"South Pacific - The History Behind the Musical" - Russell Lee (magnificient story teller)
"Friendly Wild Dolphins" - Robin Petch
"Dolphin Dreamtime Experience" - Robin Petch - meditation experience with natural sound and aborigine-inspired music (even Mike participated!)
Viking Neptune Vocalists - "Duets"
Wendy Law - "Cello in Love" & "Wanderlust" (look her up on YouTube - she is an amazing performer)
Equator Crossing Ceremony - everyone got certificates, but a hearty group jumped in the pool & drank a shot of Aquavit to celebrate.
Vocalist Cyndi Wheeler
And our very own flying fish, which either a bird dropped & the wind brought on to our veranda, or it flew up and the wind carried it there.

The ship has been declared COVID-free and so the staff can now unmask. It is nice to finally see their friendly faces, not just their sparkling eyes. As best we can tell, Mary might have been the last documented COVID case on board the Viking Neptune. A couple of days of feeling rundown, a positive test result, 48 hours of isolation in the room (where she was treated like a queen), and a release to freedom just in time for Bora Bora. Whew.

Speaking of staff. They are all exceptionally friendly and capable. Talk about multi-taskers. You never know where you'll see them next. One man in particular has touched us. One of the food service managers, Roman is a kind and dedicated young man who left home with his friend to buy some electronics in Poland one day, and was unable to return home because the war between Ukraine and Russia started that evening and the border between Poland and Ukraine was closed. Roman had just bought his first apartment and never even got to move in. He never got to say good-bye to friends and family, but he feels fortunate to have this job, and looks forward to being able to go home again some day.