OMG!

Today we are all very excited in the morning as pretty much no one has ever been to French Guiana, much less Iles du Salut!  At breakfast everyone seemed upbeat and ready to roam tiny Devil's Island on their own.  No excursions are offered here.  Elva and I dressed in our shore clothes, so to speak, by adding good shoes to the wardrobe.  We were not docking until noon so we had time to go hear the Wildlife expect talk about The amazing Amazon.  Wonderful pictures and good information on what NOT to pet when we go ashore!  We went early and had good seats down front.  If the theater fills up the lectures are live broadcast to the flat screens in your cabin and recorded for later viewing.

There had been no need to rush and no one objected when the lecture ran long because we could not lad in Ile du Salut after all.  High seas would have put people at risk since it was a tender port.!  The ship itself seemed to groan along with us when the announcement was made.  A Trivia game was hastily added for the usual noon time challenge. Ian, quiz master and ACD admitted that in his many years of working aboard various cruise lines he had 11 times sailed to French Guiana and only once been able to go ashore.  Apparently, this part of the ocean is not friendly seas.

The new daily schedule added in a Galley tour and we quickly signed up for that.

It was a quiet afternoon before the bribery cocktail party titled Cocktails and Officers Pre-Dinner Party. It was nice but it wasn't an exotic island with the luxury of dry land.  At noon, when we should have docked, we were still an even 100 nautical miles from our destination.  It is no wonder that only two people ever escaped the French Prison and lived to tell the tale!

After cocktails and conversation Elva and I ate dinner in the Cafe.  On the Aqua Vit Terrace they were making fresh pasta and serving it with the sauce of your choosing and Mussels if you wanted.

 We enjoyed dinner and then took our drinks out to the Movie Under the Stars.  Elva loves Gone With the Wind and on the big screen in High Def or 4K it was excellent.  We really were under the stars with an occasional salt spray.  As it began to sprinkle turns out the ship was a little jinxed today as the glass roof couldn't be closed.  Elva stuck it out, snuggled under a couple of beach towels with popcorn, soda, and headset.

I headed into the main theater for the second show of The Rat Pack Revisited.  Not the best version I had seen and later I figured out why. Two of the singers were white and one appeared to be African American.  He really has a beautiful voice.  One of the white men was acting kind of goofy, and one was serious.  It wasn't until I was back in the cabin that my confusion cleared up.  The guys never held a glass or cigarette in their hands.  None danced.  And they did not sing particularly recognizable songs that you always associate with either Dino. Frank, or Sammy.  In my head I had assumed that the black man was 'doing' Sammy Davis, Jr.   He wasn't.  He was Dean Martin and the silly white kid was Sammy.  The one portraying Frank Sinatra did not solo on a Sinatra song.  In other words I was not the only one who was not particularly impressed.  That aside, they have good voices, the band is good, and it was a nice hour out of the rain.

After getting a cup of tea I returned to the cabin to read and Elva stayed out as late as we have been up.  The movie ended at 11:30!