Incidentally I meant to report that the e-mails I sent to Erica Siverstein of Cruise Critic on 13th March did get through eventually. It would appear they were just held up mysteriously for a day or so.
It was a really beautiful day today with the temperatures in the mid 80's with a gentle breeze and a slight sea.
We received a phone call in the late afternoon from dear Françoise Birarda, our ever attentive and industrious Hotel Manager, to explain that he would be leaving the ship first thing in the morning and flying back to Florida to have his injured foot seen to by a specialist.
Whilst in Manaus he had slipped and fell resulting in some very painful damage to his foot.
Poor François, he puts so much energy into his job, I'm sure missing the last five days of the Voyage must have also been painful for him.
The result was he would now not be able to come to our 'Farewell Party', and we would not see him again on the ship.
He said some nice things about the blog and how he had passed the link to head office in Seattle, and I expressed our thanks for the excellence of the service we had received from all his hard working staff.
Our guests this evening were the Fowlers, the Gonsalves, the Eldreds and Henk and Lucia Barnhoorn.
We had integrated well with this interesting group of new friends over the period of the voyage and it was nice to be able to have a little private social hour or two with them in our cabin.
Henk and Lucia, who of course we had known since 2007, were hosting their own party for CSI clients at 7.00 so they only stayed with us for about 45 minutes.
We would have to forsake their party this time.
As well as inviting Françoise Birarda, I had extended an invitation to Captain Albert Schoon-derbeek, Nelly Perez, our marvellous Mexican Chief Housekeeper, travel expert extraordinaire Frank Buckingham and the two wonderful concierge girls Nancy and Lydia.
We would love to have invited more of the Prinsendam’s finest but our room would have struggled to accommodate more people.
I think our little party went extremely well.(Pictured here is Gerry, Maria, Rosalyn and Jennifer with Captain Albert)
Certainly the Captain, as always, was entertaining and informative. He told me that he was a reader of my blog, as was his dear wife, who it appears spots the odd (I hope it is just the odd one) spelling mistake in it!!
Frank too was in the good form that we have become accustomed to with him.
I was able to talk to the three young lady officers present letting them personally know of our appre-ciation for the hard work they undertake on our behalf.
The Captain stayed until 7.30 before moving on the CSI get together in the Crow’s Nest.
Prior to this we managed to get a group photo taken by Lucia with the Captain hidden somewhere at the back of the crowd.
Our room looked like a bomb had hit it with glasses and empty bottles and cans lying everywhere when we hurriedly departed at 8.00 o'clock for dinner.
As always the room was just spotless with no trace of the party when we eventually returned a few hours later. Well done Deden and Edger.
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