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Our boat was not rocking, and in fact, we were up and moving at 7:00 am.  The kids took our car to visit Jon’s father in Vista, California.

Before they departed, I tried Mary’s car to make sure it would go since we seldom drive it, and guess what? It was DEAD!  We called AAA, and they came out and replaced the battery, and Precious felt much better!

The kids drove to Pete’s, which takes about 90 minutes, and they had a great day!

We took down Valentine’s decor and began putting up ST. Patrick’s Day decor.

Mary and I visited Jeff for a while before coming home, making dinner, and crashing around 9:00 p.m. It has been a long week!

Robin Is On Day Four

Day 4- Sailaway from Puerto Chacabuco as the ship was waiting to depart Maggie and I we were having our Dive-In Burgers and Bloody Mary’s on the Lido Deck, another dam ship was in the port with us, the Volendam. I couldn’t tell if we were moving or if the Volendam was moving and as soon as Maggie said “the captain will sound the horn” the Volendam’s Captain sounded their horn indicating they were departing first. Then suddenly the Captain of the Oosterdam sounded their horn but did a series which sounded like some kind of a melody. Then the Volendam’s Captain sounded their horn a few more times as they started to move. We thought the battle of the horns was over… but both Captains kept it going like that until the Volendam was out of the Oosterdam’s way. We and other passengers got a chuckle out of the “battle of the ship horns”.

Sail Day 4- February 22, 2025; today Maggie and I did not have a plan as the ship wasn’t docking in Puerto Chacabuco, Chile (Patagonia) until 11 a.m. I noted as we continue on down to the bottom of South America, the colder it is becomming. Today it is overcast, 54 degrees, windy and it could rain. We ordered our usual room service breakfast and then off to the spa we went (we normally go in the siesta hours knowing more than one senior will be sawing logs while we will have the spa to ourselves)… much to our delight the plan worked and there was only other person in the spa. We made our way off of the ship a bit past 1pm, to a port that had no town for at least 7 miles. There were tour guides waiting right there at the exit vying for tour business. Maggie knows how to handle these people and when quoted 50 dollars per person for a 4 hr. tour to the various sites, plus the town she said “no gracias!” We moved on a little further and she found a tour guide who she negotiated with for us, as well as two other women from our ship willing to share the tour so we all got the $25.00 pp rate. We went to various sights in the area, and Maggie with her great photographic eye took fabulous pictures I will get from her later.

We made it back to the ship on time and just before it started to rain. It was a different kind of rain than what I am used to, this rain was soft and quiet. Dinner at The Pinnacle was excellent as always, Maggie and I shared South American Rib Eye Tacos as an appetizer and I had the grilled lobster with Baked Alaska for dessert (my favorite). Maggie opted for the Chillean Sea Bass so I tried a little… it was delicious and I do not eat fish but I will have that next time! It was during dinner the Captain annonced the storm was in front of us and as the evening wore on we would experience 14 ft. swells, woo hoo!

After dinner Maggie got the roulette itch again however this time while I was watching her from a distance, some number’s popped into my head so I walked over there, got 200.00 in purple chips and told Maggie what numbers I was feeling then both of us placed chips on the numbers 0-00. We won on the first spin of the wheel! 35 to 1! The pit bosses came over to see what was going on and I told them it was beginners luck! I played a few more hands and walked away with a pocket full of money to help pay for my manicure and facial in the spa. As we settled into our cabin for the night, the ship started rockin’ and rollin! visions of Titanic was in my head as I fell asleep to the creaking sounds of our cabin and verandah furniture being pushed around by the wind.

?Robin