At Sea - Feb 5th

We are at sea on the way to the dunes and deserts of Namibia. This is a place I have always wanted to see ever since reading Sidney Shelton’s “Master of the Game” in the 80s. In the novel Jaimie MacGregor escapes from forced labor in a South African diamond mine with a pocketful of diamonds and then survives an arduous trek across the desert to arrive on the Namibian coast where monstrous waves are pounding down on the huge dunes of the Skeleton Coast. Images of the Skeleton Coast from the Internet are below:

 At sea Joani plays ping pong every day, determined to win enough “Big O” points to get an “Oceania” logo long-sleeve dry-fit shirt. One of her ping pong friends is Chic Hansen, also from the US but with Danish ancestors like Joani. They have decided they are long lost cousins since Joani’s great-grandmother was Harriet Karoline Hansen from Copenhagen. I mean, how many Hansen families could there be in Denmark?

Here are the intrepid Oceania Insignia ping pong players.

Here Joani and her “cousin” Chic Hansen are showing off their “Big O” points for the day. 2 points for a win, 1 point for a loss, everybody gets points.

Here Joani is of course hitting a backhand.