At Sea On The Way To Rio

Thursday January 19th - Day 15

Following the success of Tuesday night's carnival party on deck the Quest has now run out of fresh limes and lemons. They used over 50kgs of limes!! - we must all have over indulged in caipirinhas.

However my ex boy scout husband is always prepared and had his own private supply - delivered daily - for his pre-dinner drink(s)... so we took our own limes up to the pool bar (much to the amusement of the waiters) for our noon corona with a wedge of lime...of course.

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This afternoon we had our second and final Samba class as our Brazilian Samba troupe will be leaving the ship tonight in Rio when we dock at 6pm. I think we're getting the hang of it a bit more now. Although our footwork is still a bit slow our finishing flourish is magnificent...well so we think!!

We sailed into Rio a little earlier than the planned 6pm arrival and it was light enough for us to have superb views of the Sugar Loaf Mountain standing sentinel at the harbour entrance and the famous Christ The Redeemer statue standing high on the Corcovado Mountain. This was a really breathtaking sail in.

A few facts: Rio is Brazil's second largest city and is separated from the rest of the country by a mountain range. From its beginnings as a Portuguese colonial trading outpost it has spread to fill the space between the mountains and the sea.  Add to this the superb white beaches fringed with palms, the fabulous temperature that rarely dips below 20°C (68°F) and the Carnival this really is a "Cidade Maravilhosa" - Marvellous City.

This evening half the ship's guests seemed to have gone ashore to enjoy their first taste of Rio but we decided to have a quiet alfresco meal at the Patio Grill before an early night because of our early sightseeing tour tomorrow morning. And what a meal...at 8:30pm the heavens opened for a twenty minute torrential downpour and really tested the waiters ingenuity in getting our food to us dry. Thank goodness for Seabourn umbrellas - well done Valentina and her staff. I love storms like this so for me it was a perfect welcome to Rio - there was thunder, lightning and rain...by the bucket load!!

After a quick trip to the Samba Carnival Show now moved  inside to the Grand Salon it was early to bed for a 6:30am alarm call.

Techie bits again. At 9:45am this morning we were:
22° south and 41° west
Travelling on a compass course of 229°
Speed = 15 knots
Wind speed = Northerly 3 knots
Air temperature = 25°c (77°f)
Total nautical miles sailed = 4544
Sea depth = 55 metres (hope the captain's not got any Italian blood in him!!)
Humidity = 67%