Saturday - last sea day

Saturday was our last day at sea -- we'll be visiting 8 ports over the next 8 days. We enjoyed a relaxing day, though there were also many things to that we could do on the ship!

We joined a Deck and Engine Q&A with the captain and chief engineer.

A few things we learned: 

• When asked the most challenging thing he encounters as captain, the captain responded: "Passengers - sometimes I wish to go back to cargo ships - the load never complains!"
• Someone asked about training and he shared information about the training he has gone through to become a captain. Then he told us that when we got into Ponta Delgada, there was a sailing ship in front of us which was from Sweden and had high school students who were sailing it as they were learning. As it left, the US Coast Guard Eagle came in, with officer candidates -- they came onto the Gem while we were off and were taken on a tour -- and they really appreciated eating at the buffet!
• He let us know that we had had a very smooth crossing -- when they did the transatlantic from Europe to US in December, it was very rough. He also indicated that the Eagle, which had come from Connecticut (very similar trip to ours) had a much rougher crossing than we had.

It was interesting hearing from these two gentlemen. 

Here are some additional facts and figures (from a paper of information we received on the Behind the Scenes tour a few days before):

• The M/S Norwegian Gem is considered and amazing construction project. She was completed on October 01st, 2007 at the Meyer Werft Shipyard in Papenburg, Germany. It took 2 years to build at an estimated cost of $510 million US$ or $210,00 per bed. She sailed her maiden voyage from Europe on October 2nd 2007.
• 825 miles of electric cable & 65 miles of pipe are installed
• 222,000 pieces of steel  average weight 97 kg.
• 835 exterior windows & 1834 interior doors
• 1000 gallons of paint were used to cover her exterior and an additional 3000 gallons for interior surfaces.
• 12 passenger elevators & 10 service elevators for crew
• Over 28,000 light bulbs of various sizes and shapes light the way.
• 6800 nozzles & 437 fire hydrants provide fire protection in all spaces
• Approximately 1200 crew representing over 70 nationalities work on board.
• Ship's registry: Nassau, Bahamas
• Ship's call sign: C6VG8
• Gross Tonnage: 93,530
• Length: 965 feet
• Width (max): 125 feet
• Height: 195.2 feet
• Draft: 27.9 feet
• Maximum speed: 25 knots (28.75 MPH)
• Propulsion power:
• Diesel Electric Power Plant
• 2 ABB Marine cyclo converters (Azipod) - each pod 20,000 kW. Total of 54,347 HP
• 2 Azipod propellers measure 6 meters in diameter & have 5 blades each. They are fixed propellers.
  
• Electrical power plant:
• V12 cylinders each 14,700 kW / 19,992 HP
• Total output: 72,000 kW / 997,920 HP
• Bow Thrusters: 3 Fwd Brunwoll CP
• Each 2360 kW / 3210 HP
• Total 7200 kW / 9792 HP
  

In the afternoon, the bakery staff demonstrated the assembling of a red velvet cake for us (on the pooldeck).

Applying frosting to first layer

Spreading frosting

Frosting final layer

Putting sprinkles on top

It was cut and served out to all who wanted some (we decided to pass...).

Our next stop is Lisbon Portugal, so we had a class on terms and phrases in Portuguese

The flags of the countries where the official language is Portuguese - Angola, Brasil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Macau, Mozambique, Portugal, San tome and Principe, and East Timor.

The crew member who was teaching the lesson was from Brasil. There was a lady next to us who is from Lisbon. She corrected him on some words, and also assured us that, "Everyone in Lisbon speaks English!"

Our evening wrapped up with a Broadway type show from the cast and showband.

Next port coming up: Lisbon!