After all the excitement of Punta Delgado, back to the restful routine of a ship at sea. The weather is holding up and the sea is starting to smooth out more and more. There is still a low swell rolling in, but it is getting less and less. The Azores are nothing more than mountain tops that rise from the bottom of the Ocean and they form part of the East Azores Fracture zone.
Thus shortly after leaving we are back in deepwater again. By this evening we will be past this mountain range which reaches up to about 9000 feet below us and the depth will increase to 15000 ft., when we sail over the Iberian Abyssal Plain.

The guests are preparing themselves for our next port Cadiz, where we will be on the 12th. The port lecturer has given his port talk and many guests are checking out books from the Explorations Café or are surfing the internet for information. Modern technique makes it possible to arrive anywhere in the world, well prepared and informed.

Today we had our next formal night, which included the Black and White Officers ball. The black and white comes from our uniforms, black for the pants and white for the jackets. The dining room is decorated in white banners with black dancing scenes in relief and black and white balloons. The ball starts after the dinner and as our show lounge has two levels, groups of officers assemble on both sides of the upper level. At the intro tune (appropriately Anchors Away) the captain accompanied by the hostess, or in this case my wife, leads the officers onto the stage so all the guests can see the full line up.

Then at the start of the first dance captain and wife descends onto the dance floor to open the ball. After a few twirls they split up and invite a partner from the audience. This is the cue for the officers to follow and invite ladies or gents (depending the officers gender) to join them on the floor. Each alternating dance is a letter dance. This means that some officers have a numbered envelope in their pocket. At the end of the dance, the number is called and the lady or gent who danced with the officer is asked the name and function of that officer. If the correct answer is given, there is the prize of a bottle of champagne or some logo items.

The idea is in principle that the guests ask the officers for a dance, however some of the ladies (and gents) can be a bit reluctant to approach the officers, so the officers reverse the trend and keep the dance floor as full as possible. It is a Holland America given to do a Black and White ball on cruises of 14 days and longer, weather permitting.

As the weather was beautiful with a very stable ship, the dance floor remained full, so full that many couples stepped up to the stage to have more room. Because lady officers are still in the minority on board, I also ask the concessions to attend (Ladies from the shops, the casino and the beauty parlor) to balance the totals a little bit. Many a gentleman sees here the chance here to get “his hands” on the girl he only sees standing behind the counter otherwise. The dancing lasted for an hour and by that time was close to midnight. This is quite late for many of our guests and quite a few started to drift away by then. Also the temptation of the Midnight buffet often wins it from having an other dance with an officer. For those who could not get enough, the crowsnest remained open until the wee hours.