Transit Day 19 – Sunday Day of Rest and Balut

Today is a rest day so not much going on.  Tonight, in the ACS bar, we will celebrate all those who had birthdays on the voyage and Captain Lars will recognize and award certificates to those slimy “Pollywogs” that became “Shellbacks” and sons of Neptune on this voyage for crossing the equator for the first time on board a sea going vessel. For the most part people relaxed today as there were no meetings on the schedule.  As a result there was a lot of time spent in one’s cabin so thought it would be a good time to take a look inside and see how we live. 

There are a few different class of cabins on board the ACS and they vary from VIP State Rooms to 3 person cabins.  For the most part we try to limit the cabins to no more than two persons so as to provide comfortable living arrangements for all.  The VIP Staterooms are limited to Customers and Executive Launch Management for each segment.  Each of the major suppliers receive a block of rooms that they will utilize to house their teams and subcontractors during the voyage.

The VIP State Rooms are two room suites with a small vestibule and bathroom as shown below.
 

Living Area

Living Area

Bedroom

Bedroom 

A typical 1^st Class Cabin is for a single person and is shown below.

 

 

A typical 3-person cabin has two bunk beds and a fold down bed as shown below.

Two bunks on the right...

Fold down bunk on the left

Desk

 

It is easy for me to state that the living arrangements are tolerable since I am extremely fortunate to have a VIP Stateroom. But for those that need to share a room it sometimes, as you can imagine, might not be so pleasant specifically for those who have not lived with a roommate for years. Overall we try to accommodate requests for specific roommates so as to make the journey as pleasurable as possible.

The big news for the day happens to be my invite from last night in the bar to join the Semco team in Room 35 for my inaugural Balut game. I joined Semco’s Steen Nielsen, Jesper Hansen and Ivan Johnsen (former World Champ) for a friendly game of Balut.  Now I am a rookie in all sense of the word as I have no idea how to play this game but all of the Semco guys were very helpful and guided me through the first game.  I was paying particular attention to Ivan as he was after all a World Champion at this game. But apparently, even World Champions have bad days as I think I witnessed Ivan go through 3 different sets of dice, 3 dice shaker cups and matching pads trying to find luck.  But nothing seemed to work for him as the luck was not with him.  However, using the full potential of my “Beginners Luck” and the guidance from all 3 of the Semco guys I was able to walk away a victor in my initial game and now I am hooked for life.  Thanks to Steen, Jesper and Ivan for the invite and good time.

My Virgin Balut Scorecard...Winner!

 

Some photos from Birthday night and Equator crossing ceremony, enjoy.

What is a birthday without a little cake?

This one was really good...

Must have been fabulous as it went quick...

Also really good...

ELUS's Loads Specialist, Mike Sanders recieves his Shellback Certificate from Captain Lars...

ELUS Photo Optics Scott Crozier receives his certificate....

 

Now this is a face of a Shellback...

Captain Lars extends a greeting to RSC Energia, Evgeny Shabarov

RSC Energia's Deputy Mission Director Igor Bogachev and Yuzhnoye's Konstantyn Vorontsov watch the proceedings...