A nice relaxing sea day after our two days of exploring Montevideo. The weather has been hot and sunny again, hardly any wind to speak of, so a dead calm sea. We are back on a south-south westerly course heading for the very bottom of South America and the Straits of Magellan, the day after tomorrow. At lunchtime today we were about 800 km off Port Stanley, somewhere out there in the South Atlantic.

We went to a 2 hour bridge class this morning in playing techniques. Not bidding, but actually how to play out the hands to win tricks. Some very complicated ones and you really have to think so hard about the play. I'm not sure I'm going to be very good at this. It's going to take a while and that's for sure. I've not played a lot of cards so I don't have a background in say whist that would help. Bridge is so far removed from a simple game of cards. Its like a combination of maths, chess, card counting, code deciphering and whist!!!

Some sunbathing and then painting. Today it was a couple doing the tango. Rendered in a naïve style. Quite pleased with it. It was difficult to draw but easier to paint.

After painting we had organised a meeting of the people coming with us on a private tour I have arranged in Puerto Montt, Chile in about a week's time. I found a tour company who organise small party tours and organised a group through the CruiseCritic forum which is a sort of Tripadvisor for cruising. There are around 16 of us and it's a great day out touring for around 70 USD per head, which is a lot cheaper than the ship's offering and with only a small group we can move faster and have less hanging about. The meeting was just to put some faces to email-names and we arranged to meet in one of the coffee bars first thing on the morning of arrival so that we can go ashore as a group to meet the guide. Two people have dropped out but I have two more people who asked to be on the reserve list so hopefully they still want to come.

Tonight we went to a cocktail party with the Captain and Officers extended to everyone who is taking the entire voyage. A nice event with plenty of free drinks and canapes. Free drinks always gets my vote LOL. The captain made a speech. He's Italian and very heavily accented which he plays on a bit. After he was announced, they played the theme from the Godfather as he came forward which he took in good part. Nice dinner with a congenial table. We sat with a couple who live on Sark. That must be a rarity. Afterwards we went to see the show which was a ventriloquist. Not sure I've ever seen one live before, maybe decades ago when I was a child….. Anyway, this chap was pretty good, quite risqué and he ended up with a routine where he put mechanical "jaws" on a couple of audience members(strangers to each other) and made them have a hilarious and very bizarre "conversation" about their break dancing prowess and sexual activities. Bear in mind they were in their late 70s and very good sports, really entered into the whole thing. It was hilarious, much better than I anticipated. We were howling with laughter.

Had a stroll around the open deck in was still pretty warm and bright sunshine. The further south we go, the longer the days. Sunset was at about 9:35pm tonight and sunrise at about 0630. Ended up with a nightcap in our nearest bar with a couple we have met at dinner which was nice.