We are in the Bering Sea, and the rocking of the ship has increased. It’s like in exercise class, when strengthening your balance, except with both feet under you. Good core exercise?

This compass, made of stone from Norway, is on the floor of the fourth deck of the ship at the base of the atrium adjacent to the aft elevators, a comfort to us all.

Since it’s a sea day, the crew have lots of presentations. The first one was about all the natural stone used on the ship. Somehow, this was also woven into an explanation of geologic time, using the vertical stairwell as an approximate scale for time. For example, deck 3 was Precambrian. So were decks 4-6. Deck 7, the Cambrian, was the first sign of complex life. The speaker got into all the major extinctions, and overall was entertaining.

What we enjoyed was the identification of the stones used on various surfaces.

Of course we had already noticed the natural looking floors; we asked an officer about it. He confirmed the tiles were natural but didn’t know the name of the rock type in English.

We watched a lecture about sea otters and nuclear bomb testing in the Aleutian Islands in the 1950s. Strange combination, but it made sense.

Then cake for all in the lounge on deck 10 to celebrate July 4th.

• Alaska 2025