Days at sea. Patti Plays!

November 6 & 7. Days at sea. Patti Plays! Ah, I love days at sea. Lazy days of sleeping in, leisurely breakfasts, strolling around the ship and no pressure to go, see or do anything... day at the pool, reading, napping or attending lectures.

After sleeping in and a quiet morning, we headed to the Pool Grill for their special "luncheon of the day", a selection of Spanish delights - Paella, Chicken and Rice, Grilled Veggies, and of course, a bit of wine!

I keep missing the enrichment programs by the Smithsonian. They have had excellent presentations on the Canary's, Sub-Saharan & Northern Africa, and delve into the areas we are visiting, both on the social and economic levels.

Sorry, they lost me to "The History of Pearls" - you know I'm a sucker for jewelry! The seminar was presented by Karen Dickson, the Director of Sales for Hubert Gems, based in Los Angeles. Karen, my new best friend (sorry Donna), has a wealth of knowledge on jewelry, gems and is an expert in the field.

I love pearls and have always thought myself knowledgeable, but Karen walked us through the types and qualities of pearls. Simulated (Mallorca), freshwater, Cultured (Mikimoto) and Natural (extremely rare and expensive!). I learned that Mallorca pearls are not pearls at all, but made with fish scales! Who knew? Freshwater are a variety of sizes and shaped, usually irregular. Mikimoto developed the system to culture pearls and if you remember the China Blog, I walked away from a magnificent $40,000 strand! (Which come to find out, was reasonable, but still way out of my league!). Meanwhile, natural pearls are so rare that they still pretty much belong to Royalty and the super rich. I qualify for neither!

Karen went on to give us the hows and whys of pricing. First Luster... how shiny and bright; size matters when it comes to pearls - the larger, the better and more expensive; the shape: round, baroque, coin etc. with the more perfectly round the priciest; the surface, the fewer blemishes the better; and finally color, from the white, white to black South Sea pearls and everything in-between. The color of the pearl depends on the color of the mollusks shell; you'll find golden, pink, grey and peacock!

It was an interesting and informative lecture that taught me quite a bit about pearls. As I mentioned, I thought I knew pearls, but Karen added quite a bit to my reserve of pearl information! Later, when I chatted with Karen, out of interest, I asked how much inventory they had brought aboard. She explained that is  proprietary information, but she shared with me that Hubert has over 400 pieces of jewelry and over 400 loose stones onboard with prices starting from just $200, with a selection of over $100,000! Lucky for me I get to play!

Karen is cruising with us to Cape Town and her next lecture will be on emeralds. Ohhhh, I love emeralds! Particularly emeralds and diamonds! Hubert joins the ship in Dakar and will be giving an informal lecture on diamonds and a more formal lecture in the theater discussing Auction pricing and the gems of Africa. I'm hooked!

An engineer by trade, Hubert started buying and selling gems in the late '80's. He quickly discovered that most jewelers either didn't have the time or the talent to design pieces. He began selling his designs and is now sought after for his singular, innovative and imaginative designs, and is well known for his use of not only the well known gem stones but the unusual ones as well - have you ever heard of Paraiba? It's a tourmaline first found in Brazil and now mined in Madagascar;  it is the only stone that has copper in its chemical make-up giving it an amazing sparkle!

Oh, I love to play!