Day 4 Even More Sea

The weather had calmed considerably last night, so no creaking cabin and no banging bilge keel meant a good nights sleep.  Didn’t even open our eyes until after 7am.  The sun had risen and upon drawing back the curtains there was no sign of it as it was hidden behind a blanket of grey cloud and it never showed itself all day long! 

After breakfast we did a few circuits of the promenade deck, which was now open all the way round for the first time this trip.  The front section leading to the bow of the ship has been closed due to the waves occasionally coming over the top.  Three times round is about a mile, but  it can be hazardous at certain times of the day when some of the more mature passengers stop dead in their tracks to gather an extra lungful of air to get them on their way again.  Conversely, there are the racers who must time every lap and consider it a failure to have a lap slower than the previous one.  These people just have to get past you whatever the risk involved. 

We decided to divide and conquer today as Maureen continued with the Doctors history of the Caribbean and I opted for a night time digital photography talk given by one of the many ship’s photographers.  I should have known better as he started with ‘this is my first presentation’ and followed with ‘this is not my specialist subject’  After a lighting tour of some night pictures and a few brief comments lasting about 15 minutes, he was as surprised as we were when the next slide said any questions and we had reached the end.

Morning coffee preceded a quick one course lunch and a single hours read on the sun terrace, minus the sun.  Again we divided and conquered, Maureen taking to her bed for a nap and I went to the Rolf Harris presentation in the art gallery.  By the time I got there all the seats were taken and had to stand for over an hour, but it was an interesting talk about his life and how he got into painting.

At 6.05 pm on Monday 5^th, we have covered 1127 nm from Southampton and have 215 nm to go to Madeira.  The sea still has a decent swell running, but the wind dropped earlier, so the white horses have disappeared from the crests of the waves.  It was down to 4 knots earlier but has picked up a little to 16 knots this evening.  We currently have 18 deg C and the sun has just set.

It’s now past 6pm and the sun has gone down, so in true British Maritime tradition, I’m just about to pour the G&T so we can toast a Happy Birthday to Tim and welcome home to Kath & Ken from the grips of Hurricane Sandy.

It’s the Captains Gala evening this evening, so it’s dress up time again.  Not sure if Captain Carr from Wigan will bring his whippet or whether he leaves it on the bridge, just in case it goes for some old ladies fur trim.  As it happens he didn’t bring the dog, neither did he bring any charisma with him.  He mumbled his way through his speech and in my opinion did not come across as master of the ship. 

We were then late into diner, which was the best so far.  Difficult decision whether to go for sea bass, lobster or rack of lamb.  Glyn from the valleys managed to have rack of lamb and lobster on the same plate!!  I reckon he’s in the Welsh eating team and he’s using this cruise as a training exercise.

We should be berthing in Madeira around 08.00 tomorrow and it will be good to get off the ship and have a look round.  It was 1971 when I was last in Madeira laying a cable from Funchal to Lisbon: wonder if it’s changed much?