Day 10 Thursday 15th January - More than half way across the Atlantic, temperature 26C.

The sea depth is now 4500m, sea temperature 20+ degrees C, quite choppy again, but very beautiful.  Mainly clear skies. On the ship everyone is out in the sun and there’s generalised good mood.  The clocks have gone back three times now, which feels like a special gift.

What did we do today? Up at 8, very gentle yoga, eat, art lesson, deck walk, coffee, crossword, eat, guitar talk, deck walk, tea, dance class, art in the cabin, eat, deck walk, cabaret, telly, blog, bed.

Highlights! We started a snowy landscape today and plan to finish in the next lesson. Not easy, but very uplifting, absorbing and relaxing. As always will share pics if it’s not too embarrassing. It’s lovely to do this with Khachik. So much of what we normally do is parallel, e.g. I practise yoga while Khachik follows football.  But we both seem to love the art.

The guitar talk was extraordinary. Paul brought his custom made acoustic guitar, 22 strings no less, made by the same guitar maker who used to build guitars for Led Zeppelin.  He described all the different acoustic styles, chords, finger picking, country, flamenco, jazz and blues, Eastern and Asian sounds, explained commonalities and then went on to demonstrate everything, surprisingly really well, including short performances like the Beatles Norwegian Wood in different styles.  Today he finished with Jose Feliciano’s version of Light my Fire. This hour was a real treat.  

Well, after today there’s one more sea day until we reach St Maarten, where we will feel land again (not that I’m in any hurry to do that) and can share the latest set of photos while we enjoy what the island has to offer.  So I will sign off for now and share tomorrow’s highlights, once again I really hope to have some sizeable sea life reports.  Bye for now from mid-Atlantic.

Day 7 Monday 12/1/2015 Drinks and Meal dates with the Captain

We have heard about people getting special invitations to meet the captain, have a drink with him, dine at his table, but thought it was only for the regulars or people who own their own cabin.  Then yesterday we started receiving invitations to have a drink with the captain - tonight - and have lunch with him tomorrow. It would seem that people who are on the world cruise get two lunches with the captain, one at the beginning (this one) and one sometime nearer the end.  And everyone gets a turn to have a drink with him before a gala dinner.  There are 521 of us going right round the world, the poor man is going to be exhausted!

Well here we are doing the long crossing of the Atlantic to St Maarten.  Sea is calm, very little wind,  sun is warming us up daily and people have started wearing shorts, bagging sunbeds and slapping on the SPF. 17C today, 20C promised tomorrow. No sign of sea life, no flying fish, no dolphins or whales, yet.  But the sun shining on the deepest blue sea, and the sky, and the clouds never fail to impress, and are a symbol of an unhurried lifestyle we very soon managed to slip into.  

We were up and about so early today with the clocks going back again last night, so we made outstanding use of the free launderette (it’s been a week!), took an early breakfast and were able to make it to the early morning art class.  Here we did our first human portrait, and then I had a go at a watercolour portrait of Khachik.  (I am posting these into the blog after the cruise

Khachik's left, mine right

In between our gourmet delights we have also squeezed in a cha cha cha lesson, a 4 lap deck walk and a yoga class. The one thing we haven’t done again is the evening cabaret, but tomorrow there’s a jazz/blues singer – a bit more inviting, so we will give that a whirl.

A lovely young man called Ajay looks after our cabin and makes us feel really special. Amongst all the chores he does “turn down” when we are out at dinner. We come back every night to chocolates on the pillows, towels in the shapes of animals and birds, and tonight some interesting gifts from P&O – a carved wooden chess set, all sorts of wine drinking accessories and a box of chocolates.

Finally I don’t think I’ve mentioned that there’s another couple from our home town on the ship, the man Khachik knows from his exercise classes. They are going as far as Sydney then flying back. We have only seen them once, which is not unusual. There are 2000 passengers all together.

Signing off for now. Bye until tomorrow

Day 6 Sunday 11/1/2015 brings a snapshot of Sao Miguel, Azores

We are back on board after a gentle stroll around San Miguel and another relaxing hour in a café bar. 

The guidebooks say the islands were discovered in the 12^th century.  To be honest I discovered them in 2014 when booking this cruise.  What a beautiful surprise, green, mild, very Portuguese with whitewashed buildings and spotlessly clean tiled streets.  Looks like the kind of place it would be lovely to take a summer holiday on if you like the quiet life, with the exception of the church near the city gate, which on the hour wasn’t at all quiet, no exaggeration the bells are still ringing in one of my ears.  

The map shows an archipelago of 9 islands split into 3 groups.  San Miguel the island where we are now, in its port Ponta Delgado, looks to be the biggest at 39 by 10 miles. It seems to be famous for growing exceptionally tasty pineapples, and its hot healing volcanic springs.  Language officially Portuguese, and currency officially Euros, but unofficially all languages and GBP, USD and Euros all accepted.  This is good news, as we both bought a pair of shoes as soon as we could, and with Khachik’s wine loving we soon ran out of Euros. 

When we leave the port later I will be looking out for the dolphins and whales we have heard live round here.  Hopes are high.  Cameras at the ready.

I am now proud owner of a pair of sparkly gold pumps, which should help protect my toes when dancing, and help me look the part a bit more than my pink and grey trainers. No dancing though or art on port days, but a hot tub followed by a taught yoga class for me soon, and for Khachik, well he will have to suffer making do with the MUFC v Southampton match, poor man.

Bye for now – news and views from the sea and sky for the next 5 days