Tuesday 21/4/2015 Day 105 Penultimate sea day in the Bay of Biscay

So far so good, the ship is stable although the sea is choppy, the swimming pools are swishing well, and walking outside is definitely not recommended.  There’s an easterly force 7 at the moment, but no need for Stugeron. 

Our penultimate sea day has gone just as planned: rhino was hurriedly painted then attractively and more leisurely tweaked.  Sunrise and sunset were gorgeous.

We have spent some time watching the waves. The Arcadia vocalist’s performance was beautiful and quite emotional, a reprise of favourite songs from earlier sectors. Our passports are back in the safe, after about an hour in a very orderly queue, and we have had our face to face with UK immigration on board so there won’t be any delays on Thursday.  All kinds of post has started arriving in our cabin’s mail box – last day for this, last chance for that, final performances, final Captain’s cocktail party and black tie dinner, disembarkation information, luggage labels. So all manner of mixed feelings have been out to play today.

This afternoon we also went to the maybe final session at the gym and I also enjoyed a Pilates class, not the final one, there’s another at 9 a.m. tomorrow, and then the final yoga of my block booking is at 4 p.m. tomorrow.  All being well these final classes will fit in well with the final art class and final art exhibition tomorrow.  So we are fast approaching the end of this unforgettable chapter, and wondering what’s around the corner, and what we can do to keep all of these memories alive for a long long time to come.

Tomorrow the packing will start and we will put away the shorts and t-shirts for a while, leaving warm stuff out to travel home in.

But meanwhile we are trying to eke out the final moments of the ship.  We have just watched a Queen tribute act, Killer Queen, performed by the Headliners - and another good one, and are back in the cabin watching Mama Mia on the telly,  feeling quite sleepy already (10:30 p.m.), so I’ll say goodbye for now and come back for one more time after all the “finals”. xx

Thursday 16/4/2015 Day 100 Sea Day MacMillan Challenge – and A Half Marathon

The Mediterranean is still really still just like a pond, and the weather is mild, 16-18C. Bright blue skies. Deep blue sea.  Our total cruise mileage is just over 34,000, and we are heading for Malta, scheduled to arrive early tomorrow morning. On the map Malta looks tiny, and yet it sounds from the port talk as if it’s a fascinating little place with European and African history and artefacts.

Our morning started in the Meridian Restaurant. This restaurant makes me feel quite grand, waiter service for breakfast.  I added an extra course on today, poached eggs on toast after the porridge – see below for justification.  Otherwise the morning was mainly spent in the art class trying to paint a Samoan dancer. This will have to be completed in class the day after Malta because it turned out to be much more complicated than usual, and was nowhere near complete after our 2 hour class. We have completed the face, hair and wooden stick and next time need to learn how to create muscle definition.  Pictures later, but only if they start to look good ;).

Finished but not proud!

After this we had a hearty lunch in preparation for our afternoon.

We aren’t going on any trips tomorrow, we are going to find a comfortable place to sit and use wi-fi, drink coffee and take it easy! I know, I know, it’s been 3 months of taking it easy! But this afternoon at 2 p.m. we started walking around the Promenade deck and I managed to complete the 39 laps that make up a half marathon – aka this sector’s fund raiser for MacMillan, a great cause. It also provided all the passengers an opportunity to get rid of all the coins from the cruise that no currency exchanges will take, but are still useable.  There were pledges too.  I don’t know how much it raised but feel optimistic. (Now know it was around £500)   It feels very reassuring to know that it’s possible to take part in a bit of endurance. This perseverance was also thanks to I-Pod and the Al Stewart Collection. All finished by 5:30 p.m. Unfortunately Khachik got a blister in the middle of the sole of his foot, but he still completed a very respectable 16 laps.

So, right now it feels like a good idea to sit down at least for a while.  Maybe we will stay near the ship tomorrow and return early to the hot tub/sauna.

I will say a  tired good night (yawn) , get a good sleep and come back after Valetta in Malta tomorrow. xx

Sunday 12/4/2015 Day 96 Out of the Gulf of Aqaba up towards Suez

By today’s calculations we have travelled 32,893 miles. We have Egypt on both sides of us now, and the land is just close enough to see misty grey mountain silhouettes in the distance.  The Suez transit is coming up tomorrow and is yet another extraordinary highlight of this sector.  Tomorrow in the early hours (scheduled to be 3 a.m.) we anchor and queue up until we hear we can go.  Our convoy is expected to start transiting at first light, and will take 12 hours, during which we have a live commentary from the excursions team leader, Sam. She was tireless when we transited Panama, so I know this will be really interesting.

Today has been a quiet, uneventful day compared to yesterday in Petra.  The sun is shining but the temperature is dropping and you can see everyone donning their cardies and shawls outside on the decks now.  It is nevertheless a very pleasant 18C, bright sunshine and toasty warm when the wind drops.  It is the 10^th birthday of Arcadia, and there’s a party going on, with “prices slashed” (but only by 10%!) in celebration. In 10 years Arcadia has sailed 1,549,925 nautical miles, which we learn is the equivalent of 3 return trips to the moon.

And our chosen activities a.m. Gym? – good job done by both, 60 minutes total cardio for both and 30 minutes mat based yoga for me.

P.m. Art? A camel’s head, (photo from Petra) not bad but mine needs a little bit of cabin work to rough up the hair because it looks a bit smooth.

Otherwise it’s all about the elements today.  Just a force 3 wind, a little swell, wavelets and the ship is moving slowly at about 12 knots. 

The time is 6 p.m. here at the moment and that can only mean one thing today: the Manchester Derby has just begun.  For Khachik, room service dinner has been ordered, for me I will escape the ear piercing shrieks and attend my regular club dining slot, bringing Khachik his pre- ordered sugar free modification of a decadent dessert from the table when I’ve finished.

So I will say goodbye for now and report back from the Suez transit tomorrow. xx

Friday 10/4/2015 Day 94 Sailing northwards between Egypt and Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea

Today is the fourth and last sea day to Jordan.  There’s a lot of excitement about the trips tomorrow.  The most popular one is Petra, the Lost City one of the wonders of the world I am learning, and a close second is Wadi Rum, history and a Bedouin experience.  We have had messages from the captain about the sudden drop in temperature to 12C (on the news that’s cooler than home at the moment) and we have been advised to take layers, water and a snack in case it warms up.

We are so lucky to have such a good life.  Day after day of new experiences and good fun.  Our day today has been another hot one, a little cooler than of late, with the elements playing around in a way we haven’t felt for a long, long time.  Force 7 winds, a rough sea and a moderate swell.  No land in sight either side of the Red Sea, but we are now in between Saudi and Egypt and making good, uneventful progress towards Jordan.

A crunchy, nutty and seedy breakfast, 30 minutes deck walking, 30 minutes in total bike, rowing and arm cycling and a beautiful yoga practice.  A very cleansed and healthy feeling is in the air today.  The walk through the mountains to Petra tomorrow might be 2-3 hours, so I reckon the deck walking and treadmilling will have helped us alot.

Art today was a sailing boat on the sea with reflection and background hills.  The “lesson” time wasn’t long enough really so I did a little bit more in the cabin.  It was quite an angular boat with a long straight line for mast and sails, and that was a first and a challenge, but it’s ok now.

After dinner this evening the ship’s movement was a bit more palpable and the outside decks were all closed. For this reason I have come inside and done another water colour portrait of Khachik.  I might share it the original pic and then the progress. Eyes are improving and also shading. Very grateful to Easa for showing me how to do this.

By the way, cabin doors are secured, lights are still off at night and curtains closed until we leave this area tomorrow.  The security measures (weapons, hailers and water hoses!!!) and personnel are still in place around the ship too.

Bye for today.  Reporting from Petra tomorrow, but might be late as it’s a 9-10 hour tour. xx

Tuesday 10/3/2015 Day 63 on the ship, on the sea towards Shanghai, jumpers on and hold tight!

We’ve had a lovely sea day, pretty inactive for us but it was stormy all day and the waves were coming over deck three so we weren’t able to walk around outside.  The sea state is the type my dad would have absolutely loved – as choppy as anything with huge waves, and several feet of swell.  The breeze has kept everywhere cooler today.  The outside temperature was 22C at the hottest, and we expect it to fall right down tomorrow as we sail towards Shanghai.  But like San Francisco we are only travelling north for a day or two.  As soon as we leave Shanghai we head for Hong Kong, the final port in sector three,  and then we start sector 4 which is going to include an impromptu surprise visit for us (more about this nearer 26/3/2015 but it’s very good news)

So today took it even more easy! We had a lovely breakfast just before 9, started to walk but had to come in when the decks were all closed, went for a coffee.  As P and O are having a huge launch event with HM Queen Elizabeth naming the new ship Britannia, the Arcadia held a “Summer Fair” next to one of the pools, with tombolas and slapstick deck games, so we went and sat down with two friends, one of whom is a retired nurse.  I ended up sharing life stories.  We covered more life ground this morning than we have in the whole of the previous 2 months and it was absolutely fantastic. We shared our nursing stories, our family and relationships stories, our family pride, health and everything important emotionally and spiritually.  Our conversation even included reference to voices that touch your heart like Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran! And musical theatre like Les Miserables   And then it was lunchtime!

With time on our hands after lunch I set out to organise the cruise photo folder on my laptop, creating a back up for the tablets and 2 phones on their too. Good job done.  Then at 3 we enjoyed a surprisingly satisfying art class using charcoal pencils for the first time to draw a very hairy goat.  We are both very happy with our goats J and especially knowing that we can use a new medium.  I am so glad I have kept this blog and taken photos every day.  I will spend a lot of time looking at them and reminding myself of these times.  It seems that more and more people are viewing it too, which is very good to know.

And finally this evening after dinner we went up to the pool to the round-the-worlders’ reception with the Captain, and after the captain’s speech we decided not to go to the entertainment tonight as (thinks “how can I put this kindly?”) let’s try “the quality of the comedy can’t be accurately predicted”, yes that does it nicely and so we are back in the cabin.  It’s just after 10 p.m. Nearly my bedtime so I will say bye for now. Love to you all x

Wednesday 18/2/2015 Day 43 Second Sea Day to Sydney a rainy and windy one and 23C

 We have learned today that there are almost 1000 miles to Sydney, and the weather forecast is unsettled. The ship is moving from side to side quite a lot. The wind is force 6, heavy rain, massive waves, those Passenger Discomfort Bags have appeared again at various spots around the ship and there were a few spaces at the dinner tables this evening.

I am finding that when it’s really rough I just feel like lying down, and that works as there are no obligations to do anything. 

You will all be relieved to know that immigration procedures for Australia worked well and we’re both allowed in. No queues and all went like clockwork. We have registered our interest in a trip to jumping crocs in Darwin, otherwise it’s just as I mentioned yesterday i.e. “independent” trips in Sydney, Brisbane and Airlie Beach.  We will be 10 days all together in and around Australia from 20^th Feb. Sector 2 of the cruise ends in Sydney, Sector 3 begins in Brisbane and goes as far as Hong Kong.

Activities on board today were a little different – 6 laps round deck three with random rough sea zig zagging, immigration procedures followed by us opting out of learning the Paso Doble (mainly because we are unlikely to remember it, but also because we are unsteady on our feet).  This meant we had more time to chat with new people in the restaurant and also have a little rest before art. Art was actually quite hard today and neither of us are happy with our “sunset against cloudy sky with reflection in sea” – I shall describe mine as hideous, so I doubt it will be making an outing after today.

Painting this meant we missed the Chocoholics Buffet again! We must have a word with ourselves about this.  Three more sectors, three more chances at Chocoholics Buffet.

We haven’t been going to Palladium as much recently, but because the two violinists performing as Elektra got such wonderful reviews after their first performance 2 days ago, we decided to go tonight and enjoyed them very much. Popular classical pieces performed with attitude, and a finale of traditional Irish fiddle. Great stuff.

Much effort is being made to keep everyone occupied, comfortable and happy indoors. New films are showing twice a day in the Screening Room, 5 or 6 different styles of music and performance in the bars and theatres, three different visiting guest speakers, Arcadia TV (a chat show), a Port Talk, Arcadia Radio, talks about art and health, “sales” in the shops, two daily crosswords and a Sudoku. As I said yesterday there’s also food 24 hours a day.

That’s it for today. Back again tomorrow. xx

Tuesday 10/2/2015 Day 36 A visit by the great sea god Neptune ;)

Well, today we cross the Equator on our way down under on sea day 4 from Hawaii.  That Neptune gets around a bit – he came onto our Hurtigruten ship when we crossed the Arctic Circle in 2011, to be part of an ice baptism ritual and he was there again at the Equator when we cruised on the Costa Pacifica to Rio last year, and rather sportingly became part of a slapstick event involving flour and blue dye. And today we will be partying with the great sea god at 2 p.m. He must be a laugh a minute to spend time with in the sea!

My word it’s hot out there this morning. We had our morning coffee out on the deck and almost melted.  Glad to come inside for a Rumba lesson, lunch and then art (a beautiful quite calm seascape, with frothy waves breaking on the shore). 

I had an extra art lesson at breakfast, as Easa joined us – all about the eyes. I am so happy. Today I learned about highlighting eyelids to create the impression of roundness and softness.  I have had a go at this in pencil for now, and will ask Khachik to sit for me later.

There’s one more sea day after today before we reach Samoa and set about learning some more about Polynesian Village life, and a trip to parts of the islands which are believed to be the inspiration behind one of the most famous characters from South Pacific the old much loved movie from my childhood, Bloody Mary.  Remember “HappyTalk”, and “Balihai” (spelling?).  I can too.

Anyway for now bye. Much love to you all. x

Sunday 8/2/2015 Day 34 Pacific Bliss and Captain’s Coffee Morning for the World Cruisers!

I haven’t mentioned the cruise speakers recently, so this second of 5 sea days might be a good opportunity.  Nick Owen came on for about a week and spoke about his years presenting a.m. telly with Ann Diamond.  He also did an interview on the P and O chat show. We both enjoyed listening and found him more interesting than we had imagined, very open about the warts an’ all, and quite humble.

“Marlene” from Only Fools and Green Green Grass, spoke twice too once with her bio and a lot of clips from the various series she has performed in, and once just about Only Fools. We didn’t realise how much she’d achieved in her career, apart from Marlene.  There are other speakers we haven’t listened to because the promotional info sounded a bit tedious – e.g. one of the Queen’s former butlers talking about Royal food and life, someone else was more than “mentioning the war” actually detailing it every day for a week,  and Ken Joy was talking about entertainment in the last century.

As for passenger participation there’s a talent contest in the making, also a Strictly-style competition, and a brand new passenger choir. None of the above for us, for now at least ;)

You want to hear about yesterday’s art? Erm, so much laughter ++ it hurt. The monkey picture this sector is going to be like last sector’s koala bear for micky taking.  Strange faces and hair, sad looks, arrogant looks, interpretations quite unique and absolutely hilarious!!!!! Easa our art teacher said he’d go to his GP at the end of the cruise for a referral for counselling – he was only joking, at least I think he was. Next up a Pelican.

And dancing the Quickstep?  Not as bad as first time.  It’s all about the repetition. Maybe by sector 5 we’ll be able to do it without support, or maybe not.  We’ll enjoy watching P and O Strictly in any case on 18^th of this month.

Now for the Captain’s Coffee morning…. The 500+ world cruisers got another chance to meet the Captain and senior officers over coffee and cookies.  We were also on something like a “blind date” – there’s a story if you would bear with us.  Last December we were on the Costa Pacifica to Rio and two of our then dinner mates, Pam and Domenic, also became good cruise mates. When we mentioned we were going on a world cruise next Pam said so were her sister and partner. We knew their names but nothing else, so we wrote them a letter, passed it to reception and waited for a reply. This morning there was a voicemail from them on our cabin phone – describing their clothes and distinguishing marks!  Success. I found the couple no problem at the coffee morning and made contact.  Still finding there are hundreds of faces I don’t feel I’ve seen before, and we’re already into the 5^th week, and have cruised 11,600 miles. 

With love until tomorrow from the Pacific, heading south west to Pago Pago, in American Samoa X

Tuesday 3/2/2015 Day 29 - 4 absolutely wonderful and fascinating weeks at sea

What a night, and a day. Even though the temperature outside has risen to 20C again, there are some very strong winds (ship’s info reports force 7 overnight and force 8 now, sea state rough, swell short and moderate) and really heavy rain. These have meant nobody is allowed out on the decks, doors are locked and we are advised to keep the balcony doors closed.  Everyone holding on to the rails when walking, and, for my yogi friends, standing postures all very unstable, nearly lost it in my wide leg forward folds, and my practice had to be split into two today.

There are going to be few doctor consultations for sea sickness I think. Not for me though I have three contingency arrangements.  If gazing at the horizon doesn’t work, I am going to try the one eye closed technique, and if that doesn’t do it the Stugeron will be out of its packet for the first time. An early night anyway as lying down and feeling the ship rock and roll feels lovely.

Last night was the Captain’s Gala dinner and we had the best dinner yet (five courses from Marco Pierre White’s menu, the main course of which consisted of the most delicious lobster EVER, and the puddings were extremely chocolatey and decadent). Photo opportunity with the Captain duly taken J.  Then we went to the Black Tie Ball and danced our three favourites – foxtrot, jive and waltz. Getting a little bit more brave by the day.

Because of the near gale force winds today there was no deck walking, so for tonight there’ll be no pudding for me! Enough said. There’s always the 10 flights of stairs, walking the corridors, potentially the jogging, rowing, cross training machines and lots of different exercise classes in the gym. Potentially I say, because apart from yoga and Pilates I don’t fancy anything else at the moment.  So instead I joined a craft class and came back to the cabin with a fabulous card making kit.  See what I mean about something for everyone all of the time.

At our dance class with Jeffrey and Brenda today we danced the waltz, in every direction with a lot of attention on posture, arms and transferring the weight more positively. I would go so far as saying we wouldn’t be worried at all if we were invited to dance this one without our teachers. As long as the lights are low, and nobody looks for too long!

Now today’s art was something else. A water colour of a whale’s tail above the sea, and its shadow on the sea’s surface. I cannot believe how life like mine looks. I showed it to my dinner mates tonight and they said it looked like a photo! Is this just a one off I wonder, or a turning point?  Khachik’s is wonderful as always, with a different interpretation of the sea state. We are both very happy.

KHACHIK'S

MINE

So, another 2 sea days to Hawaii, where rumour has it the temperature is 28C. We are assured this storm will have passed and we will all be feeling comfortable again soon.  

I will be back to confirm! x

Day 19 Saturday 24th January 2015 Sea Day leisurely progress towards Mexico, with glimpses of whales

Last night there was a beautiful newish moon and reflection in the sea at bed time.  How good are the peace and opportunity to take time to notice. Then the clocks went back one hour again and we are now 6 hours behind GMT. Although I originally wanted to Skype lots, the window for Skyping is now mainly the morning here, to avoid bedtimes there, and then only in port when we can get better speed wi-fi.  So the blog and Facebook are doing all the work for now.

The temperature has been a consistent 28C since we got to the Caribbean, today clear blue skies are back after a cloudy start, live music on the top deck and half a dozen different kinds of music in various indoor venues.  There’s a passenger choir who meet every day for an hour and who will be performing before we get to San Francisco on 31^st.  Today at art (when painting the infamous koala!) we found out that all of our offerings are going to be exhibited in the gallery on 29^th. How exciting,  I might have to make one or two (maybe a few) of my slightly disappointing ones disappear, but I am happy that Easa, our teacher  thinks they are worthy.

Around about 2 p.m. I returned to our cabin to get into my swimsuit after lunch – and while I was there Khachik and everyone else on the Lido deck saw a hump backed whale. Sadly it had disappeared by the time I got back, but it seems they are out there and when we get to Cabo for our Whale Watching Excursion we will I’m sure get close up. As Khachik had been noticing how many really obese people there were sunbathing in tight swimsusits, I am sorry to say that I thought he was referring to someone on board when he said he'd seen a hump backed whale.

Bye for now.

Day 14 Monday 19th January 2015 – A day at sea on the way to Aruba

We are now sailing along the most northerly coast of South America. The sea is 2 miles deep today, sorry not to be consistent, I can remember the Captain saying miles but not metres and my brain is too relaxed to convert it!  It’s 28C and a little bit cloudy now, although it has been clear most of the day, and all the sun loungers have been occupied. At several times of the day there’s a dj on the pool side playing a pleasant variety of music from the 60’s 70’s and 80’s.  In fact there’s a place for everyone on the sea days, people who want to stay indoors playing cards, people who want to learn how to use their I-pads, exercise, learn a language, make jewellery, patchwork, cross stitch, drink in a pub, do pub quizzes and play bingo, lie in the sun, pamper in the spa, shop in Harrods or buy clothes and jewellery, learn to use a camera,or ipad,  learn about art in the gallery as well as starting to paint, and use the library, practice yoga, work out in the gym, swim, listen to celebrity speakers.

There are no sea vessels anywhere to be seen, just miles and miles of subtly changing sea, sun and clouds. As we are not too far from islands there are now regular visits from seagulls and plenty of flying fish for them to dive for.  Because there haven’t been any big ones we have booked a whale watching excursion when we reach Mexico. This must be the best option, I am really longing to see whales and dolphins.  

We have had a restful sea day: art and dance classes, pool to cool down, deck walking and deep stretching. The art task was to sketch then paint an Indian woman, crouching on the ground digging or planting.  We are both pleased with our results.

 I chatted with our art teacher Easa today and asked him about his life since moving away from Manchester. It was so good to hear that his daughter is one of the production team for Pointless, we will be watching the credits from now on, and reminding us ourselves of the coincidences and stories of the cruise.

The dance class was mainly Ballroom Tango, with revision of the Rumba. We really need to practise, on our own and when other people are near enough to tread on.  Khachik has a cold and is dosing up on the day/night nurse, and taking it easy.

Have I mentioned that there’s afternoon tea 3-5 p.m. and there is a choice of cakes, scones, toasted tea cakes, hot food, sandwiches and fresh fruit? I have given the chocolate cake some stick this afternoon.  I try to eat fruit and drink peppermint tea at this time to make sure my clothes will still fit in the summer at home, but not today! It was really delicious

And did I mention dinner ;) ? We have 5 adventurous courses, starter, soups, sorbet, main, dessert, cheese and biscuits/chocolates, coffee and teas.  Tonight it’s a Gala Dinner with a menu by Marco Pierre White. It’s looking exceedingly good.  If anyone needs a special diet, the head waiter, Jovi, brings the following nights menus and the chef will make sugar free, gluten free, fat free, dairy free variations of the menu, so people on special diets never end up with a boring option.  Khachik does this with the desserts.  We have to scrub up and wear black and white tonight. It’s fun though. Make up, earrings the lot for me.

Of course that formal dinner arrangement is also a choice, you can have snacks 24 hours a day and eat things like burgers and chips, salads and sandwiches too.  You can choose from 5 different restaurants, some buffet, some waiter service. We have chosen formal evening and informal buffet lunch.  We will get to know 3 other couple really well this way in the evenings, and then meet and chat to many different people but not get to know them all as well at breakfast and lunch.

Signing off for now, next stop Aruba! Back tomorrow.

Day 11 Friday 16th January – the first seagull for 5 days

The Caribbean islands are just one night away now, 200-ish miles. We have just seen the first seagull for 5 days. :) The sea is even deeper, I heard the captain say 5000m.  It is another shade of blue today, more royal blue, and stunning. Our direction is more south-westerly now so we can even lie in bed and watch the sunrise as our cabin is on the port side. Every morning we try to get a sunrise pic, soon we can compare the sunrise as well as the art work.

At breakfast we met a couple.  The common ground?  Just 3 questions to get there! Where are you from? Hampshire, but not always, originally North Manchester. Oh I have family in Middleton. That’s where my parents live. It soon moved on to football teams, Dutch surnames and this season’s disappointments. Enough said.

Today’s lunch was slightly different in that there was an ice carving demonstration on the very hot pool deck, followed by an open air barbecue and live easy listening entertainment. The factor 50 was out today, as we haven’t sat in the sun until today, generally just passed through it to eat indoors, or had the odd 10 minutes in the open air hot tub. Today we were in the midday sun for about an hour and both felt the need for sun block as we are getting into a more tropical climate. Just as an aside, on the subject of heat, my joints feel the best they have been since Rio, even my shoulder. This is such good news and all contributes to feeling well.  The two women pictured with the ice carving became regulars at art, On the left is Jane, on the right her sister-in-law who was recently widowed.

Every day we get a noon navigation brief, followed by an explanation of something nautical, e.g. the origin of expressions like “go the whole hog” (slaughtering and serving a whole hog roast for a special on-board guest) “turn a blind eye” (Nelson putting the telescope to his blind eye to report all was well ahead) and today no explanation but there’s a superstition that you shouldn’t sail out of port on a Friday, because no good ever comes of it.

 

I can’t break the tradition of describing the fruits of our art class! “Good work” our lovely teacher says professionally and with such dignity, without laughing. We completed the snowy landscape, a copy of Easa’s original painting. Khachik’s looks great.  I wasn’t happy with my result.  I felt the colours were too bright, but Easa always says something constructive and maintains that if it makes you happy that is all.

The dance lesson yesterday was revision of the Quick step with the addition of a lock step. Bleuuugggh. Resigned to the fact that if there isn’t a person calling out EVERY step, we might lose it.  We thought we were getting better, but when he left us to the Quick step unaided at the end there was so much crashing and stamping on toes we will be lucky to be allowed back.  Today is going to be the rumba.  Back later with that info.  Probably next blog will be from St Maarten.  We are now 4 hours behind GMT.

Signing off for now, feeling super fit and stretched x

Day 9 Wednesday 14th – we can both paint a robin and dance the square tango!

Amongst all the new skills we are acquiring, painting robins and dancing the square tango are the best bits, but we have also started to look at the programme of talks and events during the day.  Today we had a lovely lunchtime hour with a young guitarist, half of a duo, who talked about the history of the electric guitar, origins of guitar music and styles and characteristics of famous guitarists.  He was a good player, I especially liked his Peter Green style rendition of Black Magic Woman. He was also really knowledgeable, encouraged questions, did many demonstrations and referred the audience to a couple of guitarists autobiographies that are in the ship’s library. I’m impressed.

Easa, the art teacher said Khachik’s robin today was beautiful, and it is. It is amazing how much we achieve in an hour, and after the class I feel I want to carry on.  This is good.  (“Compare the robin” will also be appearing on Facebook to entertain you in another 2 days when we are in St Maarten, high speed wifi permitting.) We will be changing media as we go round the world, using pencil and charcoal.  This pleases Khachik who unfortunately can’t distinguish colours.

After the dancing lesson today we were both aching a bit, probably because we’ve upped our game on the walking track.  We have walked. 7 laps today and danced the square tango for an hour (with a couple of breaks for demonstrations).  So to ease our aching legs we used a hot tub on the decks to soften up ready for a good stretch.  It was in the hot tub that we met a journalist and author, who  also called himself political activist. He and his wife are from Guernsey.  He is called Michael J, Milford and he was selling his latest book, even in the hot tub, sounds like sci-fi, called the Mansion, about someone who goes back in time to 1912, and tries to warn about the fate of the Titanic.

I have just found this on Amazon:

"Biography

I was born in 1938 in Guernsey Channel Islands, an Island just off the coast of France. When the war started I went to Halifax in Yorkshire England, and lived there for five years, returning to Guernsey at wars end. I did three years in the British army and five years in the merchant navy. I left school semi- illiterate. I could read, but my spelling was poor. For three years I lived in Australia, and went to Perth technical collage, and took courses in English and radio announcing, and passed on both subjects. I took up writing after I retired, as I had more time on my hands. My first book was called 'The Hypnotist' my second was called 'The Mansion' my third is called the 'Ernie Prettle story,' and my fourth is called 'Rainbows End', and I'm writing that now.

I'm 76 years old now, with no children of my own, and no-one to remember me, so I thought if I could leave something behind like a book on some persons book shelf, or in some-ones library, then in future some-one might remember me." 

With the extra walking, dancing, painting, immersion in water, stretching, lots of fruit, veg, seeds and fresh water we are feeling healthy.  We just have to deal with the quantities of food before we are worthy of body-is-temple status.

In our search for sea life I am delighted to say that the flying fish were active today, and where there are flying fish, there must be predators, so hopefully I will have some more sea life news tomorrow. We have passed the underwater mountain range, if you are familiar with tectonic plates you will understand why the sea was 1000m deep yesterday when we were travelling over it yesterday, and the sea is today much deeper, 3000 metres deep.

Signing off now, time is going very quickly, two more sea days until we get to the Caribbean. Back with you tomorrow.

Day 5, At sea from Vigo towards the Azores

SATURDAY already, and the time has started to go back, an hour last night and an hour tomorrow night.  We are on the Atlantic which interestingly is as still as a pond, no sign of sea life either, only stillness and bright sunshine, and a temperature of around 15C.

Today is a sea day, en route to the Azores, so far this has given us time for a cookery demonstration.  Then came our second art class – water colour of an autumn landscape, the original looks so subtle in natural grass and tree greens, dark reds and browns, and yet our trees look like poppies painted on astroturf against a vivid purple sky ;) It might be too embarrassing to share, so if I do post a pic it might be black and white.  Mine above, Khachik's below.  However Khachik has being colourblind as a possible reason ;)

We have also fully participated in our waltz class, without too many toe crunches  :) and a brisk deck 3 walk.  It’s both reassuring and unnerving on the Promenade deck.  This is where all the life boats are situated, it looks as though there are 20 with approximately 100 capacity each, and loads of huge barrels containing inflatable life rafts for 35 people each.  There also seems to be the call to a safety drill for staff every day – for emergencies like fire, man overboard etc. it’s reassuring to know everyone knows exactly what to do and has practised regularly, but unnerving when you think deeply about what it all means.

We are still overwhelmed by the sea and the sky, we are so happy to have struck up many more conversations and made friendly eye contact and gestures in the art and dance classes with some like-bodied people. The nautical vocabulary is increasing, unfortunately not the Portuguese we’ll need tomorrow, but we will do our best, we know “obrigado” which with a smile will get us a long way.  Tomorrow we will be writing about the Azores as we sail away on the first of 6 sea days towards the Caribbean.  We are in short very happy here.  Bye for now.