Those of you that know me will know that for a long time I've considered the radio 4 music 'sailing by' to be a hypnosis mechanism, played every night, enough people hearing it a to keep us all drugged and under control... I think it works very well ... even on cruise ships ... even though we don't hear it we are just experiencing the reality of actual sailing by. Usually docile, pliant, in some cases asleep... etc...
But..... after the sail away party held as we left Antigua... I'm not quite sure... given the state of most of these cruises it was positively riotous - People dancing on the side of the pool - brandishing walking sticks - chanting YMCA -complementary rum punch flowing freely.... Alot of ABBA...chaos...almost reminisent of raving at Tall Trees - at one point I thought everyones going to jump in the pool.... (🤣🤣NOT)
Everyone was obviously up for the party... the caribbean spirit captured and carried away. It was a very bouyant atmosphere and lasted long into the night.
We paused 'partying' to do a stargazing session. Only it was windy and partly cloudy. The wind was so wild we weren't allowed on the sky deck so Dr Fred did what he could through the retracted roof but the ship was buffeting quite a lot and this was causing the swimming pool to empty itself... it was noisy and impossible to do the session justice. So we all went downstairs and did plan B instead. This entails using a tape measure with 'to scale' planets marked on it. We used an olive to represent the sun and off Dr Fred went.... through the earth room into the book marks cafe to end up approximatly 30 metres down into the library...
I've aiready lost count of days to landfall.. (5 i think)..
The great day of the scrap heap 'build a boat' challenge arrived. First full day at sea on the way home. We had a busy morning finishing off the final touches to the boat. It was looking good.. good engineering combined with inventive design concept - blue peter badges all round. We were all very pleased with it... and then the message came. Due to bumpy weather the swimming pool was closed - there would be no ship launching today😮💨. We werent surprised especially after watching the pool slosh itself empty on the high seas the evening before. It was disappointing but the event would be rescheduled for later in the week. The biggest problem was where to store the boat - it was quite big and took alot of space up😂. *********** & co shipbuilders ( that is not a swear word but respect for non identification on blog) have a posh cabin but still a compact ( but clever design) space and now its accomodating a model icon of the seas..... photo of finished design to follow... its under wraps until launch......
In the afternoon we attended a small exclusive cocktail party in the aforementioned posh cabin... it was too windy to sit out on the balcony but we celebrated a birthday with the complementary fizz that came with the cabin, a ships birthday cake, and the 5.00pm canapes delivered every night.... this is the upper deck living life on a cruise.
Dr Fred had hosted a private lunch that day so we decided enough fizz had been partaken and for the evenings entertainment we watched the Whitney Houston film, 'I want to dance with somebody'.
4more days to the Azores ...
I had as near a jim- jam day as I can get on board this ship. I sat and drew or read all day on the stupidly uncomfortable recliner outside our cabin on the promenade deck. It was windy but pleasantly warm. The deck gets very little sun as it is covered... mostly by life boats, I suppose as the promenade deck it has to be shaded or people would get sun burnt. There are very few quiet sunny spots on the ship and none with comfortable seating. I know I keep going on about this but I think its a serious omission - other guests have also been quite vocal about this and its the single most disappointing feature about this ship and the Bolette. Our cabin is great, the food on this ship is good, the guests are really appreciative and friendly, the bars are plentiful and accomodating but its gloriously warm outside - how nice it would be to enjoy a large glass of red on deck on an evening....
Yes I am an ungrateful wretch... I know that if I was at home I would be enjoying a large glass of red under a heated blanket watching storms fly by...
Quiet pleasant day... read, eat, draw, sleep, repeat....
I had to rally to help Dr Fred with a stargazing session... its become patently obvious that I'm an essential part of his entourage🤣🤣. We make it very clear that hes the brains and I'm the glamour🤣🤣 but it is useful to have someone to chat with the guests particulary those who weren't aware about limited access. This was the best night so far... quite windy but managable, completely clear sky and no moon - everyone agreed.. stunning stargazing!
We had another nice surprise... post stargazing session we usually have a nightcap in the observatory bar, but this night it was kareoke🤔 so we went to the piano bar instead. We have had some dire experiences with piano players on these cruises so it was very pleasant to discover a chap with decent piano skills and a lovely voice. Better still his repartee was considerably more comtemporary than usual... quite refreshing.
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