Day 3 - At sea

Day 3 - Sunday 11th January 2014 - At Sea

Day 3 – Sunday 12^th January 2014 – At Sea

                                    Atlantic Ocean as seen from the ship’s stern doing 19 knots.

Awake at 09.00, it had been a slightly rocky night with force 6/7 winds outside. Into to the gym for over an hour then to a meeting held by the staff entitled the flat belly seminar,  wasted on me.

Into the ballroom for the lunch time dance session, made an idiot of myself trying to do the cha-cha-cha., more wiggling required.

It was into the Golden Lion for the match, amazingly over a ploughman’s lunch with pints of Speckled Hen (my favourite) watched the Manchester City versus Newcastle game on the tele, with a perfect picture.  Pity about the score but we were 400 miles North West of Cape Finnesterre in Northern Spain.

Second formal night and all done up again, my penguin suit came with a waist coat, afraid it will be left in the wardrobe (that’s the flat belly seminar for you).  It was the Captain’s Welcome Party, we all had to form an orderly queue before being presented to him, hands shook, pictures taken and after a few friendly words, ushered into the ballroom to be given champagne and canapés.  We mingled with the ship’s officers and other invited guests (we were the second sitting lot).  I introduced myself to the Chief Engineer, Jason Truman and discussed the forthcoming voyage.  The Captain/Master, Chris Wells, this man is a star, introduced in a very light hearted manner, each of his main officers, from all of the different departments who keep this ship running.  He also informed us of the guests on board.  There are 240 doing the world wide cruise (which includes us), with a total of 1900 passengers on board, speaking 24 different languages.  A crew of 900, who spoke 40 different languages, giving a total compliment of 2800 persons on board.

For dinner this evening, it was crab/lemon sole/cheese cake.  The service is wonderful and of course, a bottle of wine with the meal.  Myself and Colin will alternate each night on the choice of wine.

Part of the night’s entertainment was the London Ball and some of the guests were into the occasion with full union jack suits and dresses.  The best one for me was the man dancing with his lady, on his head balanced a bobby’s helmet with a flashing blue light, brilliant.  For us, it was into the theatre to watch the comedian, he was very funny for someone with the ship rolling and pitching in a full gale.  The theatre is situated at the forward end on Decks 1,2 and 3.  The stage curtains were swaying back and forth, as the ship occasionally slammed into the waves. The comedian sliding about trying to keep his balance while doing the impossible of stand-up comedy.

On Deck 10 back into the Yacht Club for an Abba night, a lot more people in the room tonight, after the night caps, return to the cabin; another eventful day.

 Not advisable to go on deck, the weather is deteriorating.