Day 5 - At Sea

Day 5 – Tuesday 14^th January 2014 – At Sea

It is nothing like this as the Atlantic gale persists and we are down to just over 12 knots.  The skies are overcast and the deck areas are still closed off and those with balconies are advised to keep the doors closed.

The morning of gym sessions were very enjoyable as the exercises are becoming a little easier.  Today, I found just behind the gym on the starboard side, a door leading to a changing/locker room, with an adjoining shower room and a sauna.  I am a great admirer of this type of relaxation, so it is kit off and into the sauna.  Now these are normally a wooden box in which you gradually cook until you perspire profusely.  The difference here, the box has only three wooden sides with a stove in the corner with the coals on top to throw the water on.  The fourth side has a clear window from the deck head (ceiling) to deck (floor). So, here you are, sat on the wooden bench on Deck 9 in your birthday suit, lathed in sweat looking out to the sea, watching a gale raging in the Atlantic Ocean, it is surreal.

Today’s dance class was the samba, more wiggling with little else to show for it, though the ship’s movement helped everyone in a strange sort of way to get round the floor.

The lunch and pints in Weatherspoon’s was accompanied by the ship’s orchestra playing traditional jazz and they were great.  At 14.00, there was an informal masonic meeting held on Deck 10 in the Admiral’s Lounge, ten of us turned up.  We could not really achieve or organise anything, as most of the others are leaving the ship in New York, but two of us are going all the way round and await to see if others may attend forthcoming meetings.  We all received certificates, stating we had all met on the Queen Elizabeth.

Took advantage of Deck 3 being open and with movie camera took pictures all the way round the deck, to show how this ship operates in bad weather.

Dress code tonight is either formal or informal, monkey suit for me.  Pre-dinner drinks and canapés in the Café Carinthia, we were back to our normal G&T’s which were cheaper than today’s cocktail special.  Dinner consisted of scallops/lamb/caramelised banana, it was delicious.  For the first time our table for six was full, with Colin and myself, Linda and Richard a couple from Norfolk who run a bed & breakfast business.  Alison and Joanne, who are both lawyers from the Bristol area.   

On leaving the restaurant, everyone swaying along the lavish corridor making our way from the stern to the forward end and into the theatre to see again the country singer Zac Winningham and this show was even better than his first.

Finished the night in the Golden Lion with a trivia quiz, hosted by Laura, (a look alike of Kate Bush) and she is unreal, a complete fruit and nut case.  We all went to bed with a smile and the gale maybe starting to ease.