All out to sea in a big tin boat

Friday 4th November

It’s the end of our two week cruise and I need to provide a capsule comment to capture the essence.

The first few days of the cruise had rougher weather than I like, and that dimmed my view a little. Imagine walking forward at an average pace across a room. At a point when you have all your weight on one leg, the ship moves, and the direct ion your next leg will land becomes uncertain. It might be forward, then it might be back, then it’s slightly sideways. The ways were up to 5 metres, and the deck probably moved 10 centimetres, so we weren’t really affected, it just made balancing fun! It made me have a constant low level of tummy discomfort, but not enough to do anything about it.

A cruise across the Atlantic with very few stops was an interesting way to enforce a rest period. I had a few days where for the first time I really missed my fabric and sewing machine. I spent long enough on the counted cross stitch bookmarks from the UK to realise that I was lacking a few things, like perfect stillness, good light and a magnifying glass! Roll on Us quilt shops! I want a charm pack and a template, and that’ll do! Not going to wait anymore for a nice pack, or ‘something I like’. Just want to be able to sew!
The food seemed god a t first, with lots of choice, but we grew very blasé after the first few days and soon settled down to a routine. We probably had more variety available that Bob would cook at home, but six months of different restaurants has changed our expectations.
The beds are amazingly comfortable, and there were ok lounge seats in quiet bar to sit in during the day, and a full gym to use whenever we liked, which was not often enough! We saw a few shows and did a shore excursion on each of the two land days.

On the whole, it’s a huge floating hotel, and if you don’t like swimming, karaoke, bingo, art auctions, and fifty other amusements, then boredom is a short step away. So I played lots of computer games and read lots of books and caught up on lots of sleep! It is undoubtedly the least creative and most un-useful time I have spent in many a long year! And if I had spent my days pursuing happy shipboard amusements, that would still be true.

The first shore excursion was in the Azores. It was a grey windy day, so the reputed best view was actually the best end of the world experience ever, standing on a high point with grey cloud 50 metres away below in every direction. Then we stood on a cliff bluff at a sea side and were nearly blown off our feet. Afterwards we had a tour of a tea factory, and then off to bubbling volcanic springs and a sulphurous lunch cooked in natural steam.

The last (second) shore excursion was on St Thomas Island, which is one of the Virgin Islands, and is US territory. It really looked like a tropical island should, and included a half hour downpour that delayed for half an hour before we could start. We cruised on a catamaran, and then went snorkelling for the first time. The water was beautifully clear, and it was a little scary-strange feeling like I was flying over undersea coral hills and valleys. The fish and coral lived up to TV wildlife documentary expectations, and the water was warm. A nice inflatable vest kept me aloft on a bubble and it was an amazing experience! Standing and balancing on the front deck of a huge (50 people) catamaran was lovely, and the rain was as warm as the sea. I saw flying fish and booby gulls that scooped them up for lunch. It was the best day of the whole cruise!

Today we went for a last look at the art, as the ship had an art gallery that changed its exhibitions daily, as well as selling off as much as it could. We had been there a few times, and the stand out artist was a Spanish sculptor of bronzes, called Nano. They had over a dozen amazing pieces of his work, and we spent more time in front of those than the paintings. So we bought a frivolous camel which will arrive home in few months to wait for us. We own art! Cor!

Tomorrow is Miami, and a resumption of the active adventuring!