Today is either the last break between European ports before we are sea or it’s an early start to our long journey across the Atlantic. The winds will decide our fortune for tomorrow as we near the Azores. As for today, it was not bad. There were some surprises, a lot of the familiar and a whole lot of ocean.
The first surprise was how well we all slept last night. After passing Gibraltar the night prior and suddenly being woken up to drawers being opened and closed rapidly, we thought we were in for it for the rest of the trip. That would certainly make the remainder of the trip a slog. Thankfully, Kiley thought to pack painters tape and lent it to us to help hold them shut. It worked wonders and Jodie mentioned that her Oura ring said she slept great. Definitely a welcome surprise.
This morning, I thought that it might be a good idea to wait until the last moment to take Declan to breakfast. The reasoning behind that thought was that perhaps everyone had already been there and left. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
We passed through both sides of the cafe looking for a table. We went into the back area, to no success. We ended up going down a set of stairs far away from the buffet where we managed to find a two person table for the three of us. That meant not only did we have a long walk between us and the food, I stood up to eat and when I got the food I had to clench my teeth as more old people coughed into their hands and proceeded to use those hands to grab the serving utensils. That wasn’t the only part of the day that made me grossed out by the other cruisers.
For lunch, it was a little less crowded. However, Jodie pointed out that the glass I had grabbed for my lemonade had a massive granny lipstick mark on it still, obviously not cleaned off in the washing machine. We were both pretty grossed out about that. I told the bus boy who took it from me that I missed my grandma, but not that much.
Those two icky things aside, today has been a decent day. Jodie managed to go to the gym and do her workout. Declan played at the kids club a few times. I spent some time just admiring the awesomeness of the ocean.
At one point, I saw a white bird flying about a football field’s distance away from us. It surprised me to see this as we are nowhere near any land. I didn’t realize that there could be birds that would be able to fly this far out, but to my surprise it’s absolutely possible that the bird I saw was not just a stowaway.
Light Googling revealed my best guess, the Atlantic Fairy-tern. I guess it’s more of a southern sea bird, but it looks the most like what I saw. The other best guess is that it was the Holy Spirit, come to visit us and let us know things are going to be okay.
We have dinner scheduled at the premium steakhouse tonight. We have an onboard credit to eat there for free, so that should be pretty delicious. Jodie will get the filet mignon and is looking forward to it. I’m hoping for the fresh caught sea bird, myself.
Not a lot of pictures to show today. Instead, I’ll leave with a picture of our current location on the ocean as we head to the Azores. Regardless of whether we stop or not, tomorrow we will enter a new time zone, another hour closer to being back in our home time. (We will be four hours ahead of Eastern time zone as soon as we wake up.) Looking forward to it, but enjoying the ride so far.
I’d like to see more photos of your cruise ship room, if you don’t mind. I’m glad you’re having such a grand time. I’d be petrified to cross the ocean in a ship…thinking I’d end up like Jack from “Titanic”. The ocean scares me. I don’t like thinking about all the creepy things under the water that could kill me. Drowning is one of my biggest fears as well. Plant my feet firm on solid ground and I am ok! 🙂