A Day At Sea

Second sea day today. The ocean is calm and the weather warm. The fan tail of the ship is set up for dining and the serious sun lovers crowd in there, enjoying breakfast and baking themselves at the same time. On sea days, lectures are scheduled and we've heard a couple of decent ones. Yesterday a retired coast guard officer talked about the technical aspects of the ships steering, communication, port activities etc. and spouted the stats about how much water we use, how much food is handled daily, what kind of emergency preparedness is on-going. 

We walked a couple of miles on the course they have laid out for exercise, read a bit, gabbed with people and generally enjoyed the day pottering around.

We had reservations at the Toscana specialty restaurant on the ship for the evening. Our meal service was superb..you cannot fault it on this ship. At our table for six, everyone was pleased with their choices. I was seated next to a character from Texas who sported a mustache with long twirled points on the sides and a dazzling array of Disney decorations all over his person. His glasses had Mickeys on them and he wore a gold bracelet loaded with Disney charms. He was wearing D pins on his jacket and a Mickey necklace carved out of Formica. Even his wedding ring was a diamond Mickey on onyx. He regaled me with stories about his unicycle riding, juggling routine and his career as an accountant! An accountant! That was a surprise. This man and his wife travel all the time and like many others we've met, do a lot of cruising. By the end of the meal, we were comparing hearing aids and he had his out of his ears, disassembled on the table, showing me some of the finer points of his set. Ah, the joys of old age...at least he didn't take his teeth out!

I have no photos of the day yesterday...instead this is a shot taken from the edge of a cliff on Madeira a few days ago. Richard took it leaning way over a rail. Down at the bottom you can see plots of land under cultivation.