October 4th and 5th Sea days

It’s amazing how sea days can lull you into doing nothing except watching the waves or water if there are no real waves, it very  hypnotic.  For the last couple days that’s how it’s been.

Yesterday I did manage to start packing, and Ed went to a navigation meeting he really enjoyed. Then we had the captains cocktail party in the evening. Would you believe the most traveled guest, had 1,370 days!  We don’t have to worry about making that, we won’t live long enough.  We met a nice couple and were able to talk directly to the captain on the way to dinner. 

Yesterday was special as 21 years ago, yesterday I became a grandmother, and yesterday Morgan turned 21!  Wear did the time go? 

Today I will try to pack another bag, learned from a dear friend that’s the way to do it, a little at a time. Tomorrow is our last Formal night and Ed has decided not to wear his tux, as people on here, are not dressing, and he just had it cleaned, so now it will be ready for the next time we cruise. And right now, that won’t be until December of 2020.  As we have a couple of graduations on the agenda, and we don’t want to book anything that might interfere. 

September 30th, and October 1st and 2nd at sea

We awoke Monday September 30 to calm seas and bright sunlight.  Beautiful day as we headed southwest to take the southern route across the mid Atlantic, 9 sea days to pass behind hurricane Lorenzo as the hurricane moved northward. We sat out on our deck and enjoyed the beautiful sea day.  Here I should say I sat out on the deck and took a nap, Marlon, our room steward, brought us blankets, and I put them to good use. 

Then as we were readying for diner, the Captain came on with an announcement that we were deviating from course to Madeira and rendezvousing with a Madeira coast guard boat to transfer an ill passenger off the ship.  

This cruise has had multiple medical emergencies of passengers transferred, we had one airlifted by helicopter to France by the French AF, and six others departing by ambulance at various ports along our journey.  Once the transfer was complete we were once agin on our way.

Tuesday morning brought another beautiful sea day with calm seas and blue skies. We continued our southwesterly heading at 18 knots and looked forward to the next seven sea days.  We can always hope,,,,,, we don’t mind the bouncing, but Wednesday morning started at 0330 with a large bang, we have now checked to see what woke us up, but the cause is unknown, however the seas had turned nasty, away we went as the seas were part of an angry mess left behind by hurricane Lorenzo.  

This morning the Captain provided an update of our position and precautions to be taken while in the rough seas.  Fortunately the weather is warm 79 degrees, wind is west southwest at 17 knots with clear skies. The Captain indicated the seas should reduce this evening.  

We just had the superintendent of the cabin stewards here to check on the banging, and the issue with our bed, he has no idea what’s going on with the banging, which was relentless in the AM, but said he would try to fix the mattress problem, Cindy got very little sleep last night, on the Heavenly bed, she told him it was a bed from HELL!  LOL  so we shall see. 

September 29th, Lisbon, Portugal and September 30th sea day

We arrived in Lisbon in the dark, so even with the alarm for 6:30 o’clock it was DARK!  We had missed sail in, but that was ok as we had seen it before and could see it leaving. Lisbon is a very pretty city and we have always enjoy our visits here. 

We went down to breakfast and had a good one, and then to the wheelhouse bar to get our number for the buss. I talked Ed into going down early, and were we glad we did, as it was at least a mile to the bus. The Lisbon terminal is huge, I think it was new from the last time we were here. So we found our bus and chose the front seat, this was another gastronomical tour and a drive by some of the sights, that we saw in the past. So we knew we would probably not get off the bus to see them again. 

This is the famous bridge that is a copy of the golden gate, and they are quite proud of the connection. 

This is a brand new shopping mall and I wouldn’t have minded going inside and looking around, but this was a Sunday and all but the necessaries we closed, and we didn’t need to go, so we stayed on the bus.  As you can see from this photo it was an incredible day. 

There were lots of people enjoying the day, they had an iron man capitation, and various other things going on, so streets were closed and they couldn’t really show us things that were scheduled. 

We finely arrived at the restaurant about noon. And were escorted to the garden, that used to be where they stabled there horses 

This meal was  either fish or veal definitely should have both ordered the fish, as it was incredible, the veal was good but not as good as the fish. 

It was wonderful and I’m still suffering from all the wine and port they kept feeding us. 

Me and the chef

When we returned to the ship it was again the loooooong walk back, and by now it was HOT 🥵 

Sail-a-way was spectacular, and the captain came on to tell us about Lorenzo and that we weren’t going to the Azores, then he sen a revised letter later to give us more details that sounded good to us, anything to avoid the hurricane. 

Note the dolphins on the base of the bridge. 

So today is the first of Nine sea days we will have, and it is very smooth and sunny, and they decided it was also Formal night! I wish they would have waited a bit for that, but I’m sure the patter had been printed, and they didn’t want to redo them, oh well. We’re not all that excited about it......... 

Until tomorrow: