At last! Tod..ay was hot and sunny enough to sunbathe and swim on the sun decks. Yesterday, was half and half and still too windy really to make stripping off attractive. Nonetheless we did sit out on deck all morning and enjoy the sun while it was out and the fresh air all the time. We’d headed south from Madeira and then in late afternoon turned west and began our crossing route. Today we are about 800 miles from Madeira with about 2000 left to run.
Today we spent all day out there around one of the 4 pools available. We started at the Enclave Pool which is adults only and situated near the bow. It was pretty windy still despite the sun due to the apparent wind caused by our speed – we are making about 18 knots. Looks like we left Madeira just in time. Some pictures and video in the news of the sea breaking over the harbour walls and damaging boats. After lunch we moved to the main Sky pools which are midships. It was a lot more sheltered there, hardly any wind could be felt and we enjoyed sunbathing and reading.
Bob has had two gym sessions both days and countless hot tub soaks. I had one soak with him this morning. It was really nice to relax there with the sea passing by us. There are a lot of spa pools and they don’t get crowded. We had this one just to ourselves. The gym on the ship is absolutely huge. The biggest I’ve ever seen at sea. So many different machines all very high tech. It was well frequented.
It’s a relief to get some sun and it is forecast to last all the way to Florida on the 20th now.
Saw a very interesting talk from a couple of the navigation officers showing and explaining all the navigation equipment on the bridge. Again, all very high tech. We also saw one from the main ship’s doctor and one of the paramedics. That was interesting. There are 11 in the team. They cannot actually perform surgery on board and that surprised me, especially given the distance from land on a voyage like this. Too far to be helicoptered off so that makes you think a bit….