Friday – At Sea – First Class (Again)

Today was the first official ‘Sea-day’ of this new cruise. We’re taking two days to sail to our next destination, Santiago de Cuba, so we’re basically sailing around the top edge of the island, at a very steady, unhurried pace.

Because it was a sea day, it meant I had to work. The turnout for Karen’s Craft class this morning had been light (14 people), so we weren’t entirely sure how many folks would turn up to the watercolour class. I have 25 sets of notes printed up, and twenty paint boxes had been brought on board on turnaround day (good sets, too, which I was very pleased about).

The class was due to start at 2pm. At 20 minutes to, the first passenger, a lady turned up, with her own kit, bagged herself a table then went off to get a coffee. By 15 minutes to, three or four more people had turned up. It was looking like my class would also have a light turnout. But then more people started turning up, followed by more… they just kept on coming… and by 2pm, there were 48 people crammed into the Explorer Room!

I desperately dashed off to the office to organise some extra copies of the notes. They were in black and white, but they’d have to do under the circumstances. The usual first-session chaos ensued as we sorted folks out with kits, paper, water and boards (thankfully, many people had brought their own painting materials, which made things much easier), but thing soon settled down and I was able to make a start withe ‘The Building Blocks of Watercolour’.

The class went well. For such a large number of people, they were very well-behaved and dutifully attentive, and at 3:30pm, they all seemed to leave satisfied with the content of the session and most seemed happy with what they’d produced (amazing since a large number of them were totally new to watercolour).

After the class, I felt quite drained, and was happy just to chill out on the back deck with a book and a few cups of tea.

It was formal night tonight, so Tracey actually managed to pursuade me to don my best bib n’ tucker. It didn’t stay on long, though; We were planning to go and watch the Classical Concert, but in the hour’s space between finishing dinner and the concert, we went back downstairs, dressed-down and watched a Star Trek: The Next Generation… (we’re not Trekkies; we’ve simply taken it upon ourselves to revisit the series in its entirety for no particular reason). After that, we couldn’t be bothered to dress back up again, and finished up chilling out in the cabin watching more Star Trek.

We’ve taken to finishing our evenings with a cup of tea on the back deck, which is generally deserted late at night. The air is a little cooler, and it’s nice to watch the ship’s wake disappearing into the gloom and the stars and moon dancing around the sky to the rythm of the ship. Lurrrvly!…