Atlantic Crossing Day Two

Today was Day two of our marathon Atlantic crossing, and it is getting noticeably warmer (33 degrees at one point in the day, apparently). The pool by the Eros Bar has finally been filled, and folks have been taking to the water to cool down – a little too late for some people, I fear, who are starting to resemble an army of giant lobsters.

After breakfast, we spent some time on deck, both at the back by the bistro, and at the front. Emerging outside from the inside is like walking into an oven; it’s just about bearable early in the morning, but by midday, the heat feels quite serious.

Once again, I spent the morning in the cabin, completing my first two Mindelo boat paintings which I took into class (just to prove that I can do proper paintings as well as the exercise paintings that I’m giving them). Today was the second session on trees; I had them painting summer trees. It was also the first time we’d noticed a slight dip in attendance, which we believe must be due to the warm weather.

We’ve had a couple of small drips from the ceiling in the craft area; today, I got dripped on again, from above. It’s always a bit of a worry when that happens, and you hope that there’s a good plumber on board…

It’s been nice to walk out on deck both in the morning, after breakfast, and in the evening, after dinner. Tonight, as we took our evening stroll along the side of the ship towards the pointy end, we came across a small black bird on deck. Considering how far away from land we are in any direction, it’s no surprise that the poor thing seemed quite tired and visibly stressed. Tracey tells me it was a petrel. We let it be, to recuperate in peace…

We haven’t been going to many of the big production shows. Not because we don’t like them but because we’ve seen them all many times before. We have been going to watch the guest acts, though, all of whom, so far, have been comedians; tonight, it was the turn of Gerry Graham, who comes from Derby (my home town), who we enjoyed very much.