Friday – At Sea

Today, we’ve been at sea, heading towards our next destination, Sarande, in Albania, where we are due to arrive tomorrow morning.

Tracey and I spent the morning working on our laptops in the Orpheus Lounge (which is also where I hold my classes). It’s a great place to sit, positioned as it is, right at the front of the ship, with an expansive view of the way ahead. Today, the sea has been very calm, and the weather sunny, if a little breezy at times.

Lunch was a barbeque out on the Verandah Deck, which was very popular, as you can imagine.

One thing I love about this ship, apart from its very relaxed approach to everything, is the fact that it is the only ship I’ve worked on where vanilla ice cream is available at every mealtime (except breakfast), and that you can help yourself! Oh Yessssss!!!!!!

This afternoon’s workshop was on painting skies, which seemed to go down very well, leaving me with only one more class to go, which will be tomorrow afternoon.

Life on the Minerva is very different to every other ship I’ve worked on. It’s extremely relaxed (as I’ve mentioned several times before, I think); some might say slow (but then again, it’s each to their own… horses for courses n’ all that). There are no big shows; there’s no show team. Evening entertainment is generally classical in nature, although we’ve enjoyed the ‘All at Sea’ Theatre Company’s presentations, which have been a little bit different from the norm, and Gervais Finn’s after dinner speeches have been excellent.

It’s a very friendly ship, as you’d imagine; the restaurant staff, in particular, are very efficient and helpful; they have their eye on everything and never miss a trick. They’re right on the scene helping an elderly passenger to their table, or carrying another’s dinner for them… not in an intrusive manner by any means… just highly efficient.

Eating out on the Verandah Deck of an evening, when the temperature has cooled somewhat, isn’t a problem; they have overhead heaters for that. They even have tiny little wooden wedges under the tables to prevent them from rocking… they’ve thought of everything.

Oh… There’s one more thing that I really like about this ship… they serve black pudding at breakfast!