Atlantic Crossing Day Three

It’s been much warmer today (and I don’t just mean in our cabin, which is still doing an impression of an oven). It’s been so warm that after finishing my morning classes (seaspray and sandpaper), we chose to eat lunch indoors as it was so hot out. When we’d completed lunch, we went up to the front of the ship, but could only stand the heat for about 10 minutes. Even the wooden handrail was too hot to lean against.

My two Mindelo boat paintings were well received in the class (in fact, I had my hand snapped off for the pair), so I’m currently preparing more. As I had some other work I needed to be doing, the painting will have to wait until tomorrow.

We spent the afternoon in the Columbus Lounge because that seems to be the coolest public place on the ship at the moment (but don’t tell everybody otherwise there will never be any empty chairs there…). After a late afternoon cup of tea, we headed up to the top deck, where the temperature was at a more tolerable level, and watched the sun set. We weren’t alone up there; there is something very magical, and slightly eerie, about watching the sun set in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where nothing but sea can be seen in every direction; no land, no birds, no other ships, and to Robin, the wildlife lecturer’s, disappointment, no whales or dolphins.

This evening, after dinner, we sat on the back deck, drinking tea, watching the stars and enjoying the pleasant mid-Atlantic evening air. As the wake of the ship disappeared into the darkness behind us, I took this photo with the camera on my phone because I thought it summed up the atmosphere on the Marco Polo rather well…

There’s only one more full day at sea to go before we hit land again. Tomorrow, we’ll be crossing the equator and then we’ll be just one sleep away from the mouth of the Amazon (and bug-heaven… Tracey can hardly wait…)