First Sea Day
Today has been our first full day at sea, and a very relaxing one at that. After a leisurely ‘full english’ breakfast (including black pudding, which always gains bonus points in my book)), we walked 8 laps of the Promenade Deck, which equates to just over 2 miles (a sign on the wall there tells us that 3.9 laps = 1 mile). One has to keep on top of those black puddings you know…
The Promenade Deck is the only deck that provides us with a full circuit, featuring a convenient ‘tunnel’ at the front end that connects both sides (instead of having to pass through the interior to link them up).
As always, we kept our eyes focused on the sea as we walked, in the hope of spotting any marine wildlife that may decide to drop by. Despite the surface of the sea being as still and smooth as a millpond (making it perfect for dolphin watching), there wasn’t a lot to see. There were a lot of ships in the vicinity, large and small, and many gannets wheeling around the local airspace, but nothing even vaguely dolphin-like.
Having said that, the ship does appear to have picked up a hitchiker; we spotted a little bird hopping around, that Tracey identified as a Chiff Chaff.
All lectures in the Playhouse Theatre are being streamed live to the in-cabin TVs. This gives passengers the option to watch in comfort without having to go the the theatre should they wish, which also enables the ship to maintain social distancing within the theatre. Current rules are also that anyone attending the theatre must be wearing a mask the whole time; for some, that makes watching it from the cabin a more comfortable option. I watched an enjoyable lecture by Stuart St Paul, with stories of his time as a stuntman and actor on films and TV, as diverse as Mrs Browns Boys and Aliens. Remember the old Carling Black Label adverts? (I bet he drinks Carling Black Label…), with a surfer bursting through the door of a pub? That was Stuart. Also; the mother alien – in ‘Aliens’ – was built around two actors who physically inhabited the creature and basically made it move… one of those two actors was Stuart. He had lots of behind-the-scenes anecdotes, and I very much look forward to seeing more of his talks (I’ll probably go along to the theatre next time, though).
In an ongoing bid to keep all guests safe, regular Covid testing for everyone will be taking place in the afternoons between 2 and 5. For our first test, we had to attend the Brittania Lounge at 14:50pm, where a poke of the nostrils took mere seconds, and results were telephoned to our cabin within minutes of our return. I must say, despite the inconvenience of all the covid-related stuff, their implementation has so far been incredibly smooth and hassle-free.
Our cabin is situated on the starboard side of the ship – that’ll be the right side, then. With us travelling in a roughly southerly direction, that means our balcony was in the shade up until about 2pm. After that, the sun had moved around far enough to allow us to sit out there and enjoy the warmth. I should also mention the fact that the sea has remained pleasingly calm all day. By early afternoon, according to the Captain’s noonday address, we had officially entered the Bay of Biscay. The bay can generally be relied upon to go one of two ways, although ‘rough and unpredictable’, or ‘bouncy and angry’ would probably sum up the majority of previous crossings. There are the occasional crossings where the sea plays nice, though, and I’m pleased to say that – so far at least – this would appear to be one of them.
It’s a sea day again tomorrow. All being well, I will be running my first class, once in the morning and then repeated in the afternoon. Sign-up for the class is due to happen at 8:30am, when 20 places are up for grabs for each session, with the first class starting at around 10am. I say ‘all being well’, because I won’t know times for sure until we receive tomorrow’s daily programme this evening. I’m all prepped and ready to go, and can’t wait to get stuck into teaching a group again.
