RELAXED CRUISING

Today’s classes were on Negative Painting, both of which seemed to go down well, with some good results. It can be a tricky technique for beginners to get their heads around, although most folks seem to enjoy it once they grasp the concept and the penny finally drops.

Time between classes was spent either sitting on the balcony watching the world drift by, or sat on the small front deck next to the Britannia Lounge which Tracey only discovered just the other day. We had lunch on the verandah at the back of The Grill and enjoyed a beer and giant chocolatge chip cookie in the Living Room on Deck 5 after this afternoon’s session. All very relaxed and relatively stress-free.

Despite all the time looking out at the sea, there hasn’t been much to see, in the way of wildlife. There have been a few reports of turtles, and the occasional dolphin, but never in the direction, or the time, I’ve been looking. There have also been a few migrating birds taking a breather on the ship; there were two turtle doves sat on the front deck this morning, apparently, and we saw a tiny little bird flittering around the balconies this afternoon (some sort of warbler, I understand).

A distant, hazy North African coast has been visible off to our port side for most of the day, and the coast of Southern Spain off somewhere to our starboard side, as we head in a generally Westerly direction towards the Strait of Gibtraltar, which we are due to pass by at around 9am tomorrow morning (according to the Captain on this evening’s 6 o’clock update). Other than that, it’s been a day of steady cruising and generally nice, hot weather. Even the wind that has accompanied us for most of the trip held off – although, a breeze did get up again in the late afternoon. The loungers on the top deck will have been full for most of the day, and I expect to see a few well-barbequed faces at dinner this evening.

Tonight, we will be putting our clocks and watches back one hour, so we all get an extra hour in bed, which will be most welcome. We have one more sea-day tomorrow before we are due to arrive at our final port-of-call, Lisbon, in Portugal, on Friday.