Sunday – Atlantic Squalls

People are funny, aren’t they? I’m on Deck 4, right down in the bowels, at the back end of the ship. I emerged for breakfast at around 8am, and noticed, as I reached the bottom of the stairwell that leads up to higher decks, that the lift doors were open and that two men were working on it. I don’t know what they were doing, but they had toolboxes open, and seemed to be fixing one of the metal strips on the floor and laying down some new carpet. At the same time that I passed the lift, another gentleman appeared from the other side of the ship. We both briefly paused to glance at what was happening with the lift, then proceeded to head up the stairs (which is what I do every morning anyway – I haven’t used the lift yet…. I often wonder at how awkward it must be, though, for people who are on that deck, and who are are unable to use the stairs when the lift is out of action). So, I let the other chap go ahead of me, and we headed up the stairs…

At the next landing; blow me if the chap didn’t go up to the lift, press the button and wait.

I felt obliged to suggest to him that the lift probably wouldn’t arrive, since we’d just seen it being worked on, on the floor below. He shook his head, looking slightly embarrased, but I couldn’t help wondering, as I left him and dashed upstairs (Marcos is on Deck 8), if he simply cimbed another flight of stairs and tried again.

Today has been another day at sea. I spent the morning completing another Mindelo Boats painting, and this afternoon I had the classes painting figures. It was very much a ‘play’ session, where the emphasis was on exploring methods of creating figures in their simplest forms, to populate a landscape or a street scene. Most people seemed to enjoy the open-endedness of it, without a fixed target, the pressure was off… all very enjoyable!

Tonight was our second formal night. Again, I didn’t feel like dressing up (what Neil Bonner calls his ‘Penguin’ costume). It’s far too hot and humid, and not having anyone to swan around with is a bit of a downer. Instead, I ate dinner in Marcos with Peter Counsell and his wife, Jean, and purchased a couple of cans of beer and a glass to take down to the cabin.

As we sat eating, the heavens opened up. Outside, the Pool Deck was quickly evacuated, and staff brought down the large sun parasols, to avoid them being whipped away in the sudden high winds. The rain was so intensive that the outer edges of the deck soon became flooded, and passengers looked on mesmerised; quite a spectacle, actually. It was a good job we’d had the ‘Summer Buffet’ the night before. Having done this trip four times before, I don’t recall ever having seen any rain at this particular point in the trip.

The rain persisted for an hour or more; it was still falling heavily when I bid farewell to Peter and Jean and headed to the cabin for an evening of movies (Nightcrawler… excellent film!), The Sopranos, chocolate and beer.