Wednesday – Happy New Year!
Today has been a sea day, and with news of another big storm coming in from the West, the Captain made an announcement at lunchtime telling us that another change has had to be made to the itinerary; tomorrow’s stop in Lisbon has been cancelled, to give us the chance of beating the storm before it hits the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel.
We now have two further days at sea, with a brief stop in Le Havre on Saturday afternoon, weather permitting. I suspect the change of plan has divided passengers; there will be those who will complain bitterly about not visiting Lisbon, whilst others will see the sense in the Captain’s decision and be relieved that we may, hopefully, avoid another crossing like our last.
This evening, the rocking and rolling has started again; not so violently as yet, but we’re expecting things to get rough again – once again, the hatches in our cabin have been battened down, and we’ve lost our sea view for the second time. It’s all good news for the sick bag fairy, who gets to do her stuff again… and it means an extra workshop for me.
In today’s workshop, I had everyone paint a boat; tomorrow, we’ll be painting a crashing wave, and the extra workshop I have planned for them will be a bluebell wood. For the first time since I can remember, I don’t think we’ll be holding an end-of-cruise exhibition, which is a shame, but all things considered, it’s probably for the best.
We’re on our way home now, and everyone’s holding their breath hoping the seas are a little kinder to us than they have been… fingers crossed!
