Sunday 1st February, a sea day, 8 degrees

It was a beautiful morning. A slightly more choppy sea with white tops to the waves. There is no ukulele today but there is a Full Guest Drill and Safety Familiarisation session between 9.30 and 10.00 which we are told requires Mandatory Attendance – capital M capital A. I guess they want us to be there.

Question: Shouldn’t we have done this before we started. What if I had fallen overboard at Southampton or the ship had failed getting around the Isle of Wight. Luckily I didn’t and it didn’t! (Apparently it’s a mandatory requirement after 30 days at sea. Ed)

So things were a little more relaxed this morning. Given this being the case we started with a Joe Wicks session – and that is when we saw them – the birds! They were flying around just outside our window. Little white prions (having said this I have to confess I had not got a clue what they were – and when I was told I thought they were ‘crions’ and they sounded like something out of Star Trek!)

Having dashed through Joe we were out and up on the promenade deck – Keith a bit ahead of me as he could not wait!! I have to say I found it very difficult to get the door open it was so windy. The birds were out though. Our cabin is on the starboard side of the ship which is where the birds seem to like to be. The dark side this time of the morning. No sign of Keith so I walked around to the other side. It was definitely fresh! I found him looking out over the wash of the ship. – watching our first albatross sightings! They were the Black Browed Albatross. I guess the name just says it how it is!

It was glorious!

I was moved to quote Coleridge – from The Ancient Mariner

‘Oh Sleep – it is a gentle thing,

Beloved from pole to pole

To Mary Queen the praise be given

She sent the gentle sleep from heaven

That slid into my soul.’

…. And that is all I remember. I think I was moved by all that Albatross business….. because at another stage in the poem ‘the albatross fell like death into the sea’.. and that does totally exhaust my knowledge. (I think four albatross, nine Giant Petrels, lots of shearwaters including the sooty shearwater I’d not seen before and dozens, possibly hundreds of Antarctic Prions. Ed)

The mustering happened without too much trauma and we were back out on the deck in the high winds just enjoying the birds flying around us. Apparently I gave you duff information before. They had done a check mustering safety drill when we first came on board but I obviously blinked and missed it!! Bit of a worry!

Bridge was another heavy learning session. My bridge playing chums on our table are very tolerant of my limitations. Just as I learn one new thing, another comes chasing along behind and bumps the first learning out of my head, or so it feels. Nevertheless I think some things are sticking. Fingers crossed!

When we went back to the cabin, our steward still hadn’t visited, so we repaired upstairs to give her additional time. We first tried the Anderson’s Bar which we haven’t tried before for a coffee, but there was a veterans sessions going on there. (A number of Falkland Veterans are on the ship to revisit the Island for the first time since 1982). So we abandoned this and went up to the coffee bar. After one of their Frappuccino’s which sent caffeine straight to my eyebrows (I felt I had had three glasses of wine and talked ten to the dozen) (Can you imagine Pauline being chatty?? Ed) we adjourned upstairs for lunch with our Bridge playing partners.

Lunch was very special as the giant petrels and albatross swirled around us as we chatted and ate. We round Cape Horn tomorrow at 8.00 a.m. so things are going to get more choppy. As I write there is a big boom every few minutes as the bow hits the water and the view from out window is obscured by spray. To date the ships stabilisers haven’t been seriously challenged, but I think we are coming up to an area where they need to shine!

It was such a beautiful afternoon we took to a few more laps of the deck this afternoon. There are far fewer people out and those who do venture on to the promenade are heavily wrapped up against the wind. It is quite exhilarating especially at each end of the ship as the wind forms a bit of a vortex of air and you are really buffeted.

The birds continue to swirl over our wake

It was a dressing up night – I am into repeats now – so it was best foot forward. We did consider another session of Eric and Ern, but in the end abandoned before it started. It is quite cool in the theatre, so for the first time I donned the beautiful shawl Melane had made me for just such an occasion,

Just one more thing to make you laugh – well it makes me smile – is the fact that some of my necklaces which usually sit quite tidily on a magnetic hook on the wall have taken to attaching themselves without the hook!! My own art work! See above.

Cape Horn tomorrow!!