Saturday, 21st February, at sea, 25 degrees

We were around early as usual. It was a very beautiful morning.

And a very active one. Jumping fish and whales were announced from the bridge before 7.00 – not a popular occurrence for those who are still asleep at this time I guess! However we had seen whales spouting earlier and the turbulence on the water where the fish were active. There were also new birds around – Galapagos Shearwaters, Galapagos Petrels and a Blue Footed Booby. I have to clarify that I did not personally see the blue feet … (No but our resident expert told me what they were and he’d got several great photos of them. Ed)

As there is not much going on, given that we have a few sea days, I decided you might like some pictures around the promenade deck to lighten the proceedings….

Ukulele was a bit chaotic as it was the rehearsal for tomorrow’s performance. Lynn has still not materialised so I feel that either her or David are unwell. I still have her music for tomorrow, but to date have not sighted her anywhere.

Bridge was interesting in that a number of people had voted with their feet and did not attend. I can only believe that they do not like the new style of teaching. Ignoring the gaps in the audience, Maureen our new teacher, ploughed on to fill the omissions that she has found in our teaching so far. It is interesting that P and O, although I assume commissioning the people to do the teaching, seem to do nothing to ensure a seamless handover. So, more rules were imparted and I was again left feeling that I cannot retain all the information we are being given.

Leaving the Bridge room we moved to the Curzon Theatre to continue to listen to Stuart St Paul tell more stories about his experience in the world of cinema. It makes fascinating listening.

Next up was lunch and afterwards we decided to test out the availability of machines for doing laundry and found – amazingly – ourselves in a very short queue for two washing machines! Unheard of! So after a couple of hours we were back in business with the laundry and ironing done. Not sure how we had that sort of good fortune – but we did!

After a very warm hour on the top deck with my crossword, Keith and I took another turn around the deck before preparing for supper and saw yet another new booby, the Nazca Booby.

The sun was setting while we were eating dinner …

Tomorrow I take to the stage (Somewhere beyond the sea, my love waiting for me 🎵 )