Sunday 1st March. A sea day – dark, cloudy and windy 26 degrees

There is no ukulele today as the law requires a mustering of the people on the ship to ensure everyone is aware they have to gather in an emergency, every 28 days. Today is the day. The room where we play is a muster station. For this practice no life jackets are required, which makes the whole exercise something of a mockery as finding the dreaded life jackets in the cabin (I think they are under the bed) and putting them on would be something of a drama in itself! In any event, it seems just appearing where you have to go and showing your cruise pass meets the legal requirements, so we will do that at 9.30 a.m.

This activity later meant a bit of a lie in before we went on deck to walk. There were very few people around. We walked for nearly an hour between 7 and 8, the wind either driving us on or holding us back depending on which way we were walking. It was then breakfast and a shower and we were ready for mustering and then Bridge. I really think Maureen could be talking in tongues for the good today’s lesson did me.

Keith went on to hear the final of Mr. St Paul’s offerings and I adjourned for some quiet time.

As today is going to be a bit short of information to impart, I thought I would share a statistic that we learnt in chatting to fellow guests over the last few days. I have already shared with you, I think, that some of these people have done more than 50 cruises, many have been around the world several times and a number have done this particular journey – The Grand Tour – more than once before. All very mind boggling. A bit more cruise data for you, however, is that there are 200 single people on the ship. Of these, there are 170 single women and 30 single men. Rich pickings for the men I hear you cry! But it would seem long term relationships are formed and people go on to share happy lives together. I think that some of the men are a bit predatory from my perspective and I guess the same could be said of some of the women! We heard of a band of chaps who have already booked to do the world cruise together in 2028. I don’t know the cost, but I am sure it is eye watering for a couple, let alone for a single occupation cabin. Fascinating stuff. This trip has been quite extraordinary from so many perspectives and has opened our eyes to a whole world that we did not know existed and now your eyes are opened too! No doubt it will form the basis of many a happy conversations in the months to come.

After lunch, Keith went off to watch the football and I went up for a bit of sun with my crossword, having not taken into account quite how windy it was going to be on the top deck. It was so windy that I ordered a drink and daren’t put it down for fear of it blowing over and there was in fact a danger of the liquid lurching over the edge of the glass!! It is a wonderfully warm wind, as I have said before, but so strong up there particularly that I had hardly enough hands to hold everything down.

Needless to say, my battle with the elements did not last too long and I was back in the cabin, not sure what to do with myself for perhaps the first time in a couple of months!! I soon solved that. Back I went into my walking shorts. As Keith had returned from the football, he took up a station on the promenade deck tucked out of the wind and after a couple of rounds of walking I joined him. He was writing and I was reading. It was beautifully sunny and the sea was shiny with the light on it, with white tips to the waves.

Masked boobies (apologies to my more sensitive readers, but that is what they are called!) swooped around the ship, dipping down to sea level and then soaring up overhead as they caught the breeze. It was very special. (It was gloriously elemental. Ed)

There was more silent reading when I went back to the room. What a lovely lazy day – the last for several days as we island hop for the next four days, arriving in port in the morning and departing in the evening.

It was a dressing up night, but we were a little sub standard as I had sent Keith’s more formal shirts to the Ship’s Laundry service and they had not arrived back. Disaster. We considered not attending the formal dinner in the dining room, but went in the end to meet up with our diners, with Keith wearing a striped shirt with his bow tie. I rather like this bow tie look!

It was good to hear about each others outings and adventures at dinner. We had not seen them for a couple of days. It is amazing to hear of the different experiences and how we are all putting our own mark on what we want to see and how we go about it. Tomorrow we are going to investigate the spices of Granada which we are looking forward to, Gareth and Sian are, amongst other things, going to see a waterfall and Michael and Penny are going to the beach,

All are going to do their thing – but I think one thing is assured, it will be another lovely day in paradise! We are looking forward to it!