Taking the Rough with the Smooth (Part 1)

Got up around 8.00am as usual and went out on the balcony.  There air was still a bit nippy (it is January after all!) but it was still warmer than it would have been at home.  There were no white horses on the endless expanse of Atlantic Ocean, but the hypnotic rising and falling of the horizon showed that there was still a fair swell.  😊

While Trevor went up to The View for breakfast, I decided to make the most of the tea and coffee in the cabin and the fresh fruit bowl, enjoying a banana and a juicy pear.  Once Trevor returned, we had a look at the Daily Times programme to see what we fancied doing today.

At 9.30am there was a lecture by Doctor Jim Teslow in the Neptune Lounge called “Amazing Astronomy” which discussed galaxies, the universe, black holes, the solar system and the Big Bang theory, as well as the vast distances covered in space.  It was extremely interesting and fascinating, even though some of it was quite hard for a lay person to understand or grasp.

Looking outside, the sky seemed to have brightened up a little by now, so we thought we go and do a few laps around the promenade deck.  It was fairly hard-going; sometimes you’d be walking uphill, then you would do a little unsteady run downhill, before taking ponderous steps uphill again.  Probably good exercise!  😊

When we reached the stern, we stood and watched the mesmerising sight of the ship’s wake.  We could feel the power of the ship’s propellors below us as they churned the sea into a surge and swirl of white foam, which stretched out behind us and filled the air with a soothing white noise sound.  It is a sight we have seen many, many times but one we never tire of.  There is something so exhilarating about the endless, restless sea and the way the Borealis glided along confidently towards her destination.

Walking back around again, we went inside and up to Deck 8, the pool deck, so we could listen to the captain’s midday navigational report.  He advised us we were now at 49° north and were heading almost dead west; the wind speed was only Force 4 on the Beaufort scale, but the four-metre swell was making it a precarious journey for us.  The bad news was that the swell was going to increase later on this evening, maybe to five or six metres, so it was going to be a bumpy ride!  It was no surprise that the swimming pool and the hot tubs had been emptied, with nets stretched over them.😊

While Trevor and I have very good sea legs and are never sea sick, the biggest problem was keeping our balance; we had to hold onto any hand rails, chair backs or any other furniture where possible when walking about, and even sitting meant you had to brace leg and core muscles at times in order to remain upright in your chair.  😊

After the captain’s announcement we decided to go to the Borealis Restaurant for lunch where it was waiter service to your table, rather than having to carry our plates in the buffet (and risk dropping them!)  I enjoyed a delicious club sandwich made with home-made bread containing Italian cured meats, cheese, pickles and salad, served with hand-cut crisps and aioli.  It was washed down with a chilled glass of cava and followed by cheese and coffee.

The rest of the afternoon passed in its pleasant and interesting way.  At 2.00pm there was another game of carpet bowls, and we wondered if the balls would stay put due to the ship’s motion.  When we’d played in November crossing the Bay of Biscay, the balls had been rolling in all directions which was hilarious, and certainly added an interesting element to the game.

This afternoon, though, the balls behaved themselves.  When it was Trevor’s and my turn to play, Trevor played his shot and his opponent sent their ball up too hard, which knocked the jack out of the rink and led to an instant win for our team.  Only one ball bowled and we were through to the next round already! 😊

As more teams were knocked out, it transpired that Trevor and I got the bye for our next game, so we were automatically through to the semi-final!  We got up to play and won our round, meaning we’d reached the final.  As the game progressed, Trevor played his last ball closest to the jack, so it was looking good for us.  However, the opposing team sent their ball up hard, scattering all the balls and leaving theirs closest to the jack.  I played my shot but it wasn’t good enough, and the tape measure was needed to see which team’s ball was closest.  We were defeated by a whisker!  It was all good fun though.  😊

At three-fifteen it was time for me to collect my art materials and make my way to The Studio on Deck 9 once again, while Trevor chose to go to listen to a classical concert.  The lesson this time was to paint the lovely seal sculpture that you can find as a feature in the pool area; this meant learning how to mix colours and study the light source so you could correctly apply the right amount of light and shade and give you painting depth.  I couldn’t mix the colours correctly, so I made a bit of a mess of my seals.  In addition, the increase in the motion of the Borealis meant that it was difficult to maintain a steady hand.

The watercolour lessons only last an hour, so it’s hard to get your work finished before the time is up.  I felt I would rather start again afresh and practise some of the techniques we’d been learning.

Returning to 7055 around 4.30pm, we decided to have a power nap for an hour.  We could feel our bed moving and hear things around the cabin banging and rattling, and the drinking glasses on the shelf clinking together.  One of the drawers shot right out and some items fell off the dresser.  I put in my industrial-strength earplugs to enjoy a peaceful sleep.

Afterwards, we just sat reading for a while as the sky darkened and late afternoon/evening approached.  We were on the wrong side of the vessel to witness the sunset; in any case it was cloudy so we wouldn’t have seen much.

I decided I wouldn’t go up to dinner tonight, having partaken of a large lunch so, once Trevor had left to go to the restaurant for 6.15pm, I just took my time getting ready, read my book and watched the news on TV.  Then, picking up my laptop, I took it along to the piano bar so I could enjoy the music while catching up with this blog.  While I was in there, I enjoyed a glass of fizz and wrote up my notes.

At 7.30pm I went along to our table in the restaurant, just in nice time for the coffee-and-liqueur stage.  Alan, Lesley, Alan and Kaye were all there, and we enjoyed the usual convivial conversation while I had a hot cup of coffee and a nice glass of amaretto.  It is actually quite pleasant to leave the restaurant not feeling bloated after eating and drinking too much; if I was hungry later I could always go for late-night snacks.  😊

Tonight’s entertainment in the Neptune Lounge was a pantomime, “Aladdin and his Magic Lamp”.  I have not been to a panto since I was about 12, but as we walked into the lounge we were advised to regress until we were little kids again, and to shout out appropriately (“It’s behind you!”), or boo and hiss the baddy and cheer the good guys.

It was actually a lot of fun and the audience joined in with the spirit of things; plenty of booing the villain and shouting the traditional “Oh no it isn’t!” when needed.  There was some unintentional hilarity when a cast member forgot their lines or the ship’s motion caused the scenery to shift a little, but it was an enjoyable show and something a little bit different.  😊

Off we went afterwards, to the Morning Light pub for the trivia quiz where we were joined once again by Alan and Lesley.  We scored 12/15 tonight, our best so far, but one team scored full marks with 15.  So no prize for us once again!

Trevor and I then finished off the evening by going up to the Observatory to enjoy the music of “Stattus” as well as a cocktail or two.  The Observatory is, as its name might suggest, right at the bow which meant that, every now and again, there was a loud crash as a particularly big wave cascaded over the bow. Even one of the musicians decided to get a chair, and play his guitar sitting down!

The swell on the ocean had definitely increased, as the captain had forecast, and you really had to brace yourself in your seat.  At one point there was a tremendous crash and the ship rocked in a very disconcerting manner, and Trevor had to grab his glass of Newcastle Brown to stop it sliding off the table and crashing to the deck!

Around 11.30pm my stomach rumbled a little with a hunger pang, and we went along to The View buffet where I enjoyed a couple of fish goujons and a couple of chicken wings.  Afterwards, we decided to return to our cabin, get washed and changed and into our ‘jamas and maybe read for a while or watch TV before settling down.

As we staggered back along the corridors (it was nothing to do with the drinks we’d consumed!), we did that ungainly hop, skip and jump as the ground beneath our feet seemed to throb and writhe like a live thing.  We had to get washed and undressed one-handed as we held on to anything sturdily fixed so we wouldn’t lose our balance.

Opening the wardrobe door, I found that some of my clothes had fallen off their hangers and on the dressing table some of my cosmetics had rolled to the floor.  Both wigs had toppled from their stands, drawers kept opening and closing, and cupboard doors banged.  We could hear any empty wooden coat hangers rattling and banging, and anything that wasn’t securely fastened shifted about.

As we lurched towards the balcony and opened the door with an effort, we saw that the little table had toppled over and the sun loungers had shifted.  The deck and railings were wet with sea-spray, even though the actual ambient temperature wasn’t that cold.

We tried our best to settle down to sleep, but it was extremely difficult.  Often, when there is a gentle swell, it is actually soothing and can rock you to sleep, but this was not comfortable at all.  The pitching and rolling of the ship meant to had to lie on my front in an X-shape to try to avoid rolling out of bed, and every now and again a really violent rocking or lurching of the vessel would have you coming bolt awake with an alarmed “What was that?!”  As we were quite near to the stern the motion would have been more discernible than if we were midships (which is why midship cabins tend to be more expensive) but I have to say it’s probably one of the most uncomfortable nights I have ever spent at sea, in 64 cruises. The heavy swell, by now, was probably about six metres which doesn’t sound a lot, but it was relentless and caused the Borealis to leap about in all directions.

It was after 3.00am before I drifted off into an unsettling sleep and from which I awoke frequently.  It was just as well our clocks had had to go back another hour last night, because we really needed that extra hour in bed.

As dawn’s grey light eventually filtered in through our balcony doors, we were glad the night was over.  The captain had promised us that the ocean would settle, and we certainly hoped that that would turn out to be the case.

We had another sea day to look forward to, on our great Borealis transatlantic crossing.  😊