We got up at 8.00am and, as I was getting ready, my phone rang. A quick look at the screen told me that Ronnie was calling. We had a brief chat in which we both commiserated that we’d missed each other; however, as he only lived 10 minutes away he would walk the dogs and come along and wave the Borealis off. He said he’d call back when he could see the stern of the ship, where our balcony is situated. 😊
After breakfast we had a wander around outside on deck. It was perhaps typical that today was sunny and crisp when we weren’t going anywhere, whereas I’d had to abandon my excursion yesterday. ☹
As we were pottering around the cabin my phone rang again; Ronnie, his husband and their two labradoodles were on the way. Looking through the binoculars that had been provided in our stateroom for our use, we spotted them in the distance and decided to go down to the promenade deck on Deck 3 aft to see them.
It was pleasant walking around. To me, a promenade deck is a special part of the ship, reminiscent of the old ocean going steamers where passengers would stroll the decks to “take in the air”, or sit wrapped in checked woollen blankets on wooden deck chairs…
As we reached the stern, we could see Ronnie so I called him to let him know exactly where we were standing. They came right up to the rear of the ship and passengers walking by were amused by our shouted conversation between ship and shore! I took some photos of them to send to Julie, our dance teacher, and they took some of us. Then they continued their walk as we made our way back inside the Borealis as the November wind was still a bit nippy, despite the bright sunshine.
Presently the crew cast off the ropes, the propellors gained momentum, as the Borealis gave a blast of her foghorn, then slowly manoeuvred away from the quayside as she put to sea once again. We hoped that our sailing to Vigo, Spain wouldn’t be too rough; we’d heard how the poor old Balmoral had had such a battering and had sustained some damage, leading to her having to abandon their cruise down to the Canary Islands and limp into Bilbao for a couple of days instead, before resuming their passage to Funchal.
We had the Bay of Biscay to look forward to tonight, and just about everyone who cruises has tales to tell about crossing this infamous large bay between France and Spain; it is a notoriously rough sea area. 😊
We had an enjoyable day, not doing anything much in particular. At 11 o’clock we attended a talk in the Neptune theatre called “Portuguese Discoveries and the First Global Empire” about the famous and intrepid Portuguese explores such as Henry the Navigator and the discovery of the Azores and Madeira. I love anything to do with early explorers and mariners so I found it a very interesting talk.
It brought us nicely up to lunchtime, which we ate in the View self-service restaurant. We ventured out on deck, where the Borealis was steaming along at a fair old pace (yes, at sea we still use the term “steaming”) and, at 12 noon, Captain Rommel Pineda’s voice issued forth over the Tannoy as he gave us the noon navigational information, including the news that we were in for a very rough time later on today and this evening, sailing into Force 8-9 winds and 20 foot waves. He advised us to “take care when moving around the vessel, and use the handrails”; they had closed the promenade deck (Deck 3) now and all chairs and sun loungers outside had been lashed down. 😊
At 3.45pm we met up with the others from table #222 to do the Afternoon Trivia. We got the joint equal top score but lost out to the tie-breaker, so no prize for us yet again!
The rest of the day was passed in its usual way; reading, relaxing, making the most of the all-inclusive drinks package (!!) and (in my case) trying to catch up with this blog.
I didn’t go down to dinner tonight. I’ve already eaten far too much so, while Trevor went to the dining room at 6.15pm to join the others, I said I’d come down at half past seven, in time for the coffee-and-liqueur stage. Instead, I took my laptop and sat in the Ocean Bar awhile, enjoying an ice-cold ginger ale while I was in there. Staring at my bright laptop screen in the dimly-lit lounge was probably not the best idea, however, and I soon felt the start of an eye-strain migraine coming on. I therefore took a couple of ibuprofen before making my way along to the restaurant.
By this time we could definitely feel the motion of the Borealis and hear an increase in the usual ambient creaking and squeaking and rattling sounds that are ever-present on a moving ship.
The show tonight featured our own cruise director Simon, who did an excellent performance for us. We’d already seen him on the Bolette in April, so we knew we’d see a good show, and indeed we did. While we were in the theatre, the same lady who’d admired my shoes the other night came down to see what I was wearing; this time I had on a pair of lavishly sequinned gold shoes with an unusual heel. 😊
By the time the show had finished and we were heading to the Morning Light pub to do the quiz, my headache had thankfully gone. Nope – we didn’t win, but we did enjoy lots of lively conversation and exchanged jokes and laughter.
We finished off the evening up in the Observatory, where I enjoyed a good Aperol Spritz as well as the conversation of a lady solo traveller who was sitting at the next table. As I hadn’t had any dinner I was actually quite hungry, so we decided to go along to the View buffet for the late-night snacks. It’s not something we ever do on cruises (we have enough to eat as it is!) but on this occasion I enjoyed a couple of chicken wings and a couple of fish goujons washed down with a large glass of cold water; it’s easy to forget to drink enough water.
Back in cabin 6227 we got undressed, washed and into our ‘jamas. It was quite a feat and most of the time I had to do it one-handed, as the other hand was holding onto the nearest fixed item in order not to lose my balance. Moving around the cabin I found my feet doing an ungainly dance; little steps followed by long steps, a hop to the right and a jump to the left as the Borealis negotiated her way down the Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay. Opening the balcony doors a little; we could hear the whistling of the wind and the rush and roar of the ship’s wake below us, and we could see the faint white outline of many white horses on the heaving, tossing, restless ocean.
Ahhhhh… life at sea. You really can’t beat it. We settled down in our beds and listened to the crashing, banging, creaking, rattling all around us, and sleep was a long time coming. We had a whole day at sea to look forward to tomorrow, and whatever adventures were in store. 😊