We watched the sun rise from the Panorama Terrace this morning, and I ate stollen and strawberries, but I was too tempted to keep grazing and moved on before I did. The pool was still netted over this morning and so we sat in a hot tub until a fierce but brief rain forced us inside. The wind had shifted today, and was much stronger than yesterday, so while the ship didn't dramatically pitch or roll, it was definitely bouncier today (and grew considerably worse as the day went on).
We went to British Pub Lunch in the steak house around noon. Since we had had the first Pub Lunch menu on Barcelona day, it was almost certain that today's menu would include chicken curry and that's what I had. Paired with a Strongbow Ale, it slowed me down enough to see that the pool was unnetted but not feel compelled to jump in. It was just too bouncy for me on Deck 9, and both sides of the Promenade Deck were closed off throughout the day. Instead I returned to the sancitity of our cabin and made more progress along the brief history of the world.
Mark Preston was doing a matinee performance in the Cabaret Lounge at 4:15pm, which helped the afternoon along considerably. I was dressed for dinner before the show, but, as expected, it was quite a bit bouncier in the front of the ship. By dinner time, I was starting to feel like this was hour 12 of a 15 hour turbulent flight. We went to the Club Restaurant, and I ordered soup and a chicken Caesar salad. Unfortunately, frogs legs were also on the menu and dinner talk devolved to the consumption of strange foods. I ending up fleeing the room after a few bites of salad. I returned to the cabin and stayed there, missing both the production show Stardust and Jere Ring's music trivia in the Pacific Lounge (I couldn't imagine sitting up there). I was not a happy camper.
I am finishing this post the following morning, after a very bouncy and restless night. Something tells me that this, our third transatlantic crossing, will be our last. We booked this as a bridge between the Mediterranean cruises and the Pacific Princess Christmas Caribbean cruise and it made more sense at the time than it does right now. We had a fairly easy time of the six different 5-day stretches of sea days we encountered on our cruises to and from French Polynesia. But the weather was different, warmer, sunnier and mostly calmer. We have one more rough day until Bermuda (and I think an all day rain is forecast for today- oh joy), and, hopefully, things will improve on our final two days at sea back to Fort Lauderdale. But even these rocky days at sea have a redeeming value...they have disabused us of ever considering a World Cruise with its 60 plus sea days. Looked at from that perspective, this experience is matchless.
