October 21 - Sea Days

I’ve not written for the last few days because there’s not much to tell.  Once we left Funchal we started westward toward the New World.  For all that we’ve seen we may as well be the only ship on the ocean.  That’s something that has always amazed us when we do a crossing.  Despite spending a lot of time sitting on our verandah we never see another ship.  Yesterday we did see some dolphins playing around us. 

We’ve settled into our routine – eat,  check e-mail, play trivia, eat, play scrabble (we’re tied at the moment), eat, maybe see a show and sleep.  All the eating part, except for breakfast is accompanied by wine.  When we get home next week we’ll have a shocking return to reality.  Our first day after Funchal was pretty rough. Yesterday and today it has smoothed out.  We haven’t seen much sun though, which is disappointing to the pool lovers.

The service continues to be very good as is the food.  We’re  doing a little better in trivia, but we’re still far back in the pack.  Al has been co-opted into a boat-building team.  It has to carry a 2 kg can of caviar across the length of the pool.  It will be interesting to see what they come up with.  None of the guys are naval architects  and the materials have to be scrounged.

Last night we went to the Liar’s Club where four of the ship’s officers give their definitions of very obscure words and the audience has to decide who is telling the truth.  It’s always a very funny show to watch.  I now know what  chillpoop, gardyloo, and eructation mean.  I won’t ever need to use them in conversation but who knows, they may be useful in Scrabble some day.

Well, it’s nearly time for trivia.  I must go and scan the encyclopedia for a few minutes!  More later.