Blogs from Atlantic, Oceans and Seas

Crossing back across the Atlantic sailors largely have two choices; go direct from the Caribbean to the Azores or go via Bermuda and skip around the western edge of the Azores High to get a better wind angle for the Azores. By choosing to head to Bermuda additional miles are added to the crossing but rather than facing an upwind slog all the way to the Azores with retching children (and adults!) it seems sensible to head the 850 miles to Bermuda. In addition Bermuda is not a place that one might usually travel to. It sits 500 miles from the coast of America and is a beautifully sculpted and manicured island with pastel coloured buildings and white sand beaches encircled with vicious reefs. It is not a centre for yachting but is a transit point ... read more

Thursday May 16th, 10:11pm Off the coast of America Another relaxed sea day today. The highlight was finding the golf locker so I can move some of the stuff out of my room for a little extra space. I also found some extra right handed sticks, which is good news because there are none up in the cages that should make the guests on the next cruise happy. Other than finding the locker and learning how to do some paperwork there wasn’t much to do today. I did get a look at next week’s pre paids, there are about 20 golfers in total, about 6 of them need to be moved to a different day to accommodate everybody but that shouldn’t be a big deal. I had dinner upstairs and then hit the gym for a ... read more

Wednesday May 15th, 9:14pm In the middle of nowhere Today was a lazy day as I didn’t have too much to do. I got up and navigated my way to the office (learned a new route today, it is NOT shorter). There were a couple of emails from the courses in Bermuda informing me that apparently everybody is punching this week, oh goodie! Hopefully we will get some sort of break on the price. I headed home to my closet to see if I could organize it a little bit better; I think I succeeded because I am no longer bumping into something every time I turn around. I also figured out a system for my clothes; I think I change clothes about 7 times a day based on what I am doing so I needed ... read more

Saturday, May 11th9:31pm Somewhere in the Atlantic I felt a lot better this morning after a good nights sleep. I was a little disorientated when I woke up. It took a couple of minutes to figure out where I was and why it was really really dark! The great thing about an inside room on a ship is that it is PITCH black whenever you want it to be. I grabbed a quick bite to eat in the mess before my four hours of safety training with Mark, the safety officer. Most of the information was old news but there are a couple of different procedures on this ship so I took notice and cruised through the exam. After training I went exploring a little around the ship. I know where most of the major things ... read more

Woke up around 8:30. The captain was announcing that there would be a safety drill for crew members including lowering a life boat, so Ken went downstairs and got our lattes, I quickly got dressed and joined him downstairs. We saw Bobbie and Annie. We were all hoping to see the drill. We couldn't see anything. We shared stories from the night before. They had went to see a show: The Chapman Brothers. Annie thought it was fabulous and Bobbie thought it was horrible! We went upstairs for our breakfast and back downstairs for showers. They had announced that some of the power may go out during the drill, but never mentioned water. I successfully took my shower, no problems. Ken got in and just as he soaped up, the water stopped. He had to wait ... read more

Around 3 am, I was woken up by Ken opening the curtains and then the balcony door. I said what are you doing? He said, "didn't you hear that?" I said "hear what?" He said "the fog horn". I said "no I was sleeping; what can you do about it? Do you think you can help,the captain?" He said he just wanted to make sure everything was ok because he also heard some loud noises above us. He came back to bed. For the next 40 minutes I tried to go back to sleep; the fog horn went off every two minutes and it was loud. I finally got up, turned on the light , took half a sleeping aid and read my book until I got sleepy (the fog horn still sounding). Ken told me ... read more

Got up late, lost another hour. We had our latte and croissants out on the balcony with pjs and a robe on...it's chilly! We went up at 11:20 and got an egg, toast and oj. We saw Bobbie and Annie and they had just gotten up. Breakfast was over so they got fruit and a roll. The weather is pretty foggy-kind of like pea soup. Ken walked on the outside deck 7 and slipped a few times, cut his thumb catching himself. He won't try that again; there is a full gym upstairs. We spent most of the day reading. We skipped lunch since we are going to the Crown Grill to celebrate Bobbie's birthday. We had a wonderful dinner; our table was next to a window looking out at the sea. Our choices: Appetizer: Grilled ... read more

Up at 8:10. Ken got our lattes and croissants and we sat on the balcony. The sky is very cloudy and it is a lot cooler.....58 degrees....brrrr. I think our weather is going to be different now as we head north. 3226 nautical miles since we left Ft Lauderdale and 324 more miles to reach Dublin. We walked on deck 7 and then went up for an egg on toast. We looked at the photos that the photographers on the ship have taken. We bought our Embarkation one-pretty good. One night they took single shots of us at dinner. We found ours-not bad; two photos down from Ken's was an elderly man that could pass for his dad!! He is adopted so you never know! We went back to the room and read for a couple ... read more