Finally, we are having a really nice day at sea. As of early this morning, according to the navigation report, the Ruby Princess is now half way from Madeira to Ft. Lauderdale.
Today’s weather was the best yet for the entire trip. Although it was not perfectly clear, blue skies, it was mostly sunny, the winds diminished and the temperature was in the mid 70’s.
We changed the clock by another hour last night, so it was easy to sleep in a little longer this morning, and overall, we slept better. Sometime during the night, the winds and seas had calmed, and it was a lot smoother sailing.
We enjoyed the buffet for breakfast once again, and then stopped off at the International Cafe for a specialty coffee afterward. They were setting up for the vegetable & fruit carving demonstration in the Atrium, which is right next to the International Cafe, so we stayed and watched that event. They made some nice arrangements, and really made it look easy. Unfortunately, since we had not planned to attend, we did not have a camera with us for pictures, and were too lazy to go back to the room to get one.
Later in the morning we headed to the gym for our workout, and once that was completed, we walked a couple of times around the upper decks to cool off.
Since the weather was so nice, we decided to put on our bathing suits and sunscreen to sit out up on the pool deck, the first time it had been nice enough to enjoy sitting there. For lunch, I visited the buffet, and they were serving peeled, boiled shrimp. Stephanie wanted pizza from the pizzeria, so we each got our separate food items, and sat at one of the outside tables around the pool area to eat our lunch.
Another Ship In The Atlantic Ocean
After laying out in the sun lounges by the pool for another hour or so after lunch, we headed back to the room to enjoy our balcony, listen to some music, and just watch the ocean sail by. We did see another ship, a small freighter, which was the first man made object we had seen since leaving Madeira.
It was really nice on the balcony, and there were a lot of other passengers enjoying their balconies as well. So far on the trip, we had not seen a lot of activity on may of the balconies around ours, the weather had just been a little too cool, and no one had really been outside enjoying their balconies until today.
At 5:00 PM, it was time for us to get ready for dinner. We did see a pretty nice sunset today since the weather was clearer than it had been the last few days. The sunset was at about 5:30 PM, so we were able to see it before heading off at 5:50 PM to meet up with Mike and Barb.
Sunset At Sea
Prior to dinner, we all had planned to attend a show in the Explorer’s Lounge, featuring an illusionist. It was a decent act, he is more of a reader of emotions and facial expressions, which provide him with clues about what he is trying to determine from the audience participants. However, he did do a few things that were amazing, and truly appearing to be mind reading. However, the methodology used just made the show drag on a bit as he was trying to make his mental image of their thoughts. It was still pretty entertaining, just a little slow paced to keep you enthralled.
Sunset At Sea
The four of us headed to dinner afterward, and sat with two additional randomly assigned dinner guest couples, one from South Florida, and the other from Chicago, IL. We were served a special appetizer of fried shrimp, which was good, but the same breading as that used on the fried shrimp served in the buffet several days ago, just a little heavy on the batter for our taste. \
Dinner was good, and the four of us headed back to our cabin for some refreshments and visiting before we ventured back out to see what was happening in the lounges. It was about 10:00 PM, and by this time at night, it was pretty quiet around the ship. We did enjoy some music and singing in the Wheelhouse Bar. Being the only patrons there, when the singers took their break, we headed aft to Club Fusion. It was scheduled to be Country Western night there, but by the time we arrived, that event was already over. Another band had set up and played a few songs for the 15 or so people there, but at 11:00 PM that band was done performing, telling us that they were now heading to sing at a party being given for the crew.
We all headed back to our cabins, calling it a night ourselves.