We are on day 5 of our 6 days of crossing the Atlantic Ocean to St. Martin from Las Palmas in Gran Canarias.
It was nice to gain another hour if time back last night, but I still woke up at about 6:15 AM. The sunrise had already happened, and it was fairly bright outside, even with our curtain mostly pulled closed.
I spent some peaceful time on the balcony, just enjoying the sound of the waves crashing against the bow of the ship, and the nice breeze. I took some photos of the “sunrise”, but as I stated already, it was quite a bit after the sun had risen above the horizon, but it was still colorful. The sun was not that high up yet, so it was not too warm outside. We had specifically picked the port side of the ship so that we would have the sun on our balcony as we head westward. Now, we wish that maybe we were on the starboard side, it would be cooler on the balcony with more shade. The drawback of the starboard side is that we would have missed every sunrise and sunset from our balcony. With our current heading, we get to see both from our side of the ship.
We had expected cooler weather for more of the earlier days of the cruise, so the sun would have made it warmer to be out on the balcony if it had been cooler. You just never know, and we certainly are enjoying that it is generally warmer than we expected.
I headed down to Deck 1 for my morning cup of coffee and to work on the blog posts. Sound familiar? A little while later, Stephanie met me on Deck 1 in the Living Room Bar area, I was finished with my cup of coffee, and with the blog post for yesterday. It has been nice to be able to keep on track with each day’s post, getting behind just makes it harder. I wish it was easier to add pictures into the posts as we go to add more enjoyment to reading them, but that just takes a lot of time to process the photos and make the smaller sizes to insert into the posts. That will just have to happen after we get home.
Stephanie joined me for a light snack. I had already ordered and finished my usual black coffee. I had also already ordered a blueberry muffin, but had not even started to eat it before she arrived. Stephanie ordered a large plain croissant, and we ate our breakfast snacks together.
After a bit, we headed up to the World Cafe for a real breakfast. It was not crowded on the sunny side of the ship, but we wanted a more shady spot for breakfast. Apparently, most everyone else wanted the shady side also. We found a table in the area where our waiter from last night, Josephine was working. We told her hello and that we had really enjoyed having her as our waiter last night. We got a table for two and ate our breakfast, but it was more rushed than we wanted, there was a man at the table behind us that was trying to remove one or both of his lungs by coughing! We did not want to expose ourselves to any potential illness, so we hurriedly finished eating and left.
We headed outside and sat at a table in the shade. It seems like more and more people are getting coughs onboard. Some people who are coughing a lot are taking responsibility and wearing masks. Most are not, even though they sound terrible when they are coughing. We are really trying to make it through this trip without getting a cold, or worse, but with everyone couped up on the ship for the crossing, it appears people are spreading their illnesses to other passengers.
It was nice to look out over the ocean sitting at our table. We eventually moved to the World Cafe Bar and had Milos make us a Peach Bellini and a Bloody Caesar. While we were there, the bar officer came by with another lady and they did a quick inspection of the bar and pointed out areas where it needed improvement to pass the USDA inspections when they reach Ft. Lauderdale. One of the items that was pointed out as a violation was my half used open can of Clamato, which was emptied and crushed by the inspector and thrown into the trash. Unfortunately, that was the last can of Clamato here at the bar, and now they had to try and get more from somewhere else. Between this and yesterday’s Clamato issues, it was getting really difficult to enjoy my Bloody Caesar’s.
Milos was able to get more Clamato juice from another bar and I had another drink. Our friends Angie and Tony came into the bar from exercising on Deck 2 and we chatted for a a few minutes before they went back outside to get a table for lunch on the rear deck. Today, they are serving fresh made Reuben sandwiches outside on the rear deck. Milos had to go on break and another bartender took his place. We talked with him for a while, he was from the Ukraine and we discussed the issues the war is causing him personally. He is from an area not directly involved in the fighting, but the entire country is impacted. He is not able to go home after his contract is over because if he crosses the border into Ukraine, he will not be allowed to leave.
Everyone under a certain age is being held from exiting Ukraine in case they are needed as soldiers. After his last contract was over, his family met him just over the boarder and they spent his time off in Montenegro so he would be able to return to Viking afterward. It was sad to hear how this has directly impacted him and his family. His name was Andray, and we later learned he was the Assistant Wine Steward
We decided to find an outside table for lunch, but we were only able to find one that was partially shaded, but at least our heads and faces were not in the sunshine. I had them make me a Reuben without the sauerkraut. Stephanie got a few items from inside at the buffet. The sandwich was pretty good. We talked for a while about this cruise and what we thought about trying to book another Viking cruise while onboard so we could take advantage of some of the perks that are available for booking onboard.
We looked through a few cruises online after breakfast while we were sitting outside. We wanted to try and find something that was new to us, had a few sea days and would fit into our schedule. It was a daunting task, either the cruises were sailing next April, which is too close to our already planned Alaska Trip in July, or they started in December of 2023, like next week, or December of 2024, way too far out for us to plan on now.
We ran through some plusses and minuses of cruising with Viking, and of cruising in general, and made the decision that we would be better off to stick with land trips for the foreseeable future, say for the next three years. We have thoroughly enjoyed the relaxation of this cruise, and the emptiness of the ship, it is just over half full. However, it is a long time being away from home and work, and we really don’t have anything to show for being on this trip other than the relaxation. We revisited several places we have already seen and are spending a lot of money and time to really go nowhere new. We just feel that we need to travel to some different places and we feel the benefit and cost effectiveness of land trips is just a better solution. We still want to go to Iceland, and that will probably not happen until the Summer of 2024.
We just have too much going on at home with our Mom’s and their health to have the freedom we once had to travel more often, and at the last minute.
We headed up to the Explorer’s Lounge and went to the upper area there to enjoy a cooler air conditioned space and to relax. I was able to work on this post and Stephanie listened to her Bible in a Year Podcast.
We left at about 2:30 PM to go back to the cabin, Stephanie wanted a nap and I had caught up for the day on the blog.
Unfortunately, we did not finish this post nor realize that it was incomplete until well after we were back home. Now, we cant specifically remember what we did for dinner or afterward, and as we have said before, sometimes the sea days just all run together, oh well….
We do now that tomorrow we were arriving in St. Martin, and had an included tour scheduled for the morning, so we probably did not stay out late. I most likely forgot to complete this post because I did not have my early morning coffee time to work on it since we were probably busy getting ready for the morning tour in St. Martin.