Sea day number 7

This is the seventh straight sea day and I’m now officially at sea longer than last year’s trip.  We have definitely taken longer due to the southern route but I’m sure if the normal northern route was taken this trip, even on this ship, could have been done in less time.  I’m not sure why it was scheduled to take 9 nights.  I’m now reading a book about the history of oceanic travel, and back in the early 1900s ships were making the crossing in 5 days.  It must come down to cost.  If we had taken the normal route, we probably could have gone slower, used less fuel and arrived on the 28^th.  Going south at close to the ship’s top speed would certainly used more fuel.  Given the good weather we had I’m glad he did.  But I will say that I’m ready for land and a change of pace.  The sea is calmer today, no whitecapped waves, but there are still major swells causing lots of motion. One of the drawers in the closet is now opening and closing as the ship pitches.  That will be very annoying if it keeps up.  It’s colder too, just 14 degrees so doesn’t feel like shorts and t-shirt weather anymore.

We started to head north-east this morning.  In an hour or so we should be more or less near the top edge of Spain and will start crossing the Bay of Biscay.  We should be near the English Channel tomorrow evening.  We just set our clocks ahead for the fifth time so we are now on UK time.

Haven’t heard any more emergency calls so hope that was it yesterday.  People just weren’t cautious enough and many on board are older and look quite frail.  They should get some assistance instead of venturing out on their own.  The Captain yesterday kept telling people to exercise extreme caution with one hand always on the ship.  He also told us to walk “low and wide” which I think you do naturally in this movement (though it looks far from natural seeing people struggling to get from hand rail to hand rail).  And no high heels for women.  He just gave the noon update and said the swells should subside through the day.  I will aim to jog this afternoon when it’s a bit easier.  I could use the exercise, I couldn’t do anything yesterday, including use the gym.  Just too much up and down.

I've been very lucky to have most of the days with great weather.  If it had been cold, rainy or just too miserable to sit out, the entire trip would have changed for me.  There were plenty of activities put on, but very few I was interested in.  Cunard was much more to my liking from that perspective.