Another Sea Day.

Decision re yesterday’s speed: probably number 5.

Bay of Biscay today: Flat as a mill pond. Positively glass-like.

Weather: grey but clear.

Sea colour: grey-green and very smooth.

Air temp: 11 degrees C but not a breath of wind, so quite pleasant.

Got up to the Conservatory (canteen-style foodery) in time to grab some sliced fruit from the end of breakfast/elevenses.

GF pasta turned up on cue. I love Clarence. He takes ridiculously good care of us.

Ben joined us for lunch, which was fun, but he told us that Graham and Sue and he were moving to table 80 for dinner. I hope they get the rapidity of service they so apparently crave. Trouble is, it means we have only Grumpy Anne and Quite Deaf Frank for company, unless we get given some new, random unknowns. Sharing a table is a risky business. The next two weeks could be veeeeery long.

Hung out and chatted for a while. Ben is 86 and was in the Navy for 22 years, so when he decided to take up cruising, he started with 104 nights – he already knew he liked being at sea!

Back to cabin for a chill out prior to formal night – washing, dressing, jewellery, make up (what’s left of it after I dropped my powder compact when unpacking), tights, shoes, etc.

There were Welcome Aboard drinks at 6, where the captain turned out to be short, stocky, Scottish and quite funny (although Hughie the Entertainment Manager did show him the red card for one particularly bad joke). Then down to dinner to find it was just us! Now, either Anne and Frank don’t ‘do’ formal nights – in which case it would have been courteous to let us and/or the waiters know in advance – or they have moved too, although the head waiter was not aware of any such shenanigans, so we going with the ‘didn’t bother and didn’t bother to let anyone know’ option, for now at least. Live in hope…

After dinner, Ben came over and said he would like to come back to our table! Apparently Graham and Sue have been completely ignoring him and the new people are not to his liking, so he wants to come back to us! Fine with us! I have to say that, seeing as he is paying for everything for all three of them on this trip, to completely ignore him seems a bit off to me –  the least you could do is talk to him now and then during dinner – but their loss is our gain, so I shouldn’t really complain. He’s a nice guy.