I slept pretty soundly, at last! It was a hardship to get up though, but at least with the system here the time doesn’t change in the night. I breakfasted on bread and toast, Jenny on cornflakes, there was some drink masquerading as pineapple juice. At 8.00a.m. the clocks changed to 9.00a.m. Outside it’s foggy, rainy and pretty wet. This is not at all discouraging, it just shows we’re getting closer to England. In our mad way we’ve missed this quintessentially English weather.
After breakfast we once again played ping pong. The crew have also been sanding and painting red parts of the swimming pool too, which hadn’t been filled for ten years until the Swiss requested to have it filled. I’m not sure of the reliability of this information.
Despite getting the ever busy steward to give us some washing powder, we never actually got round to making it to the laundry room, but tomorrow is another day to be filled. I busied myself making heads of felt animals, which I will at some point turn into Christmas decorations when I’m home (I guess I’ve got a while..). Jenny was reading her Harry Potter book again. And at some point we watched ‘Ueberleben auf hoher See’, just incase a bit of information might save our lives in a rough sea. We are now in possession of a fair bit of knowledge regarding lifeboats and flotation devices. The best lifeboats it seems are freefall lifeboats stowed on a ramp from which they are released and nose dive into the sea. Although they would be much safer than standard lifeboats, companies haven't been adopting them, perhaps due to cost, but also due to space constraints. Bobbing about in a lifeboat in high waves looks like a hellish experience.
I don’t think I’m the kind that gets bored too easily, but I’m really getting a sense of boredom here now. My obsession is counting the days we’ve got left till we get off the boat. It’s not that I haven’t anything to do, I could continue making felt animals, read one of the four books I’ve got or Jenny’s Harry Potter book, watch some films or write some more job applications. But I’m not in the mood, I just want to get to England really. Why does the Atlantic have to be so wide?
There are no whales here, well it’d be very hard to see them with the fog and cresting waves. The Pacific, partly because it was summer, just seemed a lot more exciting. It is beyond my comprehension as to why you would willingly go on a cruise here for 49 days. Beatrice and Heinz Peter are here to get away from it all, in particular the winter. At least they’re not flying to some distant land, but I can’t really see the attraction of being on this moving prison for so long. It’s not cheap either… each to their own… Obviously I’m still pleased that we haven’t flown across the Atlantic (and encourage you all to take a freighter rather than a plane!!) and of course very happy that we haven’t been bathing in our own sick for the past few days. I’m just eager to get to England. I can only be thankful that it’s not like going across the Pacific where we had one day twice. Having to live through that when having each day once seems like an eternity would be the icing on the cake!
Lunch was asparagus soup (some soup base with bits of asparagus put in it), potato, spinach and some other vegetables, followed with three scoops of ice cream and a wafer. The afternoon was spent reading, computing and watching Mare TV’s documentary on the Oslo fjord and some canal also in Sweden. Before dinner we took a walk up to the bridge where our fellow passengers were found. We still haven’t left North America all that far behind. The Flaminia is due at the moment to arrive in Antwerpen towards midday on the 31st, the journey down the river after the pilot has come on board will take 8hrs to the port.
Supper was carrots, cauliflower, beans, peas, French fries, a very miniute helping of salad and chocolate cake. Today unlike yesterday I feel full, actually more than full, possibly fit to burst. I’ll be requesting just salad tomorrow night I think.
With the gloomy weather outside we are, according to Heinz Peter and Beatrice, already in the bad weather. We are of a different opinion, there still aren’t crazy waves, so as far as we’re concerned the weather is good.
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