Crossing the Atlantic

It's day seven of our fifteen day cruise to Rome, and we're about done with the Atlantic Ocean crossing. When we left Ft. Lauderdale, we had 3700 nautical miles to go to our first port in the Canary Islands. This morning the navigator announced that we had traveled 3300 nautical miles, and had less than 400 miles remaining. We're due to arrive at the port of Tenerife, Canary Islands tomorrow at 7 AM, and should be leaving the ship for sightseeing by 8 AM. We'll sail again at 3:30 PM and have one more day at sea before arriving in Gibraltar. Then the busy part of the cruise will begin. We'll visit six ports in six days before arriving in Rome. Or maybe, what's left of Rome. We heard on the news this morning that a long dead seismologist had predicted a devastating earthquake for Rome this Wednesday. Apparently, this prediction has worried some Romans, as a number of people have left the city. The predicted date will have long passed by the time we get to Rome, so we're not concerned.

So, what have we been doing during our week at sea? Sleeping, eating, drinking, reading, chatting, and other strenuous activities. We've celebrated two wedding anniversaries, 54 years for Herman and Annie, and 50 years for Lu and Joe.

Each was celebrated with good times, good friends and a great deal of hilarity among the 14 in our group. Special cocktail parties, balloons and rousing versions of "Happy Anniversary" accompanied each celebration. 

The weather has been great.  I expected to encounter cold weather and rough seas, but I guess I was thinking of the North Atlantic.  This crossing, at 28 degrees North Latitude, has been calm and warm.  The air temperature has remained in the 70's with the sea temperature just a few degrees warmer.  We did get a couple of brief showers and periods of cloudiness, but we've also had a lot of sun.

We've participated in shipboard Trivia games most afternoons, but our knowledge and skill are seriously lacking! Our highest scores were 14 right out of 20, and one day we got only 9 of 20. I think the humiliation is catching up to me; I'm losing interest in the game.

The food has been terrific, but we're skipping the hearty breakfast and lunch options available on the ship. Instead, we're grabbing small bites for breakfast and lunch, saving our calories for the sumptuous dinners in the dining room. Last night along with John & Judy and Lu and Joe, we ate in one of the specialty restaurants on board, Sabatini's Italian Restaurant. Wow! It was spectacular! And huge! An appetizer course of about 8 items, a salad course of 4 or 5, a pasta course of 3 items, a main course with a choice of about 8 items and a dessert course with about the same number of choices. Needless to say, we waddled away from that meal.

About the only thing that's bothered us so far is the fact that we've had to change our clocks ahead five times in the seven days we've been aboard. This, of course, is because the time in Europe is five or six hours ahead of Eastern Time. We're now on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or as it's now known, Universal Time Constant (UTC) and we'll only change once more during the cruise. Hooray! Maybe our body clocks will catch up!

That's about it for now; we'll tell you more about our visit to the Canary Islands in a day or so.