27th January 2015

It was 12:15 a.m. before we finally settled into the sheets. The random movements of the ship quickly faded into the background, and soon, the Land of Nod enveloped our cabin.

I awoke at 7:30 a.m. and took a shower. Sue’s wrist is still quite swollen and tender, though no bruising has appeared yet. Once we were both ready, we headed to the Jardine restaurant, conveniently just down the corridor. To our surprise, we were only the second couple to arrive at this Marco Pierre establishment (though I doubt he’s actually on board). I went for an omelette panini, an unusual choice, but surprisingly tasty.

Afterwards, we returned to the cabin, where Sue decided to rest, and I ventured out onto the decks in search of dolphins. With no sign of these elusive creatures in sight, I headed back inside and popped into the gym before making my way to the Footlights Theatre, stopping by the cabin to check on Sue. She joined me just in time for a lecture on ‘The Swinging Sixties’. Naturally, the topic was a popular choice on a cruise ship, and it stirred many fond memories, with murmurs of recognition rippling through the audience.

After the lecture, we stayed in our seats for a short while before a presentation on Lisbon began. It was quite informative and gave us some ideas of what to explore in the city. We haven’t booked any excursions at the ports we’re visiting, except for Agadir, as on this cruise we decided to go ashore and explore at our own pace.

We had lunch, then took a brisk turn around the deck. Partway through, the Captain announced sightings of whales off the starboard side; however, even with binoculars, we couldn’t spot them. Perhaps he meant Wales?

We began the afternoon with a port presentation on Agadir. The city itself sounded rather drab and uninspiring, so we were glad to have booked a 4×4 excursion to explore the dunes and wetlands instead.

A bit later, we both retreated to our cabin for a short nap. Cruising can be surprisingly exhausting in the early days of the voyage: learning the ship’s layout, deciding what and when to eat and drink, and, of course, carefully planning our itinerary to avoid missing anything we’re keen on. Just yesterday, we were seated in the theatre waiting for a lecture when we suddenly realised we were actually about to watch the film ‘Philomena’! Cue a mad dash across the length of the ship to reach the ‘other’ theatre in time for our preferred event. Today, we had hoped to watch the film ‘Hercules’, but there was a clash between that and the afternoon presentation. Confused as to which to attend, we chose to eat instead.

Later, after a nap, I settled in one of the bars with my Lee Child novel, ‘Killing Floor’, accompanied by a pint of London Pride, while Sue washed her hair, one-handed.

We have now moved to the second sitting for dinner, as requested last night. Before dinner, we enjoyed listening to Pete Brew in the Atrium, playing an excellent selection of rock guitar riffs. He’s a very talented musician and definitely worth more evenings of listening.

At 8:30 pm, we joined our new dinner companions in the Adriatic Restaurant. There were meant to be eight of us, but two had switched to an earlier sitting, leaving six. We got on well and chatted through the meal. Later, we watched a comedian in the Starlight Theatre. He looked familiar, and eventually, we realised we had seen him on the ‘Oriana’ in September.

We were in bed by 11:30 pm.