A sea day today, so we weren’ t surprised when we were only the second couple in to breakfast at 8am, even by the time we had finished there couldn’ t have been more than half a dozen souls hungry for further sustenance.

Returning to the cabin we donned thick sweaters for a turn around the deck, though on emerging into what was expected to be a bracing breeze the latitude had seriously kicked in and we were greeted with sunshine and a warm whisper. 15 degrees said the Tannoy at that appropriate moment, rising to 19 degrees later in the afternoon. Our thoughts turned to our children and the hardship of an English winter, momentarily.

Sue spotted a sign stating that 3.2 times around the deck equalled one mile. Now we had a challenge. At a leisurely pace we successfully completed the task with no other ships, whales, seabirds of marine life to be seen, though we did have to run the gauntlet of the fog bank on each circumnavigation. The smokers on board are restricted to feeding their habit on the port side of the the activity deck (7), why you would select this deck of those available I have no idea. Mixing passengers purposely marching around in order to keep healthy with those bent on an early destruction seems rather idiotic. Why not restrict them to the stern of the ship on the lowest deck then any fumes would then be inhaled by trailing Russian spy ships and sick whales.

As an aside, we seem to have an inordinate number of passengers with sticks, summer frames and mobility scooters on board. More than I can recollect on any other ship we have sailed on. To be fair they haven’ t impacted on our journeys around the ship or limited our enjoyment of the activities and in some way that is encouraging. Perhaps there is a full life after 40 years of playing rugby to still look forward too?

Both Sue and I attended the morning lecture on the ‘Rolling Stones’, though neither of us being a great fans of the band we enjoyed it. We remained in the theatre for a port presentation on La Coruna.

Lunch followed in the waiter serviced Lagurian. We were seated at a table with two single passengers and had such an enjoyable chat about everything under the sun that well after we had finished our three courses and coffees we had to be prised out of our seats by heavy hints from the waiters. Both ladies had seen off their husbands a few years earlier and reassuringly Sue mentioned that she would intend to cruise if likewise, I felt the need to reassure her that in the reverse scenario, Thailand would be on the itinerary.
A much brisker walk along the promenade deck followed, again exactly a mile, though on this occasion the temperature had risen considerably and the stop in the cabin to pick up sweaters had been a mistake. On completion of the post meal activity I visited the reception to hand over my camera charger so that the battery could be topped up in readiness for tomorrows excursion into the dunes. There was not enough room in the cabin socket to fit the rather large charger into so the cabin steward had left a note letting me know that reception would do it for me. In the past Sue has always had an adapter that would sort out such problems but age has started to take its toll and she has left them at home. The odds are in favour of Thailand rather than a cruise I think.

I met Sue again in the Atrium. We had spurned the multitude of lectures, demonstrations and activities available on board and she settled down with her tapestry from Bergen and I with Lee Child and London Pride.After a little while we were joined by one of the ladies that we had shared lunch with. We chatted again for around an hour, before Sue excused herself and went back to the cabin. I stayed and listened to stories of her family and travels for another hour before excusing myself to go and wake Sue up for her afternoon tea and cake.

On return, Sue was truly fast asleep and reluctant to stir even for High Tea! I left her sleeping and read some more of the novel that I had been denied earlier.

Dinner was again informal and we had 6 of us dining, though the conversation by the other guests was quite depressing and centred on physical ailments, major operations and types of medical insurance. One wondered why they ever dared venture abroad with major bypass surgery already undertaken or in the pipeline (pun!)

The entertainment we chose was a medley of routines based on ‘school days’ by the ship’s resident song and dance troupe the Headliners. A similar extravaganza based around Matt Monroe was on in the other theatre. We chose well.

An early night (11.45pm) after a brief walk on deck as we have an excursion tomorrow.