Cruising the Atlantic Ocean – December 26

cool towels!

Weather…sunny with a few wispy clouds, not enough to give any reprieve from the sun, STICKY, 30 degrees, sun rise is 6AM – when we started on the cruise 5 days ago in Brazil it was 5AM.

Ahhhh, the sea day…how do I love thee, let me count the ways. The only schedule to have is when to have a meal, when to take a nap, and when to quench my thirst…what’s not to love?

dessert Kahlua soufflé

More or less exactly as every sea day before today was spent and as every sea day in my future will be spent, is how I spent today. I probably put in a bit more pool time than usual…I was up for an early-ish workout, then wanted a pool bar freshly pressed juice. The juice pressing ends at 9:30, so I had to get there before that. We tend to make friends with the juice bar ‘barista’ being there every sea day. Today she gave me some health advice…when I asked her
what she recommended she thought pineapple, spinach and grapefruit was what the doctor ordered. She went on to tell me that she’d recommend 2 grapefruits rather than 1 because they were good for immunity…sure, I bought that…I need all I can in the immunity department!! It wasn’t pretty, but it was tasty…the juice washed down a bran muffin…I don’t need digestion advice…I understand my digestion needs!

paper weight

Speaking of digestion…I finally talked the galley into grinding flax seeds for me. This is the toughest battle I wage when on a cruise…they HAVE the flax seeds, they just resist actually grinding them. Day one, breakfast room service they came whole…I mentioned it to the room service person, she said she tried, but whole was the best she could do. As least I had the past as ammunition and mentioned that although it is usually a battle, that finally I had ground last cruise…guess what the next day…GROUND!!! It’s not like I’m asking for lobster and caviar for breakfast (that would definitely be easier)…anyway…problem solved.

The pool was bustling and almost all spots in the shade were occupado. We found one half in the shade and plopped there for the morning. The pool deck on this boat is open to the sky but walled on all sides…
this makes for some toasty-ness! I combatted this heat by stepping into the pool more than a few times – I didn’t plan to get more than my legs wet, but that was enough to cool me off. As I’ve said before, swimming is a bit too much of a commitment for me! I ended up getting a bit more than just my legs wet as although not technically a ‘wave’ pool, the motion of the ocean caused the occasional rogue pool wave to contend with…eventually I was drenched to the waist…a happy accident…I sure cooled off!

I cooled off even more when cool towels were delivered…ahhhhh, now that’s luxury!

Yesterday we got a Christmas gift from the cruise…a paper weight…quite nice actually.