Day 7 At Sea

The sun has put in a much needed appearance today as we sail North West towards Stornaway. As we’ve been full steam ahead towards the Outer Hebrides, it’s fair to say we’ve left the millpond behind and traded it in for a rather choppier Northern Atlantic. We’ve had a bit of a wobble on all day, well not always just a bit, quite a wobbly wobble most of the morning. Swimming pools were emptying themselves totally unaided - all great fun. The captain made his announcement at lunchtime and the reason for the choppy seas is down to a weather depression over Iceland 500 miles away which is having a knock on effect on the sea.

From the weather point of view it’s been glorious, very few clouds and beautiful sunshine all day, but with a Scottish bite to the breeze.

As it’s been a day at sea, it’s been a very relaxed sort of day, breakfast out on the deck Sharon having peanut butter end jelly on toast ( strange girl) I went for the traditional bacon and egg. We spent the morning wandering around the ship, in the shops and fortunately back out of them with no damage to the wallet.

At lunchtime we were booked in to the sanctuary for the afternoon. This is at the front of the ship and is an adult only peaceful area with panoramic views of the ocean. Now on the Caribbean it comes with a light gentle breeze, off the coast of Scotland it comes with a Baltic chill enough to freeze bits of you off. When they show you to your sun bed they provide blankets !! Saying that it was lovely, relaxing and peaceful. We were served lunch as we entered, had a bit of sunbathing under a blanket before being served afternoon tea with all the works. We followed that up with a visit to the hot tub. There are two tubs in the sanctuary, one either side of the pool, both steaming hot and lovely. We were in for about an hour or so. The swell crashing the pool around was great to watch, until it chucked a shower of Arctic pool water over us - bloody freezing it was.

It was formal night tonight, Sharon wanted to see the performance in the theatre, we were short of time so we quickly showered and changed and headed for the theatre for 7. Except it wasn’t until 8. We saw the captains speech then headed for the theatre - it was full !! So we just got changed went to the deck and ate in there.

Sadly a medical emergency onboard has meant we’ve had to slow right down and the helicopter has come along and the Ken the poor passenger to hospital, all the decks were closed and some cabins evacuated to assist the helicopter. We weren’t affected.

A great day in all, very lucky with the weather despite the frostbite.Read more