Day 4At Sea

My last words on yesterday’s blog were that we were about to leave port and that the signal would go.  Well that was correct but we still had a small amount of time with a connection as we remained close to land for a while. So I decided to catch up on emails etc one of which was from Tripadvisor saying that we were due to be charged the following day for a trip we had booked with them on Monday in Bodo. In order to get the tickets early I decided to pay there and then so pressed “pay now”!  All went through perfectly and the tickets arrived and I loaded them to the wallet. As I smiled happily in satisfaction having got all that sorted the Captain made an announcement (these are all played in the cabins) to say that due to bad weather we would not be going to Bodo when planned but would be going to Narvik instead and he wasn’t sure if and when we would go to Bodo. So press press cancel cancel!!!! How ironic!  If I hadn’t tried to be so organised I would have been able to cancel before I paid. But to be fair the good news is that cancellation is free until Sunday so they will refund my payment, it’s just a pain for them and for me. I sent them a note saying that I  hoped that when the itinerary was sorted we would still go to Bodo and we could still go on the trip on a different day. So fingers crossed.

We don’t bother with a jacuzzi as we were so tired. But we did go to Anderson’s for our usual pre dinner Prosecco and g&t.

Then dinner in Medina. We were still tired and couldn’t be asked to chat politely at dinner so booked to eat on our own. We didn’t have too long to wait as the restaurant quickly emptied as everyone was off to the 8.15 show.

Dinner was pleasant. It’s not Michelin star but nor is it pub grub or worse. It’s very good quality and well presented and tasty. What more do you need.

No drinks after dinner just straight to bed.

We had been told that if you tune to a particular channel and leave the tv on, the bridge would broadcast if the Northern Lights appeared. So we went to bed with clothes we could quickly pull on beside the bed. In the middle of the night we got so fed up with the bright light actually in our cabin we turned the tv off!!

Today was another sea day. So a late start with coffee in the cabin and breakfast in Medina - on a shared table.

Then I had a watercolour class and Steve walked 5km round the Promenade deck after which he went for a jacuzzi on deck.

I then managed to put one washing load on and we went for lunch in Horizon which timed perfectly with the end of the wash. I transferred it to the drier and went off for my next creative class - clay modelling. On the way I went to Oasis Spa to check out treatments. We’ve been given a £30 discount so worth using.

The clay class was brilliant fun. I’ve been chatting to one lady at all the creative classes and we sat together again. My only problem was that I thought we would be given a subject to make but our instructor only gave us ideas and left it up to us to choose. Goodness!  Then it came to me - a Viking ship but then I changed my mind to a Portuguese fishing boat as I want to paint it in bright colours. I’m not sure it is quite that but at least people guessed it was a boat.

In the meanwhile Steve had been to another talk by same guy who had done the ballooning talks. This one was about the BBC and the Antiques Roadshow. Steve found it very entertaining. When it was finished he checked the laundry - but not dry. So I picked it up after the class. I then went back upstairs as our instructor was hosting a craft sale. I bought a couple of small cross stitch kits.

I then went back to the Spa to make a booking. Steve had decided he didn’t want a couples massage so I decided to have a manicure. Again a small muddle but have booked it for the next sea day on Wednesday.

Then my turn for a jacuzzi. It was still pleasant but it was also occupied for the first time. So there was a great deal of chat, mainly from a lady who had been in the prison service and was pretty vocal with her views. I just watched the sun setting.

When I got back to the cabin we decided to go for a slightly earlier dinner (a formal night) so we could make the show at 8.15. We entered the queue and went to Anderson’s for our usual. But we’ve now been here about half an hour and don’t seem to be further down the queue so might not make it.

We swapped from wanting a table for 2 to sharing and a table came up pretty quickly.  The meal was good again and the company pleasant.  However we didn’t finish until well after 9.00 so no show.

After dinner we were headed to the Crow’s Nest for a drink but along the way we saw loads of people dressed warmly standing on deck with cameras. We asked one couple and they said that there had been an announcement about the Northern Lights. We thought about still having a drink but instead went back to our cabin to change. We went back on deck but when nothing had appeared after a while we went back to our cabin. Once again we left a pile of clothes by the bed in case there was an announcement during the night.

The clocks go back tonight so I’m sure there will be more confusion.