Hi dear ones. No once can be squeemish. We had a meeting with the Captain and he is a very interesting man! He was born and spent most of his life above the artic circle in Norway! He said the gulf stream actually keeps ice off Norway. In 2009 the Captain sailed his own vessel, the Morning Song, a 43′ sail boat, from Antigua to his home in North Norway. He talked about catching the westerlies in weather like ours today. Photos taken on board looked cold. He has crossed the pond in 16 ton vessel and a 90 ton vessel. Some interesting facts from today’s talk: we are currently experiencing seas with waves of upwards to 6 1/2 meters, winds up to 40 to 60 knots. We are asked not to go out on deck so today is the first time I had a sense of how many passengers are on board. Explaining what we have done so far, the Captain explained: we passed under the Sunshine Skyway bridge at Tampa with an 18′ clearance. we made a wide berth around the Keys to protect marine sanctuaries. We caught the gulf stream to catapult us (my term) around the tip of Fla but now we are avoiding the center of the gulf stream due to high winds. We were supposed to go into Boston, but Captain said last year the northerly route out of Boston was very high winds and waves so he prefers the more southern route we’ll take from Norfolk to the Azores. interesting… Anyway, we are in the center of an intense low and it will clear for us when we pull into Norfolk tomorrow. I’m sitting at a window as I type and yes it is gray and wavy…. ship is moving around and some people are taking to their cabins looking a shade of green. I’m thinking of a cold beer, and there is a new painting in the gallery that I’d like to copy. I’ll see if Chuck wants to read while I paint in the gallery… It should be 79 degrees in Norfolk and Chuck and I plan to take a nice long walk. All in all… so far so good, and pretty quiet. God bless you! Sue
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