Into the Med

We're back at sea, and it was a very quiet day. While the sun was shining, it seemed cooler today. For this reason, Bill and I spent most of the day indoors.

Last night was the final time change, and I can't say I'm disappointed. Having the time change take place at night instead of during the day doesn't work as well for us. It just makes us sleep later in the morning and so I feel as though we miss an hour of the day anyway. I imagine people who regularly enjoy sleeping later in the morning prefer it this way. At any rate, we are now eight hours behind our friends and family in Denver, and that's how it will remain the rest of the trip.

We worked out this morning and then had lunch. After lunch, Bill and I each read our books, but in different venues. Bill, as usual, went to the cigar lounge. I went to a bar that has a lovely view of the ocean, and had a martini that lasted me several hours.

Tonight was the final formal night – at least for this cruise. Bill looked at his suit, and I looked at my dresses, and we finally confided in each other that we had no desire to put them on. So instead we went to Johnny Rockets and had a greasy hamburger and a milkshake, and enjoyed the heck out of it. Others apparently don't share out feelings because there are a lot of folks around the ship dressed up.

While eating our hamburgers, we watched a couple of ships that were in the distance. One seemed to be coming directly toward our ship, and Bill speculated that it might be a pirate ship. “Do they ever attack cruise ships?” I asked. “It's been known to happen,” Bill said. So we made our plans about what we were going to do if the pirates attacked us. It had to do with the catsup bottle and a big squirt.

Captain Eric announced today that at about 5:15 tomorrow morning we will be entering the Strait of Gibraltar. During our transatlantic cruise in 2008, we passed through the Strait in the afternoon, but it was very cloudy and we couldn't really see anything. Tomorrow is supposed to be clear, but gosh, at 5:15 it will still be pretty dark. Nevertheless, the opportunity to see Spain on our left and Africa on our right is too tempting. We are going to leave a 5 o'clock wake-up call and will be sitting in the sky bar, coffee cup in hand, trying to make out land before sunrise. The captain told us there is a chance there will be enough daylight at about 5:45 to see something. We'll see how that works out.