August 07, 2024

Aug 5 At Sea

We leave Southampton and are headed to Hamburg. Our course will take us through the dover straights and along the coastline of Belgium, Holland and Germany. A distance too great to do in one day, but very easy in two as we cruise along at less than 10 knots most of the time. The captain needs to time his arrival to coincide with high tide in order to have enough water depth to navigate to Hamburg

There is quite a bit of  commercial ship traffic, mostly oil tankers. The coastline is dotted with wind farms, a significant source of energy for this region of Europe. The  air temperatures remain in the upper 60's. Very nice in the sun.

We are joined by new speakers for the insights series. Elizabeth Cunningham speaking on Astronomy, Astrophysics and Nuclear Physics and Derek Tedder a retired TV news journalist talking about behind the scenes at the news anchor desk.

Elizabeth, probably yes, Derek probably not.

We have changed tables in the dining room. Not far, just two tables away, we now have the window table for the rest on the journey. All Lynn has to do is politely ask. The dining room continues to be good. I have not had a bad meal. Everything is served hot when it should be. Service is elegant, but not always prompt. It is more than infrequent that you need to remind the waiter of something, like ice water which they don't automatically serve.

The main entertainment tonight  is a different production from the ships singers and dancers. "Be our Guest". Again very good.

The Beat 45's were scheduled to play in the Queens Room tonight,  but were cancelled. I guess Cunard's opinion of them was no higher than mine. I give them credit for cancelling them at the last minute.

The venue where they play jazz every night is the only venue on the ship that only has very deep, very low, very uncomfortable seating (for me anyway). Tonight we find comfortable seating at the bar and enjoy a set of jazz. Not Blue Bamboo quality, but good never the less.

Tomorrow we arrive in Hamburg.

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