Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2008. At that point, we were about two weeks into Mattie's cancer diagnosis and we felt like the world had just ended for us. That day, Mattie went with Peter, our neighbor, and his dog, JJ, out for a walk. JJ was just a puppy then and in so many ways Mattie and JJ grew up together. Mattie always wanted a dog, and JJ enabled him to have the best of both worlds. Mattie could play and walk JJ, but not have the daily responsibilities of caring for a dog. I am so happy Mattie had this special time with man's best friend.
Fun Fact of the Day: The Crown Princess' maiden voyage took place on June 14, 2006, departing Red Hook, Brooklyn (New York) for Grand Turk (Turks & Caicos), Ocho Rios (Jamaica), Grand Cayman (Cayman Islands), and Port Canaveral (Florida). As of 2009, the Crown Princess sails the Caribbean for the Winter season, and Europe for the Summer season.
Greetings from the Atlantic Ocean! We are at sea today (yes, this is Peter writing) heading north towards England and passing west of the coast of Portugal and Spain. The winds picked up yesterday when we left Gibraltar and have persisted since, which has caused the waves to build up. The net result is that we are rocking and rolling as we are steaming back to England. The temperature is around 67 degrees, the skies partly cloudy, and it is very clear that we are no longer in the Mediterranean! I have included a few compulsory ocean shots as well so you can see for yourself, and I will try to keep the blog short as internet connectivity speeds remind me of the dial-up modem days of the 1990s (remember 14,400bps?).
We had a nice sail-away from Gibraltar on Wednesday. I included some photos below of The Rock as well as the harbor. As North Africa is only 8.9 miles away from Gibraltar and we transited the Straits of
Gibraltar on a westerly heading to reach the Atlantic Ocean, I was able to get a few shots of the country of Morocco. Also as we were leaving the Bay of Gibraltar, I noticed some dolphins in the water who swam right past the ship, and fortunately I had the camera ready and took the below shots as it was a lovely sight to see a mother and its calf swimming past the ship. I know Mattie would have loved it as whenever he saw this kind of sight he said it reminded him of him and his mommy.
We continued to pursue the Sanctuary, not to take advantage of it, but rather to better understand how and why the ship would run this kind of service. It turns out there are only 47 chairs in the Sanctuary and they offer only on the first day of each cruise the opportunity to pre-purchase a chair for each day of the cruise. However, you must pay for all the days upfront and in full, and they can only offer this deal for approximately 20 chairs, after which they have to hold the other chairs for each day of the cruise. We spoke with one of the attendants in the Sanctuary who admitted it was a very hard policy to enforce since they had to each day turn away passengers who wanted chairs, and the attendants are forced to deliver the bad news. Keep in mind we also learned there are only 900 deck loungers on the ship, for the 3,500 passengers, meaning that on average only one passenger out of every four can get a deck chair. Doesn’t sound fair, does it?! I tell you what it does: it leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth and wondering why one would ever take another cruise with so many people and so little space!
We did zumba again this morning, which is really a great workout and one that I will personally miss once off the cruise. I realize I need to up my cardio workout and perhaps change some of the activities I am doing, but it zumba has been fun. I recognize that not all zumba classes have such an aggressive athletic intensity, but this instructor pushes you to go as hard as you like, and tells us at each class to not focus on the footwork or the moves and to do your own thing and check your ego at the door and just get your body moving. So, it is fun and has helped me contain my weight on the cruise, as there is food at every turn on this ship and the temptation to eat is strong!
Tomorrow (Friday) is another day at sea. We will be crossing into the Bay of Biscay tonight, so let’s hope the wind and waves do not continue as the Bay is known as a very tumultuous body of water prone to quick changes in weather. We toast Mattie each night at dinner and we have shared some recollections of Mattie during the trip, which is both nice and painful all at the same time. Vicki and I are getting better at recollecting stories of Mattie when we are alone, but it is still hard. We tend to focus on the funny and uniquely Mattie things which brings a smile, but we never really go too far in recalling the past as the situation inevitably turns from joy to sadness. I am not sure we’ll ever be able to go too far in sharing our memories of Mattie with each other, but I know over time we’ll keep trying as it would be impossible not to talk about Mattie. It has been 1,430 days since Mattie passed away, and not a moment goes by when I do not think about him (yes, yes, I know that’s a double negative, but I’m running with it).
So wish us luck with the Bay of Biscay tomorrow. We arrive in Southampton early Saturday morning, at which point we will take a car to Heathrow, say goodbye to Vicki’s parents who will be staying another day near Heathrow as their return arrangements require them to leave Sunday, and take an afternoon flight back to Washington, DC. I’ll post again Friday and thank again for following along!
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