Today dawned sunny and bright, so after breakfast we headed out on deck to find the perfect spot to bask in the sun.

It was quite windy, but we found a good sheltered place on deck 10 near to the Pavilion Pool. The morning was spent alternating between sunbathing and soaking in the pool. What had started out as a crossing has turned into a Caribbean Cruise – the best of both worlds?

In the afternoon we went to the wine tasting. There were 4 different wines. As I cannot drink red wine, I only indulged in the first 2 which were a sparkling wine and a rose. I decided to finish drinking the second wine rather than throw it out, but was admonished by the passenger behind me that this was “a wine tasting, not a wine drinking event”. Well you can’t please everyone. The first 2 wines were very pleasant, and although they are not available on the wine menu you can ask specifically for them, and they cost $35 each. Brian enjoyed the 2 reds, which are also available off menu for the same price. I thought that this was fairly reasonable considering the usual price of a decent wine on board. However one of the passengers pointed out that the 4^th wine was available for 6 pounds at his local Asda.

After the wine drinking I went to beading. This was a mistake as I probably should have tasted the wines rather than drank them. My beads were even more difficult to control than usual. However I did manage to finish one necklace and embarked on another. The other women are making amazing creations now, but I am not sure I have the ability to tolerate doing such fancy work at the moment – maybe later on in the cruise.

Then we did our 6 laps around the Promenade Deck. This was the first time it has actually been enjoyable, and we have not faced biting winds and cold sea spray. There was a beautiful sunset. It looked perfect for seeing the green flash, but the sun just sank gracefully into the water without putting on a show for us. Maybe tomorrow.

Next it was time to get ready for our hosted dinner. The dress code was formal; it was the black and white ball again. Clutching our precious invitation we presented ourselves to the dining room at precisely 8:30, not wanting to be late. We were escorted to our table by the maitre d’, and lo and behold, it was the main table where the captain usually sits on formal nights. I felt very special. There was little me dining right next to the spinning globe and map of western Western Europe. I was bursting with excitement. They have place names so you know where to sit, and I was thrilled to be seated next to our host. As it turns out the doctor is totally charming, and we had a delightful evening. He is South African, so I wasted no time telling him about the saga of our biltong knife and the trouble we are having slicing our biltong supply with the little knife that came with our bottle opener. He took immediate pity on us, and has arranged to have someone in the kitchen slice the biltong for us as needed. The dinner was delicious; I had crab and shrimp salad, chateau briande, and lemon soufflé. Who could ask for anything more?

The show was the Beatles Experience, a Beatles tribute band. They were great, and played all of our favourite songs. After the show we headed up to Hemispheres so we could dance the night away at ABBA night. Everything was going so perfectly, but when we got to Hemispheres, Brian noticed that the sole and heel had come off of his right shoe. So no dancing queen for me. We retraced our steps of the evening in search of the missing sole, but it was nowhere to be seen. We even checked in with the Purser’s Office to see if it had been turned into the lost and found, but no luck there either. So no doubt somewhere deep in the bowels of the ship sits Brian’s lonely sole (and heel) from his nice shiny formal shoes, never to see the light of day again. Now the ever-prepared Brian has bought shoe glue along, just in case we experienced the partial separation of portions of our shoes, but we never expected a total separation, followed by a loss. So it looks like instead of spending the day on the beach in Barbados we will be searching for another pair of formal shoes.

When we returned to our cabin, there was another World Club Diamond pin for me on our bed. I reached Diamond status in 2015, and this is the 5^th pin they have given me. Go figure.