We were pretty tired last night after the long day and the energetic sail-away party (all that singing and flag waving took its toll!!) so we turned in early after dinner. Still feeling lazy this morning. Another very hot, sunny day on the high seas. We are cruising south mirroring the coast of Brazil on our way to Rio. No land in sight so I suppose we are about 100 or so miles offshore.

Unusually for me I am actually having to be careful in the sun and getting a few little reddish bits!!! Nothing to speak of really but just goes to show how strong the sun is and I suppose there is reflection from all that ocean.

The usual sea day pattern: breakfast; bridge; pool; lunch; painting; pool; cocktail in cabin; early show; dinner; late show. Painting today was a scene from the prison in Recife. Our efforts were "all right", no more…. I had to do another tree… not good…. However, my Caribbean style bandana'd lady with cart of oranges was very good. Well, at first, frankly she looked more like Mother Theresa mysteriously relocated in Brazil, but a bit of pencil jiggery pokery from the tutor to her bandana fixed that! The tutor is staging an exhibition of everyone's work tomorrow afternoon as we now have no more classes till after Rio on Thursday. He is encouraging people to put a price on the pictures so others can buy them! Chortle. We've decided that only two of the nine we have done so far even merit a public view and that under sufferance…. And we won't be selling them. Yikes! Chance would be a fine thing…… And, as my dear friend Penny correctly suggested, any good ones will be coming your way as Xmas presents next year J. So get ready practicing those delighted expressions right now!!!!!

Another black tie night tonight. The Black and White Ball. An easy one to accommodate dress-wise and as we haven't had any dancing lessons (yet) we won't be going to the ball……. Definitely hope to fit them in later on in the trip though.