The weather is really heating up now. Today it was around 23C and sunny with some sea haze. We are about 350 miles off Mauretania en route for St Vincent, Cape Verde Islands tomorrow morning.

A normal sea morning: bridge and Spanish lessons. We are thinking we will have to stop Spanish because we find we are spending too much of the day inside. Bridge is at 10 and painting at 2:15 which leaves a good space in between for being on the outside decks. Bit sad, but maybe we can pick it back up later in the voyage if we move to Intermediate Bridge or if timings change.

Today, we were invited to a special lunch for passengers who are on board for the entire voyage. There are about 800 of us apparently. More about that later. On the subject of passengers, looking around, we are probably in the younger segment. I would say everyone is between 55 and 80 with most people 70+. Pretty spritely though which is heartening. A lot of Australians on board who are cruising back to Sydney or Melbourne. Quite a few people getting off at one of the South American ports either to return to the UK or to tour further there. I imagine there will also be people getting on in South America and especially Australia to take the return journey to the UK

Anyway, the lunch….. Welcomed by the Captain and the Officers and quite a slap up affair. Wine was freely poured and a pretty nice menu. I started with a deep fried poached duck egg with morelles in truffle oil, spinach puree and a parmesan crisp. Bob had white onion soup with truffle oil. Both delicious. Then a mango sorbet for everyone. Main course for me was a Cannon of Lamb which was - for me - slightly over - although tender and tasty. Bob had a fantastic piece of Cod with a tomato compote, Lyonnais potatoes, dill and olives. Absolutely great. I passed on dessert and cheese but Bob had a vanilla pannacotta with strawberries, black pepper and honeycomb. The wine selection was Chilean: sparkling, white and red.

Possibly Chilean wine is not the greatest precursor to a painting class…. Anyway…. Not sure my flower picture today was one of my best. Or maybe the subjects are just getting harder.

After painting we actually got our swimwear on and laid out on the aft terrace deck near the pool there. Lovely to be that warm. May have had a bit of a nap……. J

Having a light snack dinner tonight and then going to see the Opera Boys again. Tomorrow we will be in St Vincent and I am searching out an internet cafe so that we can get more time online to upload pix and do tasks. It's just ruinously expensive on board so we have to be very circumspect. Will also ring the girls again.