We now have two full sea days before we arrive in St Vincent, Cape Verde Islands on Thursday. We are still steaming SSW and every day picking up a few degrees in air temperature. Today, it felt warmer outside than inside and many people were sunbathing around the pools on the open decks. We are still attending our "lessons" but I sense that as the weather gets hotter, this may become a conflict. There are only so many hours in the day….

Anyway, today we had breakfast in the Medina restaurant which is silver service. There are various breakfast options: room service in the cabin; the Coffee Bars which offer pastries and coffees, Medina silver service restaurant or Horizon Self Service. We are generally in a hurry to get off somewhere so opt for self-service but today we decided to let the waiters do the work. It's a nice experience because you are generally seated at random tables of 8 so you meet new people and can have very interesting chats over the toast. Today was no exception.

Then, off to Bridge lessons and we have now reached the point where tomorrow we move away from mini-bridge and start conventional contract bridge. This is quite frightening because there are so many things to remember and numbers to add up, secret messages to send your partner by way of your play….. It's worse than trying to learn Scottish Country Dancing. J Definitely a pressure situation!

At 11am we dash up 5 decks to Spanish and the verb To Be. Being Spanish, one verb is not enough and there are two of them which you use in different scenarios except for other times when you use the other one….. yes, its confusing J Many people who have never learned a second language or studied English grammar are also struggling with the concept of conjugating verbs, dealing with gender affected adjectives, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Person, and even what is a verb, noun, pronoun and adjective. Our education system has gone terribly wrong to have taken these concepts out.

Grabbed a bit of cold lunch and walked the decks in the sun, then onto painting. Today we copied a watercolour of a Madeiran fishing village originally by Winston Churchill while learning sky and cloud techniques. I would describe mine as child-like in its naiveté J I seem to have trouble with boats although my clouds were quite good!!!

Cups of Earl Grey on one of the stern terraces while enjoying a last bit of sun, then time to get ready for our second Formal Night. Just getting dressed when the steward knocked on the door with a box of chocolates and a rather fabulous carved wooden box containing a chess set and a very fulsome wine set. A gift for being a "full voyage" passenger. How nice!

After dinner we went to the theatre to see a dance performance showcasing different types of dancing. Absolutely spectacular and excellent.