Day 6 Thursday, 30th May 2019 Atlantic then the English Channel
The extra hour’s sleep was very welcome and we just made it in time to the restaurant by 8:45 am but our servers were not happy with the world. This was unusual in the breakfast restaurants. The $10 sale was in full swing by the time we left the restaurant. The most interesting items were of course were not $10 at all.
Out on deck I watched the contrails above us.
Myles played football and basketball on the sports deck for the rest of the morning.
Our lunch was another pizza in Albertos plus a Grolsch for me. We sat and watched a quick performance of a song by the ship’s entertainers in the Atrium. In the afternoon there was time to watch yet another movie.
Evening on board
We were invited to the Captain’s Circle cocktail party at 5 pm. This was the second and last formal night. At the venue there were no queues as the doors must have opened early.
After speeches from our hosts we made our way back to the Atrium to try another of the restaurants. We finished up in the Santa Fe restaurant which is on Deck 6 off the Atrium.
As it was a formal evening the menu had special items and I ordered a medium rare beef Wellington. I started with tomato soup and then had a very sweet “floating island“ as my desert. My best guess is that there was more medium meat than the medium rare when the time came to to carve.
We ordered a fourth main course of lobster so that we all could try it and to see how Princess Cruises served lobster. It was much smaller than the one ordered off the paid for menu and came on a bed of what looked like rice. We divided the tail into thirds. We tried it after we had finished our main courses. We all decided that it wasn’t for us.
Entertainment for the evening
We attempted a quiz while we waited for the ventriloquist. Out of the 20 questions we only managed to get five correct. Clearly being able to know the stage name of famous performers from their real names was not our strong suit!
The club filled up and we found ourselves on the front row – not the best place to be with the comedian/ventriloquist, Gareth Oliver. After his stand-up session he picked on a member of the audience for the last part of the act.
Once the “volunteer” was on the stage he was fitted with a puppet’s mouth. From then on he reacted to the words put in his mouth by the ventriloquist. The poor guy was really was put through it with references to his long-standing partner, his role in a drug company and with other members of the audience.
From the Cruise Log
At Sea – Thursday, 30th May 2019
Throughout the day Sapphire Princess maintained various north-westerly courses across the eastern part of the Atlantic Ocean.
During the early evening we commence our transit through the busy English Channel towards St. Peter Port.
The English Channel, also called The Channel, French La Manche, is a narrow arm of the Atlantic Ocean separating the southern coast of England from the northern coast of France and tapering eastward to its junction with the North Sea at the Strait of Dover (French: Pas de Calais). With an area of some 29,000 square miles (75,000 square kilometers), it is the smallest of the shallow seas covering the continental shelf of Europe. From its mouth in the North Atlantic Ocean — an arbitrary limit marked by a line between the Scilly Isles and the Isle of Ushant — its width gradually narrows from 112 miles (180 kilometers) to a minimum of 21 miles, while its average depth decreases from 400 to 150 feet (120 to 45 meters).
Although the English Channel is a feature of notable scientific interest, especially in regard to tidal movements, its location has given it immense significance over the centuries, as both a route and a barrier during the peopling of Britain and the emergence of the nation-states of modern Europe.
At Noon Position:
Latitude: 47° 23.4’N Longitude: 004° 28.7’E 2/8
Sky: Cloud Cover
Air Temperature: 15.8°C / 60.4°F
Pressure: 1023.0 mbs.
Wind: South-Westerly, Force 6
Sea: Slight