Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Clay got up and went to the gym to walk on the treadmill at
his usual time. I heard him but was still struggling and laid abed until about
6:45am. I must have been in the bathroom when he came back and tapped on the
door because I didn’t hear it. He had forgotten his keycard and was worried
about waking me or the neighbors.
I am up and around and eating today, but I haven’t gotten
back my self-confidence about my equilibrium/balance and queasiness. So, I am
just tried to move slowly. It has been very foggy all day so while there are
lots of breaking waves and over 10-foot rolling swells, we can’t really see
them just feel the ship wobbling and swaying.
Clay stayed in Horizons this morning for Needlepoint and
picked up an extra kit for me. We laid on some big double wide loungers under a
shelter behind glass on the 14th deck. They had blue lap blankets
out there and we had it mostly to ourselves. Clay slept some then decided to go
get some of the stash of dark chocolate bed candies he had stashed and walk
across to Baristas and make submarinos-style hot chocolates. He did and brought
them back and they were pretty good. Eventually it was time for us to go to the
Belfast Immigration clearance in Red Ginger. There was a long, zigzagging line.
They had taken all the tables out of Red Ginger and formed the zig-zag lines
with chairs. There were a man and a woman interviewing every couple about their
plans after arriving in London. He asked when our return date home was and Clay
told him July 21, he wanted to know if we were spending all that time in the UK
I just said we were staying onboard until Stockholm and he let us go. He stamped
our passports with Belfast. Though we’ve been to Belfast, we didn’t get stamped
there before.
Before lunch, Julie James the cruise director came on the intercom
to inform us that the ship had passed the 2% limit of passengers and crew with
acute gastro-enteritis and the CDC had been informed. She told us new
cleanliness and sanitation procedures were now in place and to wash our hands.
She asked everyone who had symptoms to go to the medical clinic where they were
no waiving fees. We had been in the elevator earlier with a couple coming up
from the medical center talking about now was a good time to be sick and
carrying their bags of medications. Knock on wood, we’ve been OK. Though Clay
set off a momentary red alert last night when he told the assistant cabin
stewardess they couldn’t come in for turn down service last night because I was
ill. I heard him and told him to go right back out and explain I had gone out
on a small boat and gotten very sea-sick! He did and she laughed with relief
but still gave him a bottle of hand sanitizer that she had already fetched. I
figured she had already reported me and my cabin number to the medical officer and
I’d find myself summoned down there today. But, I guess it didn’t get that far
and she saw me this morning up and about. Anyway, at least Marina had the segment
from NYC to Montreal outbreak free, but its back now.
We spent the afternoon napping and watching a movie, Clay
went to a lecture about the John Paul Jones and the formation of the American
Navy and another on Cabot and the founding of Newfoundland.
Dinner at Terrace. We saw a bunch of birds flying close to
the water. They are hundreds of miles from any land! Clay had paella and
declared it very good. We both had some Oceania signature cream puff looking
thing that was filled with chocolate cream. It was delicious but the reason I
got them was because they had tiny chocolate macarons sitting on top. Clay
declared that if they could make them perfectly that small then they needed to
have them in Baristas with the madeleines and caneles.
We moved the clocks ahead an hour tonight. Two sea days
left.
