So we’re on the boat now – the Emerald Princess. It’s significantly bigger than anything we’ve been on before which has its pros and cons – more bars but more people. Queuing up to go through security it appears to be the same crowd as Azamara (our previous cruise line) attracts. I’ve also seen this crowd at Rolling Stones and Eagles concerts so hanging round the pool for a perve will be a waste of time. Fortunately it’s nothing like the crowd that invades another cruise line when operating out of Miami because my fighting days are well and truly behind me. Check out the videos which regularly appear on X and no doubt there’s a YouTube channel devoted to the violent twerking and food throwing (not to mention punching and hair pulling) that appears de rigeur on these ships. That is, unless the scolds who previously censored what has now been proven to be sound Covid advice, are still in charge of that channel.
We’re currently traversing the North Sea which will take two days. Back to X and I’ve seen some horrendous clips of weather all but ripping oil and gas rigs off the sea floor in this part of the world. Fortunately it’s relatively calm right now but we’ve got the rest of today and all of tomorrow before we reach the safety of the fjords. I’m not yet pining for them like the Norwegian Blue (if you are unaware of this reference you should be ashamed of yourself) but weather can be fickle. And we’ve passed plenty of rigs none of which appear to be drifting wrecks.
It’s 16 degrees with 33km/hr wind gusts so feels like 12 degrees. We’re sitting at the outside bar at the back of the ship and contemplating going inside because it’s bloody cold. So how do you explain the woman of a certain age sunning herself in a swimsuit. She’ll only get half a tan because of the shadows being thrown by the goose bumps. As there are a few pools on this ship, after moving we inevitably found ourselves sitting near to another one, each of us sipping a gin and tonic. There are actually people in this pool. WTF is wrong with these people. There are lots of things to do on this ship but joining the local chapter of the Icebergs club or whatever winter swimming is called round here, doesn’t appear to be one of them. They should be doing what we’re doing.
We’re now skirting the Norwegian coast, on the lookout for maraudering long ships. The CB is sharpening her axe (a metaphor for tongue) and preparing to repel boarders. I’ll have to get her even more pissed tonight. Unfortunately the weather appears to be a bit more North Sea-ish with rougher seas so that plan may be problematic. I’ll let you know how this pans out in #2.