Day 10--Cruising in Atlantic

GOOD FRIDAY

This is our position at noon today.  We are now 400 statute miles (350 nm) from our next port of call, Funchal on the Portuguese island of Madeira.  We will be arriving there tomorrow morning around 9:00 am.  It is a sunny day at sea with light winds and an outside air temperature of 63 degrees.  We are starting to get some swells now.  Captain Stan said they will be increasing to 15 feet swells this afternoon and evening hitting the ship broadside on port side (left side) which will create a rolling motion of the ship.  Our stabilizers are deployed but will not be able to fully dampen the rolling motion.  SO, I put on half of a transderm scopolamine patch behind my ear.  Just practicing "safe cruising" as do not want to have sea sickness.  The ocean looks smooth but you can see and feel the swells.

Last Night:
       We went to the Meridian Lounge as usual for cocktail hour.  Elena, the head bartender, arranged to have some cream cheese stuffed jalapeno peppers for us as a hot hors doeuvers with our drinks.  She said we will be having them served to us every evening now.  At 6:30 we met Joe & Allison Trum at the entrance to Compass Rose as we were having dinner together.  They wanted to join us since I had requested veal parmesan again for our entree.  We also had fried soft shell crabs for our appetizer.   We met them back in 2012 on our Circle South America cruise then cruised again with them from Beijing to London in 2103.  They live in Galveston, TX.  Seems we never run out of things to talk about.  It was a great evening!!
        Last night's headliner show was the return of "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere".  We really enjoy this couple and their unique musical style.  They will be leaving tomorrow in Funchal.  After the show I walked out into the Deck 4 atrium and there was an incredible Easter display made by some chefs on board.  Very artistic and obviously a lot of time spent on it.  Photos on today's link.

Today:
        I bought Rebecca some Contact in the shop yesterday to hopefully help with her breathing last night.  It did help.  Hopefully this will run its course soon.  We lost another hour of sleep last night as we moved clocks ahead another hour.  Now we are 5 hours ahead of Central time zone in the US.
        Once again room service brought our breakfast promptly at 9:00 am.  We got our workout in before getting cleaned up for lunch time.  Even Rebecca went for lunch (instead of having her protein bar for lunch) as in La Veranda they had salmon baked in puff pastry.  This is one of our favorites.  Right before leaving for lunch, the Destination Services desk called me to say we would be getting a private car upon disembarking the ship in Barcelona to take us to the cruise terminal for the Mariner. He said we would be in last group off the ship around 9:00 am as they want everyone off Explorer by then.  Will have to wait in the cruise terminal where Regent's Mariner will be leaving from until they start the boarding process later that morning.  They are offering a Barcelona tour for those of us who will be switching ships but we have done the Barcelona tours on previous cruises.  Besides the weather forecast is for rain that day.
        There is a Passover Dinner this evening for those Jewish passengers who wish to attend.  We plan on dining in Compass Rose as have requested one of our favorite salads on Regent.  It has avocado, heart of palm, cherry tomatoes, artichoke hearts, lettuce, and green goddess dressing.  It used to be on the menu but now we have to ask for it.  After dinner there is another production show called "Broadway in Concert".
        Ok, here is today's photos link.  Cut & paste it to another browser to open it.  Then click on the first photo to enlarge it and then you can also see my captions on the right side.  Arrow through the rest of photos.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/1FTQfUYiLSLsDFqs2