R Bowlan 2004 click to enlarge
Mark taking on the challenge of the rock wall!

Ooooh! It was nice to sleep in a little today. We were up around 9:30am for a day at sea. We had our "BIG" breakfast again around 10:00am before we went to sit under the sun for a while. Today was a very windy day at sea, and the sailing was pretty rough for even a 1,000ft, 142,000 ton ship! The wind has been up over 40kts (70km) for most of the day, and even as I write it seems even stronger, as the lounge chairs on the upper deck have been tossed around. You can definately feel the sway of the ship, and at times even hard to walk up stairs, where you need a little more balance. Earlier in the day, we had 7-12ft waves and I can only assume they are larger now as you can here the dull roar (at times almost thunderous) of them pounding against the hull. Being on deck 2 we are fairly close to the water at 30 feet, but many times in the last hour our four foot porthole window in our cabin has been doused with hundreds of gallons of water, much like having a bucket of water thrown in your face! Rhonda doesn't like it very much, but I think it's kinda cool! :0

A few stats: Around noon, we were in over 5,900ft of water (over a mile). We had covered over 700km since leaving the Bahamas the evening before and had approx 800km to go to reach Jamaica in the morning. We were travelling a little behind schedule, sailing east along the coast of Cuba, against the wind. Around midnight, we round Cuba and head south-west where we will have the winds behind us and catch up on some time. I had my GPS out today; We were travelling at around 38kph, and were approx 42km off the coast of Cuba. It was neat to look at the GPS and see exactly where in the world you were and the neighboring countries and islands around you. Weather today was approx 25C, but the wind kept things cool... A danger to the many sun-bathers who looked like lobsters at dinner tonight. Rhonda is a little red tonight, but its nothing she can't handle!

The ladies headed to the Spa around 2:00 for a one hour massage, Rhonda just loved it! Gary and I spent some time around the bow (front) of the ship, watching us pound through the waves. Gary had noticed "birds" flying above the surface of the water, but soon realized that what we were watching was Flying Fish in schools coming out of the water near the side of the ship and with the help of the wind, flying 50 to 100 feet out along above the surface of the water before splashing back into the blue deep. It was neat to see them and we watched for quite a while. Later in the afternoon I headed to the rock climbing wall for a couple of climbs, before heading back to the cabins for a little nap (me) and some dolling up for dinner (Rhonda). Around 6:30 Rhonda and I went to the "Ice Jammin'" ice skating show in "Studio B". The cast boasted professional skaters from France, Russia, USA and Canada! It was fantastic, with lots of lighting and special effects. They all did an amazing job considering the relatively small size of the ice surface. It was nice to sit in a rink without freezing to death. Yes, Chandler and Connor, they have a "baby Zamboni" (picture on the TV) to clean the ice surface. Pretty Cool! We had our four-course dinner again tonight, our waiters and food were fantastic! The waiters all sang to us as they paraded through the three-deck dinning rooms. Very nice. (over 200 waiters, from 46 countries. All one big happy family!) After dinner we took a quick stroll around, then decided to not take in tonights show, but to get to bed "early" as tomorrow will come fast and we have a busy day ahead of us in Jamaica! "Copy that!"