May 28, The Queen Mary 2 at Sea

Thursday, May 28 - Day 113 - The Queen Mary 2 at Sea

Sunrise this morning is at 4:29 AM! After disembarking the Southampton pilot yesterday evening the Queen Mary 2 sailed into the English Channel and set a west-southwesterly course along the Southern English coast. She passed 12 nautical miles south of the Bill of Portland and Start Point. Some time in the early morning hours she passed south of Bishop Rock, thus making the traditional start of our transatlantic passage to New York.

We had an extra hours sleep last night due to setting back the clock, so even Carolyn is up before 8AM! Dick has already gone for his shot of strong coffee and she dresses and works on the blog while she waits for him. As usual, he is back to the room around 8:30 and we head for breakfast in the dining room. We love to have a leisurely breakfast served to us so we always eat in the dining room if possible. Today it is strawberries and eggs Benedict for Carolyn and oatmeal, sausage and poached eggs for Dick and, of course, fresh OJ and pastries.

After breakfast we go directly to Illuminations for a lecture, "Dunkirk, Winston Churchill and the Threat of Invasion" by Joshua Levine. He is very good and it is a different lecture as he gives several first hand reports from people who were there. We both enjoy his talk. The next lecture is on the "Floating Palaces, The great Atlantic Liners" by Bill Miller. He takes us through the history of the great 20^th century ocean liners. It too was very enjoyable. From there we head back to the dining room for lunch. Dick has orange roughy and leek soup, Carolyn has a ham sandwich.

Back in the room we read and play computer games. It is pretty outside with sun so Carolyn does some balcony sitting until Dick goes to the afternoon lecture by David Henderson on "Come Fly with Me". It is on the great airports. He says it was OK, but not as good as the morning ones.

Meanwhile Carolyn goes Birthday shopping at the bookstore. She gets a couple of Joshua Levine’s books since this is a new twist on Dick’s favorite topic. Wrapping is a bit of a challenge but the sales clerk gives her an extra bag which works fine.

Tonight is the Captain’s Cocktail Party in the Queen’s Room so we get dressed, after our butler finds Dick’s only white shirt, at 6PM, which we sent out last night for one day service. The other things we sent out on regular service were back at 4:30. We go to the Captain’s side since it is Dick’s Birthday he wants a picture with the Captain.

 
For dinner we have pre-ordered Chateaubriand. They finish it table side for us and it is delicious. They also bring Dick a chocolate cake. All and all it is a fun evening. Sunset tonight is 8:47PM, but it is still twilight at 10Pm when we turn out the lights.

RADA is doing a special feature in the Winter Garden tonight that we would like to see, but it is not until 10PM and there is no way we are able to stay awake. Hopefully they will do some of their shows earlier so we can see them.