August 15, 2023

8:13 am GMT-2

Yay—fog! Mary has such a lovely voice.

Coordinates are 47°3.9N 045°43.6W. We are approaching Cape Race. Temp is 16°C/61°F. It will be nice to sit outside today. Sea conditions are slight and wind force is 2 on the Beaufort scale.

9:39 am

Something else to love about Cunard. While having breakfast in the buffet area, stewards bring around tea! In a pot! Not just coffee! No more tea dust bags to start my day!

1:34 pm

I’m enjoying an ice cream sundae in the Verandah, the culmination of a wonderful lunch in this extra-tariff restaurant. It is a steak house yet there is plenty of variety. The lunch menu entrées include grilled lemon sole, organic roast chicken breast, Cunarder burger, and a Beyond Meat vegetarian burger. And the star—USDA prime 28-day aged grain-finished angus, an 8-ounce sirloin steak. I limit my red meat intake, but this was a special treat onboard QM2 and it didn’t seem right to have a veggie burger I could have at home. So I ordered the steak and gave half of it to Neil.

As for the sundae—toffee peanut butter and fudge brownie sundae—salted caramel and peanut butter ice cream, toffee sauce, and whipped vanilla bean cream.

2:07 pm

Our crossing is featuring the English National Ballet, so there are several special events accordingly. We can watch the dancers partake on their daily classes, learn from them in workshops, and—what I’m doing now—view their rehearsals. They actually held their first big performance last night (for late seating guests), so I am seeing them for the first time. There were open rehearsals like this when we were on QE2 20 years ago—then in a location that was viewable from the indoor decks above. On QM2 we are in the main theatre, Royal Court Theatre. Many seats are filled. We were told to sit in the upper level and I am in the first row stage left (house right).

8:19 pm

As nighttime approached, I felt a cold coming on, so I decided to opt out of dinner. So as Neil and Marty went to the Britannia Restaurant, I left the cabin for a few minutes for a secluded area of the Kings Court, where I had soup, a bowl of fruit, and a pastry.

After finishing a novel yesterday I thought I’d check out another by the same author (Ruth Ware). So I checked it out of the library this morning and started reading it tonight while alone in the cabin.

Today we met a travel writer! She and her husband are in the cabin next door to us. They travel roughly 200 days per year.

I still have not sat outside. It’s been cool and misty. Maybe tomorrow.

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