August 16, 2023

10:33 am GMT-2

For the first time during this voyage, I am in the spot I dreamed of for months—outdoor promenade, Deck 7, in a wood deck chair overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

It’s warm—not hot—maybe around 65°F with most of the wind coming from what our ship’s movement is creating. I am in leggings, a T-shirt, and light windbreaker and it is most comfortable.

Walkers are circling the promenade. I do not want to believe that we have less than 48 hours remaining in this voyage.

I want more time!

We got a late start this morning, arriving for breakfast at the buffet a bit before 10:00. Actually, I awoke around 7:00. Our son finally stirred around 9:45. He had a super evening going around the ship to enjoy various types of music. The highlight was the jazz band in the Carinthia Lounge, who played Dixieland.

Now for the data. At 9:48 am we were at 44°4.8N 056°50.7W. We were traveling at 20.1 knots. Wind force is 1 on the Beaufort scale, and the air temps 17°C/63°F. Our apparent wind speed was 21 knots, so conditions are very calm.

May I live here?

11:54 am

That was a lovely nap. A bit chilly though once the sun ducked behind a cloud. Neil and Marty came to find me after trivia and I’m now having a cup of tea in the Kings Court. I had an ice cream cone first.

12:41 pm

We are just back from a great walk along Deck 12 and Deck 13, home to the funnel, a lookout, the kennels, and lots of deck space.

So I believe we have now seen all the public areas except for a couple of rooms on Deck 1.

Today’s afternoon activities include a planetarium show at 3:45 that we made reservations for. There’s also a quick hit music trivia at 2:00. And a photo scavenger hunt at 2:45 that I’ll probably skip but sounds like it could be fun.

Looking forward to tonight’s gala evening and masquerade party. We brought masks from home, and they are also sold onboard.

5:02 pm

The first sad moment of the voyage—our luggage tags and disembarkation information just arrived.

I stopped by the bookshop earlier to complete my purchases. In total, I bought seven new books onboard QM2 :

• QM2: A Photographic Journey, by Chris Frame and Rachelle Cross
• The QM2 Story, by Chris Frame and Rachelle Cross
• 100 Years of Cunard, by Chris Frame and Rachelle Cross
• High Tea on the Cunard Queens: A Lighthearted Look at Life at Sea, by Paul Curtis
• The Cunard Colouring Book, with Chris Frame and Rachelle Cross
• RMS Titanic Colouring Book, by Steve Hall and Bruce Beveridge, drawings by Lucy Hester
• Eyewitness Titanic, by Simon Adams (Somehow we ended up with two as Marty also purchased one when we were in Southampton!)

Marty’s onboard selection was Maritime Royalty: The Queen Mary and the Cunard Queens, by William Miller (super choice!). And Neil bought They Called Us Enemy by George Takei.

10:46 pm

It was so much fun dressing up in formal attire and masks!

Dinner was once again fabulous. I had escargots a la bourguignonne, duck consommé, oven-roasted Atlantic halibut fillet with olive crushed potatoes, braised fennel, carrots, and orange butter sauce, and Baked Alaska. The Baked Alaska was in a scoop and fantastic. And the fish was superb. I’ve had fish every night and it was consistently excellent. (I didn’t go to dinner last night but I’m sure it would have been great, too.)

After dinner we stayed at the masquerade party until 9:30, then I came back to the cabin to write while my guys went to trivia and listened to some music.

I still have a lot of writing to do. Between our many activities, reading two 300-page novels, and just hanging out with each other, I didn’t get many chances. I hope to rectify that tomorrow.

We set our clocks back another hour tonight, the fourth time this voyage.

I’m sad that tomorrow is our last full day on board. Yet it will be nice to get home after being away 11 days.

Still, I’m going to miss my ocean liner.

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