May 16, 2018

    Today, the ship had left Iceland waters and was cruising in the North Atlantic to the Shetland Islands of Scotland.  By 10 a.m., the ship had covered about one third of the 700 nautical miles to Lerwick. In late December, while cruising by the Antarctic peninsula, we had passed the South Shetland Islands. In the early afternoon we passed the Faroe Island, many kilometers away. Today is Larry’s father’s 90^thbirthday.

    Clocks were moved forward an hour after the visit to Iceland. The Eclipse is back in the North Atlantic, the waves are between 1.5 and 2 meters and there is a bit of up and down movement noticeable.

   This morning the sky had sunny patches, there was a 30 knot (about 54 km per hour) wind and the temperature was about 7.  We walked on Deck 14 for about 40 minutes this morning then stopped at the Café al Bacio for coffee. It is spacious walking the track, since there are no deck lounge chairs out with sunbathers encroaching onto the walking track. The deck lounge chairs are stacked out of the way for use on a warmer itinerary. In the late morning we attended the Captain’s Club wine tasting for Select, Elite and higher tier loyalty members.  We listened to a 30 minute explanation about wine before tasting the four wines – two white and two red.  There was no explanation of the actual brand of wine we were sampling and no palate cleansers like mild cheese, fruit (pineapple or banana), bread or crackers like other tastings that we have experienced. There was a light rain around noon.  We joined Randy and Cathie for lunch in the dining room before meeting Peter and Karen in the Cellar Masters bar to play games of Five Crowns.

   The sun broke through the clouds for a while but we opted to walk some more circuits on Decks 4 and 5 rather than battling the strong winds again.

   All nine of us were at our dining room table. The appetizers were Waldorf Salad, Clam Chowder and Seafood crepe followed by Pork Schnitzel with cooked cabbage & potato salad and Kobe Beef Meatloaf with potato and a piece of corn on the cob. Dessert was cheesecake filled Éclair and chocolate cake.  

    Tonight’s production show presented by the singers and dancers was “Topper” which we had already since on a different Celebrity ship last year.  At 10:15 in the Sky Lounge there was ABBA Mania Sing-Along & Dance Party.  Words to songs were projected on the wall for people to sing along.

   Today’s Captain’s Quote was “ A rough day at sea is better than a day at the office.”

    Distance walked today 9.87 km