Tuesday 30 April

We’re currently heading well out into the Atlantic and meeting a low pressure area as it moves towards the UK.  We had been warned that it may be a little rocky today and so it proved to be.

We were in near gale force winds and we’ve slowed from 22 knots (25 mph or 40 kph) to around 15 (17 mph or 29kph) but the effect of our speed and the fact that the wind was almost dead against us meant that the ship was being buffeted hard by the wind.

The navigation channel on the cabin TV was telling us the wind outside was at storm force 10 on the Beaufort scale with 4-metre high waves. Sea conditions were described as ‘rough’.

We decided that a lie-in might be in order plus a couple of Stugeron tablets to combat that slightly queasy feeling.  Having never taken them before we did discover that they were very effective sleeping tablets!  

This meant that we had a very leisurely morning and didn't brave breakfast until 1030.  We then had a look at parts of the ship we hadn't visited this time. First stop was the Carinthia lounge where a quiz was in progress. We joined a single quizzer and he was delighted that with our help he got full marks. Unfortunately so did many others and he didn't win the tie breaker.

The ship was still swaying a bit but we felt OK and went to have a look at the library and bookshop. Then to the Commodore Club which is at the front of the ship. The Stugeron must have kicked in as we both fell asleep so it was an extremely late lunch in the buffet followed by a beer in the Red Lion.  Perhaps only one tablet each next time!

Our on board celebrity at the moment is Paul McKenna, but we didn't go to his talk/demonstration. He will be doing a Q&A session at some point before we get to New York so we may go to that.

Tonight was the captain's loyalty event which meant free drinks and canapes. We weren't disappointed - 3 drinks (including very large glasses of red wine!) and canapes later we staggered out of the Queen's Room. We had met a lovely American couple with houses in Monterey and in Florida (although Mary hailed from Glasgow) so we had an enjoyable dinner with them and we were joined part way through by a charming French couple from Cannes with lovely English each.

They had the usual roll call of honour for those on board who had sailed most with Cunard. Top of the list was a woman from Whitby who had 17 world cruises under her belt and who had spent the equivalent of 8 years on Cunard ships.

We rounded off the evening in the theatre listening to a singer, Shellyann Evans, who had a varied repertoire of songs.  She was in the fourth series of ‘The Voice’ and she won the BBC’s ‘All Together Now’.